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Vice-President of the European Commission Andrus Ansip, Paris, November 12, 2018. REUTERS / Charles Platiau

After the arrest of the financial director of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, the vice president of the European Commission warns about a security risk in Europe concerning Huawei but also other Chinese companies.

" Should we worry about Huawei or other Chinese companies? Yes, I think we should worry, "because these companies are, according to Andrus Ansip, forced to" cooperate with their intelligence services , "Ansip said at a press conference in Brussels.

" This is not a good sign when companies have to open their systems to secret services ," he said, saying the groups were building chips " to get some of our secrets ."

Huawei has suffered a blow with the arrest in Canada of its financial director and daughter of the founder, at the request of the United States. US authorities would officially suspect the Chinese giant of exporting products to Iran and other countries targeted by US sanctions, but informally, the telephone group is also suspected by Washington of being an undercover agent of power Chinese.

The Chinese company has been under surveillance for a long time and many of its attempts to enter the US telecoms market have failed since 2007. A federal law prohibits government and military officials from using devices built by Huawei and its alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party are often put forward.

Washington has also launched a massive campaign with allied countries to dissuade their companies from using the equipment of the Chinese group. Several countries have closed the door to Huawei, such as Australia and New Zealand and Japanese media reports Friday that Tokyo will ban the use of equipment of the Chinese group by his administration.

Huawei has always ensured its independence and said it has never used its equipment to spy on or sabotage communications in the countries where they are used. This Friday, in a statement, the Chinese said he was " surprised and disappointed " with the concerns expressed by the European Commissioner.

In addition to Huawei, other Chinese companies or their Asian subsidiaries are accused of economic espionage by US justice.

Huawei's leader in Canadian justice

Whanzhou Meng, 46, stopped a few hours in Canada when customs officers intercepted her. They acted on behalf of US authorities who accused the daughter of Huawei's founder of fraud. She was appearing on Friday for her first bail hearing before a court in Vancouver, where she was arrested on December 1.

With our correspondent in Quebec, Pascale Guericolas

According to the information that emerges from the court hearing, Whanzhou Meng, the financial director of China's telecommunications giant Huawei, reportedly used a subsidiary, Skycom Tech, to avoid US sanctions against Iran for five years. That is why the United States authorities have asked their ally and neighbor to arrest him and his extradition is required.

According to several analysts, such an arrest in a third country is not usual. Generally, it is the drug barons or arms traffickers who are subject to such procedures.

The Canadian Prime Minister is walking on eggs with this case. The opposition criticizes him for failing to protect Canada sufficiently from Huawei's telecommunications products.

Canadian allies like the United States, Australia, New Zealand accuse this company very close to the Chinese power of cyber-espionage. The telecommunications giant indeed offers a new technology, the 5G network, whose security would fail.