Illa meets with Huawei amid controversy with the US and EU over the Defense contract
President Salvador Illa met this morning with Huawei officials in Beijing. The company sponsors the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and is currently at the center of controversy over the €12.5 million contract awarded by the Ministry of Defense to the Chinese company for the OceanStor 6800 system for storing communications intercepted by State Security Forces in investigations authorized for legal proceedings.
Salvador Illa's government is framing the visit as part of Huawei's sponsorship of the Mobile World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona in February. "It was an institutional and courtesy visit," government sources reported. However, the awarding of the contract to the Spanish government has provoked reluctance from the Trump administration due to Spain's relationship with China and the fact that sensitive data could end up in the hands of Chinese intelligence agencies.
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The Ministry of the Interior has maintained from the outset that the agreement does not jeopardize national security. "The contract meets the standards required by the National Security Framework established by independent certification authorities," sources from the ministry told La Vanguardia last week.
However, lawmakers on the U.S. Senate and House intelligence committees have asked the top intelligence official, Tulsi Gabbard, to review the exchange of classified information with Spain to ensure the secrets don't end up being leaked to the Chinese Communist Party.
Trump administration officials denounced the fact that "Spain is playing with fire." The European Union has similarly expressed its "insistence" that EU countries "restrict or exclude" Huawei from 5G networks, believing that the Chinese company represents "a much greater risk" than other providers.
Last week, Junts submitted a series of questions to the Congressional committee requesting a written response from Minister Fernando-Grande Marlaska. They demanded to know whether, in addition to the Sitel system used by the Civil Guard and the National Police for judicially authorized wiretaps, the ministry had awarded Huawei "other listening, recording, or monitoring systems."
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