Espionage by Chinese Tech firms under guise of Smart-City projects in Europe

Chinese tech firms and their attempt of global expansion has given rise to severe spying allegations from various governments around the world. Technological firms like Huawei, ZTE Corps, Hikvision have come under severe criticism from human rights groups for providing surveillance technologies to not only authoritative regimes, but also for espionage activities at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2020, the American government had labelled 5 Chinese telecommunication companies as a detrimental threat to National Security.

However, these companies have notoriously begun using subverting tactics to enhance their espionage capabilities for the Chinese government. Huawei’s smart and safe city projects are understood to be prone to cyber-attacks and weak in their security set-ups specifically in cities it has partnered with all across the globe. European cities, in this case, seem to be falling prey to China’s subversive tactics of Digital Authoritarianism.

The smart city project in particular, includes the use of video surveillance to enhance the city’s municipal corporations. The safe city project on the other hand uses similar techniques to aid policing facilities in the city. Yet, relying on Chinese technologies for upgraded technologies is perhaps a mistake that may come to cost European cities dearly, given China’s tech surveillance history in the African continent through companies such as Huawei and others.

Within Europe, in Serbia, Huawei has made significant headways given the contract by the government to acquire security cameras equipped with facial recognition technology. Civil Society representatives had recently carried out an extensive mapping locating all the security camera in the city of Belgrade. This has also led to greater animosity within residents against Chinese firms. Various groups have called upon the Serbian government to come out clean on the possibility of Chinese government acquiring sensitive biometric data of Serbian residents. It was reported that at least 8000 cameras had been procured through the 2017 Safe City Strategic Cooperation Agreement. The government on the other hand, has declared documents regarding the contract as confidential and thus cannot be made public, leading to worrying concerns within the European nation that such attempts could invariably lead to backchannel leaks of sensitive local data. The concern of such leaks being used as leverage to force the country into following the Chinese line has also been voiced by various groups.

Spain too, has been on a constant drive of inviting Smart City projects in the country. The local government in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, a city located at the outskirts of Madrid has partnered with Huawei for modernization of tech infrastructure meant to aid policing facilities and reduce crime in the city. The local government has been understood to have purchased Huawei’s e-LTE broadband Trunking Solution, which provides high-definition wireless video surveillance amongst other services. At the same time, there has been no information released regarding the details of the deal and the safety mechanism put in place to prevent cyber ware attacks on the surveillance structure, even after various citizen groups demanding for information on the same. This not only poses a significant threat to the civil liberties of the citizens, but has provided more scope for misuse of sensitive information. The city of Barcelona too had signed a letter of intention with Huawei where it was assured that the Barcelona City Council would collaborate with the Chinese firm on various tech projects to enhance the safety infrastructure of the city.

The local administration in the northern French city of Valenciennes, came under great scrutiny due to their suspicious partnership with Huawei, where the Chinese firm offered to sell 240 facial recognition cameras’ worth 2 million euros for free. This not only gave rise to extreme suspicion but also led to many local leaders calling for a rejection of the deal due to the security threat the firm posed to the country’s national security.

However, on the contrary, nations and their cities are beginning to realise the true detrimental threat such firms with a malicious history pose to their national sovereignty. For instance, the English city of Milton Keynes, recently cancelled on it deal with Huawei for various projects including the Smart City initiative. The specific project intended to include 5G telecoms across the city making it a solely dependent upon Huawei for its tech infrastructural needs.

The Financial Times had recently reported that a deal for a smart city project between the city of Bournemouth, an English town, and Alibaba was cancelled last minute due to the grave security concerns that were raised. The Chinese firm was also willing to offer the project at hefty discount, which in itself was suspicious in nature. The overhaul of Chinese contracts also came in light of the UK government’s decision to completely eradicate Huawei from its network by 2027.

Hence, other European cities have an example in U.K and must follow in their footsteps in order to safeguard their vital security interests. Huawei’s telecom kits have been reported to have chips that are severely prone to risks of backdoor tampering, thus also providing access to sensitive data that no government would otherwise provide. European cities must therefore act upon such attempts of discretely sabotaging digital infrastructures.

As an initial step, cities with ongoing Huawei projects must reveal contract details to the public for scrutiny. More so, this should also invariably lead to mass cancellation of tech deals with the company and its associated firms. For if not, then nations face a severe national security threat that could perhaps cause significant consequences in terms of vulnerability to decimating attacks and sabotage of crucial infrastructure, especially for nations that do not agree to follow upon Chinese dictates in the near future.