Denmark expels two Huawei workers over work permits, as Norway warns of espionage risk

• The Danish expulsions came about as a result of a ‘routine check’ at Huawei’s offices
• Norway’s intelligence service said it was attentive to the close connections between Huawei and the Chinese government

Agence France-Presse

Denmark has ordered the expulsion of two employees of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies because their residence and work permits were not in order, Copenhagen police said Monday.
“On Thursday, the Copenhagen police carried out a routine check of the residence and work permits,” at Huawei’s offices, a Copenhagen police source said.
“In two cases, the people did not have the proper paperwork.”
The pair, who were not identified, were ordered to leave the country, the source said.
The move came on the same day that neighbouring Norway’s intelligence service issued a warning about Huawei, whose ties to Beijing have sparked security concerns.
“One has to be attentive about Huawei as an actor and about the close connections between a commercial actor like Huawei and the Chinese regime,” the head of Norway’s domestic intelligence unit PST, Benedicte Bjornland, said as she presented a national risk assessment report for 2019.
“An actor like Huawei is subject to influence from its home country as long as China has an intelligence law that requires private individuals, entities and companies to cooperate with China,” she said.

In Norway, the main telecoms operators Telenor and Telia – which chose Huawei to supply their 4G networks – are gearing up for the roll-out of 5G.
Several countries including the United States have banned Huawei 5G telecoms equipment for security reasons, on concerns its technology could be a Trojan horse for Beijing’s intrusive security apparatus, as Chinese law requires all firms to cooperate with the intelligence services. 

Norway is considering ways of limiting its exposure.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s about setting up a regulatory framework to protect what could be considered critical infrastructure,” Norwegian Justice Minister Tor Mikkel Wara said at the same news conference.
“What this regulatory framework would look like, and what it would cover, is what we’re working on right now,” he said.
Norway is treading cautiously on the issue, after China’s angry reaction to the award of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, which trigger lengthy diplomatic and trade repercussions from Beijing’s side.
Huawei, founded by former People’s Liberation Army engineer Ren Zhengfei, has become a leading supplier of the backbone equipment for mobile networks, particularly in developing markets, thanks to its cheaper prices.
Spearheading cutting-edge 5G equipment has also seen it make inroads into developed markets.

China’s Authoritarian Export

Beijing forces the expulsion of a reporter from Hong Kong.
Wall Street Journal

Financial Times Asia Editor Victor Mallet speaks at the Foreign Correspondents' Club luncheon in Hong Kong, Aug. 14. 

Hong Kong last week refused to renew the work visa of Financial Times Asia Editor Victor Mallet and gave him seven days to leave the territory. 

The unprecedented expulsion is the latest attack on civil liberties and the rule of law in the former British colony, which was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 but with autonomy for 50 years.
The government won’t say why it expelled Mr. Mallet, but it appears to be part of a crackdown on young politicians who espouse independence or self-determination. 

On July 17 the government proposed using an anti-organized crime law to ban the Hong Kong National Party, a tiny group calling for independence from China. 

The Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club, with Mr. Mallet as acting president, invited the party’s founder to speak.
That touched off a tantrum. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry officials demanded the club cancel the event, and the Hong Kong government issued a statement that “providing a public platform for a speaker to openly advocate independence completely disregards Hong Kong’s constitutional duty to uphold national sovereignty. It is totally unacceptable and deeply regrettable.”
The FCC went ahead with the speech, which was legal, and Mr. Mallet introduced the speaker. Newspapers owned by Beijing poured vitriol on the club, and former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying called for the FCC to be evicted from its rented premises in a government-owned building. 

The government then banned the National Party as a threat to national security.
Meanwhile, pro-Beijing figures in Hong Kong are calling for new laws against subversion. 

The government last tried to pass such laws in 2003, when more than half a million protesters took to the streets. 

Local officials seem reluctant to refight that battle. 

But in January an electoral official disqualified a legislative candidate from Demosisto, a large opposition party that calls for self-determination but not independence.
Mr. Mallet’s expulsion is also an attack on Hong Kong’s tradition as a free-press redoubt in Asia. Journalists have used Hong Kong for decades as a base to report on China, confident that they could do so freely. 

Now China is barring a journalist for no more than providing a public forum for a dissenter.
The case shows that hardline Chinese officials who staff Beijing’s Liaison Office are calling the shots in Hong Kong. 

Xi Jinping’s authoritarian crackdown is spreading from the mainland to wherever China can dominate or exert influence. 

The trend is one reason world opinion is building against China as a threat to democracy and freedom.