The Deputy Secretary of the Treasury of the Popular Party, Juan Bravo, who has acted on Monday as a spokesman for the press conference, has accused the government of “putting the security of Spain and that of its allies at risk” for signing for 12.3 million euros to digitally store communications intercepted by the State Security Forces with the authorization of judges and prosecutors. The presidents of the Intelligence Committees of the House of Representatives and the US Senate, Tom Cotton and Rick Crawford, both of the Republican Party, referred on July 16, in which they asked to review the secret information exchange agreements with Spain with Spain to the risk that it falls in the hands of China.
The Government argues that there is no risk because it is a totally stagnant system, a warehouse of digital recordings without any connection with the outside, so intrusions or leaks of sensitive information cannot occur. And he adds that the recordings do not affect national security because it is not about investigations of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) but about the State Security Forces and Bodies, within the framework of the fight against crime.
Asked about it, the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, that “the risk of misuse or bad praxis is zero.” However, the PP disagree with this analysis and has decided to use the controversy generated by the contract with the Chinese company to open a new front against the Executive. “There are only two options,” Bravo said, “the government does not know what Huawei is or knows too well.” “If Pedro Sánchez endangers the secrets of the state, he will have to explain why,” he added.
The PP distrusts the government’s attitude towards the Asian giant – which Pedro Sánchez visited for the last time last April – and, after remembering that a 2017 Chinese law forces his country’s companies to facilitate the Intelligence services of Beijing all the information they require, he asks what happens when a company indicated by Washington and Brussels can access sensitive files of the state. “There are two options: either the government does not know who Huawei is and who is behind her or knows too well,” says Bravo. “It is an irresponsibility that the government is playing with fire, putting the national security of our country at risk, but also that of our European and American allies,” he adds.
In addition to the appearance of the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, which the Popular Group already requested last week, now also claims those of the Foreign Ministers, José Manuel Albares; Defense, Margarita Robles; and Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, so that they give explanations in Congress and the Senate about contracts with China, in what constitutes an announcement that this matter will be one of the axes of its parliamentary offensive in the new session period.
By various ways, the Spanish government has transmitted to US authorities all kinds of guarantees that this contract is not any risk for security. The sources consulted admit, however, that the interlocutors of the Trump administration have not been satisfied with these explanations. “And not because they are not convenient for the technical arguments that have been offered, but because their repairs are of a political nature,” the same sources allege. “Washington sees Beijin as the only rival who threatens his global hegemony, while Europe considers him a competitor but also a strategic partner to face challenges such as climate change.”
In recent weeks, because the Chinese company “represents a much higher risk” than other mobile infrastructure suppliers. “The lack of rapid action exposes the European Union as a whole to a clear risk,” the Commission’s technology sovereignty spokesman, Thomas Regnier, told this newspaper. The Spanish government says that this recommendation has scrupulously fulfilled although, unlike other countries, it has not publicly made a list that expressly vested to Chinese companies to avoid a diplomatic shock with Beijing. “Technology are warned and know what they should do,” government sources allege.
