Belgian Police Raid Huawei Lobbyists in EU Corruption Probe

On 13 March 2025, Fol­low the Mon­ey report­ed that Bel­gian author­i­ties have con­duct­ed raids tar­get­ing cur­rent and for­mer Huawei lob­by­ists as part of a major cor­rup­tion inves­ti­ga­tion into alleged bribery of Euro­pean Par­lia­ment mem­bers. The arti­cle begins:

Once a high-fly­er in Europe, Huawei’s growth stalled due to con­cerns over its ties with Bei­jing. As the Chi­nese tech giant fought for sur­vival, its EU lob­by­ing cam­paign took a dark turn. Huawei lob­by­ists in Brus­sels have alleged­ly bribed mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. Bel­gian police raid­ed 21 address­es linked to the cor­rup­tion probe this morn­ing, peo­ple close to the inves­ti­ga­tion told Fol­low the Mon­ey and Bel­gian out­lets Le Soir and Knack. The Bel­gian inves­ti­ga­tion, code­named “Gen­er­a­tion”, has been ongo­ing for over two years after a tip-off from Bel­gian intel­li­gence. The probe echoes the Qatar­gate scan­dal revolv­ing around bribery alle­ga­tions involv­ing sev­er­al MEPs.

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Key Points:

• Bel­gian intel­li­gence iden­ti­fied Huawei’s lob­by­ing oper­a­tion as a poten­tial vehi­cle for Chi­nese state influ­ence with­in EU deci­sion-mak­ing bodies.
• West­ern secu­ri­ty experts have long warned about Huawei’s ambigu­ous own­er­ship struc­ture and poten­tial ties to Chi­nese mil­i­tary and secu­ri­ty apparatus.
• For­mer Huawei employ­ees report­ed being instruct­ed to work more close­ly with the Chi­nese mis­sion to the EU after Rus­si­a’s inva­sion of Ukraine.
• Despite EU Com­mis­sion con­cerns, only 12 of 27 mem­ber states have banned or restrict­ed Chi­nese ven­dors from their 5G net­works, high­light­ing the effec­tive­ness of Chi­na’s lobbying.