China denies 'ridiculous' spy allegations against Huawei by Lithuania

Head of Lithuania's State Security Department Darius Jauniskis said Huawei poses a potential "threat" against his agency.

The Chinese embassy in Vilnius said in a statement on Friday that it was "shocked and surprised" by the "totally unacceptable" allegations.

"China does not pose any security threat to Lithuania,” said the statement. "It is absurd and ridiculous for the Lithuanian intelligence and security services to rely on conjecture and imagination to make unfounded distortions."

This came in the wake of an increased pressure by the United States on European governments to scrap Huawei technology from their telecom infrastructure plans.

The West accuses China of using the firm for international espionage. They said China was making attempts to “recruit Lithuanian citizens” for the spy campaign, a charge Beijing strongly denies.

Late last month, the US Justice Department filed criminal charges against Huawei, accusing the firm of stealing trade secrets and breaking US sanctions against Iran.

Trump withdrew his country in May from the multilateral nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and launched a ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Tehran.

The justice department also revealed formal charges against Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada in December on the request of the US.

The move angered Beijing and triggered fresh tensions between the two sides.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, is now free on bail in Vancouver and is awaiting extradition.

If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, with a maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge.

EU facing dilemma over Huawei
Also on Friday, US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland warned that any Western counties allowing Huawei tech or other Chinese equipment will face the risk of Washington countermeasures.

“Depending on the Chinese equipment used by Western countries, the US may have to be “more careful in sharing information, in transacting business” and a “host of things”, Sondland said.

He urged European countries to pick Finnish and other Scandinavian companies for their ultra-fast fifth-generation (5G) networks.

He made the warning after German business daily Handelsblatt reported that the government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out an outright ban on Huawei.

German ministers said that singling out the tech giant from a list of suppliers was not legally viable.

In France, however, telecoms operator Orange said in December that it would not hire the Chinese firm to build its next-generation network.

Poland in January arrested an employee of the Huawei along with a former Polish security official on charges of spying.

Following the arrest, a spokesman for the Polish security services said that the allegations related to individual actions, and were not linked directly to the firm.

The county, however, was considering a ban on the company’s products.

Some other nations in the continent, however, have far been very welcoming of Huawei’s technology, such as the United Kingdom,Spain, Portugal and Hungary.