Huawei targeted in new European Parliament corruption probe
114 comments
·March 13, 2025skrebbel
Meta note: FTM (Follow The Money) is a small Dutch investigative journalism outfit which has exposed a far amount of bad shit in the Netherlands, and probably had the biggest per-staffer impact of any publication here (if you could somehow quantify that).
I wasn't actually aware they had an English-language .eu version but great for them! I found their "about us" page to be a bit obtuse (no names, no locations, making it very similar to the "about" pages of fake news sites and extreme-left/right associated magazines), so figured it might be nice to add this bit of context: In NL, FTM is generally considered a respected news organization and they're not particularly associated with any political angle.
Basically how it goes in NL is:
- FTM writes something
- A few nerds pick it up
- A day later, bigger news sites write the same story worse, sometimes even crediting FTM
- Scandal ensuesDrNosferatu
What about Huawei home internet (fiber) modems / routers? Many large telcos in the EU use them.
Nextgrid
At this price point, they are all bad, no matter the manufacturer. Home networking equipment is basically a race to the bottom (if there's any innovation, it happens at the hardware level only like faster Wi-Fi cards, etc).
c2h5oh
They have a significant DSLAM markeshare too
TiredOfLife
They have rebranded them as Soyealink
heraldgeezer
There are other vendors? They are on Huawei because of price...
Mine is Zyxel (Taiwan). There are others like Sagemcom (French), Fritzbox (German), not sure if microtik (Latvia) does end user stuff?
mzajc
Not sure about the cost, but Telemach in Slovenia uses hardware from Genexis for FTTH, which is EU-based.
aurelien
Corruption at European parliament should be highly and serverly punished by Enforced Works for the rest of their life with abduction of all there good of all their family that have get ane Euro from corruption.
belter
Surely you joke about avoiding corruption within the EU. Ursula von der Leyen negotiated privately with CEO's of vaccine companies, while her husband worked for a US supplier of said vaccine companies and her SMS data disappeared.
The current European Council president, took such a job directly after being forced to resign as Portuguese prime minister due a corruption scandal, where the Portuguese police found thousands of Euros in hard cash in the office of his assistants.
Even more ironic, Portugal got a new prime minister, who two days ago, had to resign due to a....yes...new corruption scandal. So I expect him to get an EU job also soon.
s_dev
He is just saying that if there is corruption there should be harsh consequences not that corruption isn't present already in the EU.
belter
Yes. But it's a lost cause. It's structural, since EU jobs are compensation roles for failed politicians. If you ever been into inside politics as more than just an elector, you will know this is how lists pre-election are built.
pabs3
Europe needs to read this article if they want to do something constructive.
antirez
My fear is that similar dynamics were at play when the AI act was shaped and approved, with the three European biggest countries unhappy of the content of the act (France, Italy, Germany).
heraldgeezer
Good. Huawei is a Chinese state run enterprise passing all info to their masters.
jampekka
I'm more comfortable with Chinese than US masters.
heraldgeezer
Ok. Then we are different. And Europe is too. Europe has already shown we do not want Huawei in our 5G core networks. And now this.
Are we clear?
speed_spread
Are you sure? Publically criticize the American government, then do the same with the Chinese government. Now, did your opinion change?
Although I agree that with latest guys it won't be long before they also get a thought police.
the_mitsuhiko
> Are you sure? Publically criticize the American government, then do the same with the Chinese government. Now, did your opinion change?
Personally I'm less bothered by China. I need to do business in the US, I don't need to do business in China. The US government has a lot of leverage to fuck up my life, I would not care about the reach of the Chinese.
blitzar
I would rather someone sitting in China wants to persecute me than someone in my own country / town / neighbourhood / home - who can actually persecute me.
Likewise if I lived in China, and I had to pick between being spied on by my state or someone half way around the world - I would welcome the CIA to listen in all day long.
okintheory
The thought police already arrived, see Columbia grant cancellations and Mahmoud Khalil [1].
[1] "Khalil is a “threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States,” said the official, noting that this calculation was the driving force behind the arrest. “The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” said the official." https://www.thefp.com/p/the-ice-detention-of-a-columbia-stud...
somenameforme
I don't think absolutes make too much sense. When in China I use US hardware. When I'm in the US I use Chinese hardware. Europe is much more closely aligned with the US than China, so I'd generally use Chinese hardware there as well.
codedokode
> Publically criticize the American government
And get a tariff raise in response?
jampekka
China doesn't give a damn if I criticize them from the EU. Even our politicians are free to criticize them, in contrast to US leaders/oligarchs especially nowadays.
blitzar
Now do google, apple, facebook, twitter, cloudflare, etc....
null
paganel
[flagged]
azernik
In what way is Bellingcat a "spook-run operation"?
borkt
See link below): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371139794_Unveiling...
mzajc
If you'd like to make a point against Bellingcat, you should probably avoid citing poorly generated slop.
null
digiou
In what definition is Huawei a "smaller dog"?
odiroot
If anything that just adds more credibility to the story.
014zaG
[flagged]
tgv
> Why is the police of a single country authorized to investigate EU parliament members just because of the geographical location?
The EU is not a nation. It doesn't have a police. Crimes do not take place on its territory, because it has none. So then it'll fall onto the Belgium (or French) police.
Wrt to the rest: just asking questions, right?
Deukhoofd
> It doesn't have a police
It does, Europol. For this case, considering there were raids in multiple different countries within Europe, they probably were involved.
Y-bar
Europol is more like Interpol than FBI in that it has no executive power, it's primary purpose is coordination among national police forces which will conduct actual raids and arrests.
piva00
Europol doesn't have its own enforcement agents, it's an organisation relying on national police forces to enforce its actions. It's a coordinator, not a full blown police force...
Y-bar
Why should Belgium not have jurisdiction over EU citizens living and working in their country? Why do you think this was not initiated via Europol?
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20221210-belgium-makes-eu...
threeseed
1) Because the crimes are alleged to have occurred in Belgium. That's how jurisdiction works.
2) This is the opposite of convenient. EU would prefer a good working relationship with China given the issues with the US.
3) It was started because there are allegations of corruption.
4) Because no crimes have been committed.
5) Why not ? BlackRock is a global investment bank. It's going to have employees.
hn666
[flagged]
Highly recommend House of Huawei by Eva Dou, I didn’t know much about the history or background of this monolithic and demonized company so I picked it up and I have to say I found it fascinating.
If you’re interested in recent history or telecommunication development over the last 50 years it’s a great read. It’s not a technical deep dive nor a political hit piece, the author wrote for the Washington Post and it really reads like a long and in-depth article. Which is actually nice despite sometimes leaving me wanting for more, definitely made it a quick read.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/721789/house-of-hua...
Edit: Washington Post, not New York Times