Huawei is currently at the center of the world's attention. The company markets itself as a stable supplier of the future mobile networks - while critics see the risks of becoming dependent on a Chinese company.

"If East Germany was the analogue surveillance state, then China is the digital surveillance state," says Internet provider Bahnhof's CEO Jon Karlung, who has long been involved in online privacy issues.

Karlung is critical of China's growing role in digital infrastructure, and Bahnhof has cut back on its purchases from Huawei. But while Jon Karlung sees Huawei as an ideologically driven company, Huawei wants to give a different picture.

- We are a private company that tries to make us as independent of politics as possible and focuses on our customers, says Kenneth Fredriksen, CEO of Huawei Sweden. He rejects any suspicions that the company was influenced by the values ​​of the Chinese Communist Party.

- It is a statement that is not related to facts.

Train with hidden camera

A few weeks ago, Jon Karlung was invited to a meeting with Huawei. He brought an SVT journalist who claimed to be employed by the Bahnhof. The person would ask tough questions about how Bahnhof should respond to consumers who are critical of China.

- Our customers are worried about the situation in China and we need explanations.

At first, Huawei's executives reiterate the company's message that they do not interfere in politics, but after the SVT journalist, who claimed to be employed by Bahnhof, pressed and provoked, they begin to answer. One of them is about what to say about China's censorship and media blockade.

- China prevents people from joining the BBC, Amnesty and international media?

"In China we can read all of them," replies one of the Huawei executives.

She states that while China has blocked Google and Facebook, it is because the companies collected too much data about their users.

"I can watch the BBC"

When SVT confronts Huawei Sweden CEO Kenneth Fredriksen with the claim that people in China can access international media, he replies that Huawei is a private company that does not relate to what is happening in China.

But do you think Chinese have access to the BBC, Amnesty and international media?

- Now I haven't got into the situation in China. When I'm in China, I can see the BBC at every hotel I've been to, says Kenneth Fredriksen.

Chinese connoisseur Jerker Hellström at FOI, however, rejects the picture.

- International media is generally blocked in China. As far as you can see the BBC in your hotel room, broadcasts are blocked when it comes to sensitive topics, such as the protests in Hong Kong.

Huawei states that the two managers expressed their private views at a private meeting.