Photo: JaakL / Pixabay
By Tess Langbroek
Nuctech, a Chinese company with close ties to the Chinese military and the ruling Communist Party, has won a procurement to provide safety control at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport Terminal 5, Swedish Aftonbladet reports.
According to the AP, The U.S. has black-listed Nuctech. However, Nuctech has won contracts for security control equipment in several European countries. Because the Chinese government subsidizes state-affiliated companies, Nuctech can hand in offers 30-50 percent cheaper than its Western competitors.
– They won because they submitted the best bid, says Annika Balazs, strategic procurement manager at Swedavia.
The Swedish security police have repeatedly warned that Chinese state actors are involved in espionage, information theft, and cyber-attacks in Sweden. For this reason, Huawei got banned from entering into the 5G network.
Sweden is no stranger to Chinese espionage, and the Nordic state has had several disputes with Beijing. Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish publisher, scholar, and co-owner of Hong Kong-based Causeway Bay Bookstore, was abducted by Chinese agents in Thailand in late 2015.
In 2018 Sweden sentenced A Tibetan refugee Dorjee Gyantsan to 22 months for spying on Tibetans in Sweden for China.
Sweden is also home to over 3,000 Uyghurs. Many may not appreciate that the long arm of China is infiltrating the very country where they sought refuge.