U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Thursday for eastern Europe to hold meetings with NATO allies and other European leaders in an effort to find a diplomatic solution to the situation in Ukraine.
In a release, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken will first travel to Brussels for a NATO Foreign Ministerial, as well as meet with his European Union counterparts for the G-7 Ministerial Meeting.
Blinken travels to Poland on Saturday for meetings with Polish leaders, including Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, “to discuss further security assistance in the face of Russia’s continued aggression.”
Price said the secretary of state also will thank Poland for generously welcoming hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from Ukraine and discuss how the United States can augment humanitarian assistance efforts for those fleeing Putin’s war.
Later Saturday, Blinken is scheduled to travel to Moldova to meet with President Maia Sandu, Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, and Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu to discuss Moldova’s efforts to receive and assist refugees, and underscore U.S. support for that effort.
From March 6 through March 8, Blinken travels to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to meet with leaders in those countries to discuss joint efforts to support Ukraine, strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defense, and promote democracy and human rights.
At a news briefing Wednesday, Blinken said intensive diplomacy with allies and partners continues with the aim of ending the crisis in Ukraine.
He said, “If there are diplomatic steps that we can take that the Ukrainian government believes would be helpful, we’re prepared to take them — even as we continue to support Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.”
BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Friday, February 18, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). To eradicate the power of this criminal group, a rigorous international work team was created led by the Civil Guard, in which the US agency DEA, EUROPOL, the Brazilian Federal Police and the Belgian Federal Police have participated, all under the direction of the Central Court of Instruction No. 1 of the National High Court
They are held responsible for the introduction into our country of more than 4 tons of cocaine, all of them intervened by the Civil Guard in Spain, coming from countries such as Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador.
Overall, in all the actions carried out in the different countries involved, 28 people have been arrested, several of them High Value Targets (HVT) for EUROPOL, as well as the apprehension of more than 8 tons of cocaine
Dismantled an international criminal organization responsible for the introduction of tons of cocaine into Europe through different Spanish ports
The Civil Guard, within the framework of the TURIA operation, has managed to dismantle one of the most active criminal organizations with regard to the introduction of large consignments of narcotics through the main Spanish seaports destined for Europe.
The investigation began more than a year ago, when the Civil Guard, through its Central Operational Unit (UCO), focused its efforts on the criminal activity of the main ports of our country, given the proliferation of different seizures of cocaine, Many of them follow the same criminal pattern.
In this way, already in April of last year, the Organized Crime Teams (ECOs) of the Central Operational Unit based in Alicante and Pontevedra, prevented the departure of 300 kilograms of cocaine from the Port of Valencia, proceeding to the arrest of 3 people, who, using a vehicle authorized to operate in that port, extracted the described substance from a container, hidden in a container coming from Brazil by the well-known method of “blind hook” or “lost hook”.
Ambitious international police operation.
As a result of this intervention and all the information obtained from it and other previous ones, an ambitious international police operation was launched, with the full involvement of the Civil Guard together with the Brazilian, North American and Belgian authorities, as well as EUROPOL.
During this time, all the participating Bodies and Agencies have managed to create a rigorous work team through several coordination meetings in different countries, which has allowed them to meet and identify the main leaders of this important criminal network, from Dubai ( UAE) to Brazil, as well as the seizure, in different interventions, of more than 3,900 kilograms of cocaine in Spain alone, all of them carried out by the Civil Guard within this work team.
TURIA-TURFE operation; Simultaneous performances in Spain and Brazil
In this way, this very week the final phase of this important operation has been carried out, acting simultaneously and in a coordinated manner in Spain and Brazil, for which UCO agents have been transferred to that country, as well as Brazilian agents and EUROPOL have done it to Spain, achieving the total dismantling of the investigated organization.
As far as Spain is concerned, 7 people related to these events have been arrested, 4 of them in the province of Barcelona in 5 searches carried out, 400 kilograms of cocaine having been seized in an industrial warehouse inside a maritime container coming from Brazil and arriving at the port of Barcelona. In addition, as a result of one of the searches, an indoor marijuana plantation with more than 300 plants has been intervened, as well as several high-end vehicles, encrypted mobile phone devices of great interest for research, jewelry and the blocking of more than 20 bank accounts of different companies linked to this criminal group, created to facilitate the importation of drugs and the transfer of money.
High Value Targets for Europol (HVT)
Simultaneously, the Brazilian Federal Police, in what they have called operation TURFE and in which agents from the Central Operational Unit transferred to that country for that purpose have participated, have proceeded to carry out 30 house searches, producing in some of them intense exchanges of fire with the police, as well as the arrest of 20 people, among which are several High Value Targets (HVT) for the European agency.
The operation has been carried out by the Civil Guard through its Organized Crime Teams (ECO’s) and the Central Anti-Drug Group, both belonging to the Central Operational Unit, together with the US DEA, the Brazilian Federal Police and from Belgium also EUROPOL, all directed by the Central Investigating Court number 1 and the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office, both of the National High Court.
BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Tuesday, February 15, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). The conflict on the border between Ukraine and Russia maintains tension in Europe in the face of a possible war. The Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, is experiencing an armed confrontation with the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian province of Crimea in 2014. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, which dissolved in December 1991 and the Kremlin argued the annexation of the province as a historical claim.
Ukraine shares historical ties with Russia as a former Soviet republic, in addition to the high Russian-speaking population that comprises about 18% of the Ukrainian population.
In 2014, pro-European Ukrainians deposed their pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. The situation led Russia to give military support to the Ukrainian separatists in Donbas.
Ukraine has since argued that Russia is trying to destabilize the country ahead of a planned military invasion. Western powers have repeatedly warned Russia in recent weeks against making any more aggressive moves against Ukraine.
Several leaders such as the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and even the US Government have hinted that there is a high probability that Russia will invade Ukraine in order to prevent it from leaving the orbit of Russian military influence and approaching Ukraine. West.
In mid-January, Russia began moving troops to Belarus, a country bordering Russia and Ukraine, to prepare for joint military exercises in February.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed today that some of the troops stationed on the country’s border with Ukraine are returning to their bases after completing the drills.
Pentagon reporters have asked the Biden administration to grant them access to the approximately 3,000 U.S. troops being deployed to Eastern Europe and Germany in response to rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The Pentagon Press Association, which represents about 100 journalists, including two at Voice of America, wrote a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan requesting that they “lift the ban on news coverage of American military members deploying to Europe to reassure NATO allies during the Ukraine crisis.”
“The existing ban, including denial of reporters’ requests to speak directly to troops at their deployed locations and to embed with units, is contrary to the basic principle of press freedom,” the association’s board wrote.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon that the administration respected the concerns of the press but was “not at a point now” to provide the access requested.
“We don’t make decisions to grant access or not to grant access lightly, and there’s lots of factors that go into that. Sometimes it has to do with operational security. Sometimes it has to do with how that kind of access nests into the larger strategy that we’re pursuing,” Kirby said.
Russia has placed more than 100,000 of its troops along its border with Ukraine, in the illegally annexed Crimea region and along Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus.
Moscow says its troop placements are for military exercises and claims it has no intention of invading Ukraine.
In response to Russia’s troop buildup, President Joe Biden ordered about 2,000 U.S. forces to Poland and Germany and moved about 1,000 troops from Germany to Romania. Both Poland and Romania border Ukraine.
The U.S. says it has no plans to place combat troops in Ukraine. A small number of U.S. troops are in Ukraine as part of a training program that began after Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the high rate of the vaccinated and infected population, the lesser severity of the omicron variant and seasonality provide Europe with the possibility of controlling the coronavirus pandemic and promoting a change in strategy
Passengers at the train station in Duesseldorf (Germany). EFE/EPA/SASCHA STEINBACH
“The pandemic is not over, but for the first time we are in a unique situation to control it,” WHO-Europe director Hans Kluge told a news conference.
Kluge stressed, however, that last week 12 million new cases were registered in the WHO European region -which includes 53 countries, several from Central Asia-, the highest number since the start of the pandemic, and that hospital admissions continue to increase. increasing, although at a slower rate and not in intensive care, while deaths begin to stagnate.
30% of all Covid-19 cases reported in the European region since the start of the pandemic have been registered so far this year.
Stop the fire
“This context, which we had not experienced until now in the pandemic, leaves us with the possibility of a long period of tranquility and a higher level of defense of the population against any upsurge in transmission, even against a more virulent variant,” he said. Kluge, who spoke of “a ceasefire that can bring us lasting peace.”
That several European countries, such as Denmark and other Nordic countries, have announced the lifting of all or the majority of the restrictions is a decision of each country after evaluating “risks and benefits,” he said.
The director of WHO-Europe pointed out as “key” to maintain protection for vulnerable groups, increase vaccination, including the third dose; invest in virus control measures and be ready to react in the event of a new wave of contagion.
The expansion of the BA2 variant of omicron requires “careful” monitoring, according to the WHO, although everything indicates that it has a similar effect in terms of severity despite apparently being more transmissible.
The director of WHO-Europe, Hans Kluge. EFE/EPA/IDA GULDBAEK ARENTSEN
Speaking to VOA from his New York apartment, Dmitry Savchenko, 34, recalls the prosperous life he recently left behind.
“In Belarus, we had everything. My wife had several cafes. I had two businesses myself, some real estate, an apartment, a car,” he said.
Savchenko and his family had never intended to leave their home. But in the last few months, for him and many other Belarussian citizens, what was once unthinkable became a dire necessity.
“We were faced with a dilemma: either go to prison or run and hide in another country,” he said.
Long described as “Europe’s last dictatorship,” Belarus has been run for 27 years by Alexander Lukashenko. But in the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections, there was a sense among his opponents that he was politically vulnerable.
FILE – Belarus’ security service agents and riot police officers detain an opposition supporter in Minsk on July 14, 2020, after the country’s central electoral commission refused to register the main rivals to President Alexander Lukashenko as candidates for the country’s presidential election in August.
Savchenko says he has been apolitical his entire life, but in those months he, like many others, was “smelling change in the air,” inspired by the caliber and diversity of presidential candidates eager to challenge Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule.
Two months before election day, August 9, the hopeful Belarusian entrepreneur registered as an independent observer for the polls.
But Savchenko was setting himself up for a major disappointment.
On the day of the vote, Savchenko chronicled numerous irregularities in his precinct, which reached their climax with the members of the elections committee — which normally consist of regime loyalists — not letting the independent observers monitor the process in person. The elections committee members then fled the building with the ballots through the backdoor, escorted by the local police, Savchenko says.
FILE – Belarusian law enforcement officers stand guard during a rally of opposition supporters following the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 10, 2020.
Hearing hundreds of stories like Savchenko’s from friends and family — as well as from independent media — ordinary Belarusians took to the streets. The country saw a rise of civic awareness unprecedented in its history. In Minsk alone, about 200,000 people came out for a peaceful protest on one of the post-election weekends.
And then the violence began.
Trying to drown people’s enthusiasm, Lukashenko, who baselessly claimed victory with more than 80% of the vote, unleashed a wave of repression and violence against the protesters. Video and photo evidence of police brutality, as well as of demonstrators’ mutilated bodies, made headlines around the world.
“Some of my friends participated in those protests,” Savchenko said. “It was heart-wrenching to even look at them (after their release from jail).”
Those who appeared to have suffered the most were those sent to the infamous Okrestina detention center in the country’s capital where, according to numerous detainee accounts, they were beaten and tortured for hours and not given food or water for days.
“Photos of the people who were released from the Okrestina detention center looked like the photos of people who came from war,” Savchenko added. “And I denounce that. Because people came out (to protest) unarmed.”
FILE – People detained during rallies of opposition supporters, who accuse Alexander Lukashenko of falsifying the polls in the presidential election, show bruises as they leave the Okrestina prison in Minsk, Aug. 14, 2020.
Savchenko says he is determined to punish those who so flagrantly abused the law.
“I am gathering proof of falsifications of the election results, abuse of police authority. And I decided that I will bring them to justice no matter where I am,” he said.
He sent the incriminating evidence he had gathered to BYPOL, an independent union of Belarusian ex-security officers whose mission is to keep a registry of crimes committed by the Lukashenko regime.
The state’s crackdown drew international condemnation, but Savchenko says that did not stop the authorities from methodically targeting their critics after the elections.
“At first, the authorities cracked down on most vocal protesters, then on independent media. After that they started laying off state officials who — how should I put it — didn’t vote for ‘the right candidate.’ Slowly but surely, they got to the people who were election observers,” he said.
For days, he was harassed and intimidated, then detained and beaten by the police. The authorities threatened to send his 5-year-old son to an orphanage.
So he and his family ran. First to Moscow, then all the way to Mexico City, then to Tijuana, then to the United States, where they are seeking political asylum.
Washington-based immigration lawyer Elizabeth Krukova specializes in providing legal help to asylum-seekers from the countries of the former Soviet Union. She says there are many others like the Savchenko family.
“We’ve seen a number of these cases and a big increase in the number of cases coming from Belarus specifically,” she said.
FILE – Demonstrators paste photos of opposition supporters killed during the post-election protests on the Okrestina prison wall during a rally demanding to free jailed activists of the opposition in Minsk, Oct. 4, 2020.
VOA spoke with several Belarusian asylum-seekers who arrived in the United States from the southern border following the post-election crackdown. They all spoke of intimidation, detainment and beatings by police back home.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows a steady increase in the number of encounters of Belarusian migrants by the southwest border CBP officers — from three in October 2020 to 123 in September 2021.
Savchenko says the main reason his family chose to travel to the U.S. instead of Europe is safety.
“There is a network of Russian and Belarusian agents that are active in the countries neighboring Belarus, as well as in some EU states,” he said.
FILE – A Belarusian dog handler checks luggage off a Ryanair airplane parked on Minsk international airport’s apron in Minsk, May 23, 2021.
Belarusian officials demonstrated their relentless pursuit of critics when they forced a civilian Ryanair flight to land in Minsk last year and arrested an opposition blogger, Roman Protasevich. Another exiled Belarusian activist, Vitaly Shishov, was found hanged in a park near his home in Kyiv, an unsolved case widely seen as the work of Minsk’s clandestine services.
John Sipher, the former CIA deputy chief of station in Europe, still views Europe as relatively safe but says the fears of dissidents are not groundless.
He says horror stories of kidnappings and murders spread among dissidents “like wildfires.”
“If there are a few cases where Belarusians are hunted down or arrested, or brought back to Minsk, then it becomes a story that makes its way around that community,” Sipher said.
With Russian troops now massing in Belarus and more on the border of Ukraine, experts see the region’s authoritarian leaders becoming more collaborative, putting their critics at greater risk.
“Since Lukashenko’s crackdown in the last year or so, he is going to be looking for more opportunities to assist (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Putin is going to be looking for means to work with Belarusians on these issues,” Sipher said.
Experts say whether an activist is in danger depends on how high their name is on the Belarusian KGB’s priorities list. But it’s a guessing game no one on the list wants to play.
The continuing crackdown on pro-democracy activists following the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus has spurred a wave of political asylum seekers. VOA’s Igor Tsikhanenka spoke with some who undertook a long and uncertain journey to Mexico and on to the United States in recent months. Some of them say they had no other choice because they no longer feel safe even in the European Union. Camera: Aaron Fedor
Iran’s president visited Russia this week on a visit Iranian officials called a “turning point” in their relations, as officials also announced a planned joint naval exercise that includes China for later this week.
The visit by President Ebrahim Raisi to Moscow comes amid rising tensions between Russia and Western countries over Moscow’s troop buildup on Ukraine’s border, broadly seen as preparation for a possible invasion. Russia claims it has no plans to invade.
In a speech Thursday before Russia’s parliament, the Duma, Raisi accused NATO of expanding into “various geographical areas with new coverings that threaten the common interests of independent states.”
Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the Kremlin on Wednesday, but despite the red-carpet welcome, there were no substantial country-to-country agreements announced.
“The significance of the trip at the moment is still mostly symbolic,” Alex Vatanka, director of the Middle East Institute’s Iran Program, told VOA. “There’s talk of closer military cooperation. There’s talk of strategic cooperation in the energy sector. We’ve heard this before. Time will show if any tangible deals can be reached.”
In his only tweet about Raisi’s trip to Russia, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, was cryptic. “The presidents of the two countries agreed on a long-term roadmap,” he wrote, without clarifying what the map was about or whether an agreement was signed.
During Raisi’s travels, Iranian state-run media reported planned joint naval exercises among Iranian, Russian and Chinese forces in the north of the Indian Ocean on Friday. Iran’s armed forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will take part in the drills, an Iranian military official said.
Iran became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in September 2021, thanks to strong Russian support.
In this handout photo released by the Russian Federation Press Service, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gestures after delivering his speech at the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in Moscow, Jan. 20, 2022.
Uncertainty ahead of nuclear talks
The Iranian president also gave assurances in remarks before Russian officials that his country was not seeking nuclear arms. “We are not looking for a nuclear weapon, and such weapons have no place in our defense strategy,” Raisi told Russian lawmakers.
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of trying to make nuclear weapons and using terrorism to destabilize countries in the Middle East – charges Tehran rejects.
Iranian diplomats are in talks with U.S. and European counterparts to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump pulled out of, calling it “one-sided and unacceptable.”
The talks are at a “decisive moment,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday. The top U.S. diplomat warned that Washington and its allies might change tactics if a deal isn’t reached in the coming weeks.
Speaking in Vienna on Thursday alongside Blinken, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock indicated that European nations had sought to ensure China and Russia also maintained pressure on Iran.
In Moscow, the Iranian president said his country was “serious about reaching an agreement if the other parties are serious about lifting the sanctions effectively and operationally.”
In this photo released by the Russian Federation Press Service, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, left, and Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin talk to each other during their meeting in Moscow, Jan. 20, 2022.
Opportunistic alliance?
Russia and Iran both have critical disagreements with the U.S. on issues ranging from Iran’s nuclear program and alleged backing of terrorist groups in the Middle East to Russia’s security and strategic threats to NATO. The two countries have also cooperated in some areas, such as countering U.S. interests in Syria and Afghanistan.
But on other topics, divides include Iran’s existential threats to Israel and Russia’s official objection to Iran’s proliferation of nuclear arms.
“This is not a matter of two nations which agree on politics or ideology to, somehow, form an alliance. It is basically an opportunistic alliance where both countries would really ignore their differences because of their hostility to the United States,” Anthony Cordesman, an expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA.
It’s unclear to what extent Putin will go with Iran and against the West, experts say.
With the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, which shares a long border with Iran and three Central Asian republics, analysts say Moscow and Tehran will find a common agenda in countering drugs, refugees and terrorist groups like the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch.
“Russia and Iran will probably blame everything that will go wrong in Afghanistan on the U.S. policies. But the reality is now Afghanistan is on its own, and neighboring states like Russia and Iran have every reason to shape the internal dynamics of Afghanistan in a way that their actual interests are not jeopardized,” said Vatanka of the Middle East Institute.
Before their seizure of power in Afghanistan, the Taliban signed an agreement with the U.S. that requires them to deny territory and support to any group that poses threats to the U.S. security and interests.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and RFE/RL.
At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party.
The World Economic Forum in Davos. Europe’s largest ports. Airports from Amsterdam to Athens. NATO’s borders with Russia. All depend on equipment manufactured by Nuctech, which has quickly become the world’s leading company, by revenue, for cargo and vehicle scanners.
Nuctech has been frozen out of the U.S. for years due to national security concerns, but it has made deep inroads across Europe, installing its devices in 26 of 27 EU member states, according to public procurement, government and corporate records reviewed by The Associated Press.
The complexity of Nuctech’s ownership structure and its expanding global footprint have raised alarms on both sides of the Atlantic.
A growing number of Western security officials and policymakers fear that China could exploit Nuctech equipment to sabotage key transit points or get illicit access to government, industrial or personal data from the items that pass through its devices.
Nuctech’s critics allege the Chinese government has effectively subsidized the company so it can undercut competitors and give Beijing potential sway over critical infrastructure in the West as China seeks to establish itself as a global technology superpower.
“The data being processed by these devices is very sensitive. It’s personal data, military data, cargo data. It might be trade secrets at stake. You want to make sure it’s in right hands,” said Bart Groothuis, director of cybersecurity at the Dutch Ministry of Defense before becoming a member of the European Parliament. “You’re dependent on a foreign actor which is a geopolitical adversary and strategic rival.”
He and others say Europe doesn’t have tools in place to monitor and resist such potential encroachment. Different member states have taken opposing views on Nuctech’s security risks. No one has even been able to make a comprehensive public tally of where and how many Nuctech devices have been installed across the continent.
Nuctech dismisses those concerns, countering that Nuctech’s European operations comply with local laws, including strict security checks and data privacy rules.
“It’s our equipment, but it’s your data. Our customer decides what happens with the data,” said Robert Bos, deputy general manager of Nuctech in the Netherlands, where the company has a research and development center.
He said Nuctech is a victim of unfounded allegations that have cut its market share in Europe nearly in half since 2019.
“It’s quite frustrating to be honest,” Bos told AP. “In the 20 years we delivered this equipment we never had issues of breaches or data leaks. Till today we never had any proof of it.”
‘It’s not really a company’
As security screening becomes increasingly interconnected and data-driven, Nuctech has found itself on the front lines of the U.S.-China battle for technology dominance now playing out across Europe.
In addition to scanning systems for people, baggage and cargo, the company makes explosives detectors and interconnected devices capable of facial recognition, body temperature measurement and ID card or ticket identification.
On its website, Nuctech’s parent company explains that Nuctech does more than just provide hardware, integrating “cloud computing, big data and Internet of Things with safety inspection technologies and products to supply the clients with hi-tech safety inspection solution.”
Critics fear that under China’s national intelligence laws, which require Chinese companies to surrender data requested by state security agencies, Nuctech would be unable to resist calls from Beijing to hand over sensitive data about the cargo, people and devices that pass through its scanners. They say there is a risk Beijing could use Nuctech’s presence across Europe to gather big data about cross-border trade flows, pull information from local networks, like shipping manifests or passenger information, or sabotage trade flows in a conflict.
A July 2020 Canadian government security review of Nuctech found that X-ray security scanners could potentially be used to covertly collect and transmit information, compromise portable electronic devices as they pass through the scanner or alter results to allow transit of “nefarious” devices.
The European Union put measures in place in late 2020 that can be used to vet Chinese foreign direct investment. But policymakers in Brussels say there are currently no EU-wide systems in place to evaluate Chinese procurement, despite growing concerns about unfair state subsidies, lack of reciprocity, national security and human rights.
“This is becoming more and more dangerous. I wouldn’t mind if one or two airports had Nuctech systems, but with dumping prices a lot of regions are taking it,” said Axel Voss, a German member of the European Parliament who works on data protection. “This is becoming more and more a security question. You might think it’s a strategic investment of the Chinese government.”
The U.S. — home to OSI Systems, one of Nuctech’s most important commercial rivals — has come down hard against Nuctech. The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the U.S. National Security Council, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security all have raised concerns about Nuctech.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration told AP in an email that Nuctech was found ineligible to receive sensitive security information. Nuctech products, TSA said, “are not authorized to be used for the screening of passengers, baggage, accessible property or air cargo in the United States.”
In December 2020, the U.S. added Nuctech to the Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List, restricting exports to them on national security grounds.
“It’s not just commercial,” said a U.S. government official who was not authorized to speak on the record. “It’s using state-backed companies, with state subsidies, low-ball bids to get into European critical infrastructure, which is civil airports, passenger screening, seaport and cargo screening.”
Passengers walk next to Nuctech security scanners at the Brussels Eurostar train terminal on Jan. 17, 2022.
In Europe, Nuctech’s bids can be 30-50% below their rivals’, according to the company’s competitors, U.S. and European officials and researchers who study China. Sometimes they include other sweeteners like extended maintenance contracts and favorable loans.
In 2009, Nuctech’s main European competitor, Smiths Detection, complained that it was being squeezed out of the market by such practices, and the EU imposed an anti-dumping duty of 36.6% on Nuctech cargo scanners.
“Nuctech comes in with below market bids no one can match. It’s not a normal price, it’s an economic statecraft price,” said Didi Kirsten Tatlow, and co-editor of the book, China’s Quest for Foreign Technology. “It’s not really a company. They are more like a wing of a state development drive.”
Nuctech’s Bos said the company keeps prices low by manufacturing in Europe. “We don’t have to import goods from the U.S. or other countries,” he said. “Our supply chain is very efficient with local suppliers, that’s the main reason we can be very competitive.”
Nuctech’s successes abound. The company, which is opening offices in Brussels, Madrid and Rome, says it has supplied customers in more than 170 countries and regions. Nuctech said in 2019 that it had installed more than 1,000 security check devices in Europe for customs, civil aviation, ports and government organizations.
In November 2020, Norwegian Customs put out a call to buy a new cargo scanner for the Svinesund checkpoint, a complex of squat, grey buildings at the Swedish border. An American rival and two other companies complained that the terms as written gave Nuctech a leg up.
The specifications were rewritten, but Nuctech won the deal anyway. The Chinese company beat its rivals on both price and quality, said Jostein Engen, the customs agency’s director of procurement, and none of Norway’s government ministries raised red flags that would have disqualified Nuctech.
“We in Norwegian Customs must treat Nuctech like everybody else in our competition,” Engen said. “We can’t do anything else following EU rules on public tenders.”
Four of five NATO member states that border Russia — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland — have purchased Nuctech equipment for their border crossings with Russia. So has Finland.
Europe’s two largest ports — Rotterdam and Antwerp, which together handled more than a third of goods, by weight, entering and leaving the EU’s main ports in 2020 — use Nuctech devices, according to parliamentary testimony.
Other key states at the edges of the EU, including the U.K., Turkey, Ukraine, Albania, Belarus and Serbia have also purchased Nuctech scanners, some of which were donated or financed with low-interest loans from Chinese state banks, according to public procurement documents and government announcements.
Airports in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Athens, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Zurich, Geneva and more than a dozen across Spain have all signed deals for Nuctech equipment, procurement and government documents, and corporate announcements show.
Nuctech says it provided security equipment for the Olympics in Brazil in 2016, then President Donald Trump’s visit to China in 2017 and the World Economic Forum in 2020. It has also provided equipment to some U.N. organizations, procurement records show.
Rising concerns
As Nuctech’s market share has grown, so too has skepticism about the company.
Canadian authorities dropped a standing offer from Nuctech to provide X-ray scanning equipment at more than 170 Canadian diplomatic missions around the world after a government assessment found an “elevated threat” of espionage.
Lithuania, which is involved in a diplomatic feud with China over Taiwan, blocked Nuctech from providing airport scanners earlier this year after a national security review found that it wasn’t possible for the equipment to operate in isolation and there was a risk information could leak back to China, according to Margiris Abukevicius, vice minister for international cooperation and cybersecurity at Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defense.
Then, in August, Lithuania approved a deal for a Nuctech scanner on its border with Belarus. There were only two bidders, Nuctech and a Russian company — both of which presented national security concerns — and there wasn’t time to reissue the tender, two Lithuanian officials told AP.
“It’s just an ad hoc decision choosing between bad and worse options,” Abukevicius said. He added that the government is developing a road map to replace all Nuctech scanners currently in use in Lithuania as well as a legal framework to ban purchases of untrusted equipment by government institutions and in critical sectors.
Human rights concerns are also generating headwinds for Nuctech. The company does business with police and other authorities in Western China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing stands accused of genocide for mass incarceration and abuse of minority Uyghur Muslims.
Despite pressure from U.S. and European policymakers on companies to stop doing business in Xinjiang, European governments have continued to award tens of millions of dollars in contracts — sometimes backed by European Union funds — to Nuctech.
Nuctech says on its Chinese website that China’s western regions, including Xinjiang, are “are important business areas” for the company. It has signed multiple contracts to provide X-ray equipment to Xinjiang’s Department of Transportation and Public Security Department.
It has provided license plate recognition devices for a police checkpoint in Xinjiang, Chinese government records show, and an integrated security system for the subway in Urumqi, the region’s capital city. It regularly showcases its security equipment at trade fairs in Xinjiang.
“Companies like Nuctech directly enable Xinjiang’s high-tech police state and its intrusive ways of suppressing ethnic minorities. This should be taken into account when Western governments and corporations interface with Nuctech,” said Adrian Zenz, a researcher who has documented abuses in Xinjiang and compiled evidence of the company’s activities in the region.
Nuctech’s Bos said he can understand those views, but that the company tries to steer clear of politics. “Our daily goal is to have equipment to secure the world more and better,” he said. “We don’t interfere with politics.”
Complex web of ownership
Nuctech opened a factory in Poland in 2018 with the tagline “Designed in China and manufactured in Europe.” But ultimate responsibility for the company lies far from Warsaw, with the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council in Beijing, China’s top governing body.
Nuctech’s ownership structure is so complex that it can be difficult for outsiders to understand the true lines of influence and accountability.
Scott Kennedy, a Chinese economic policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the ambiguous boundaries between the Communist Party, state companies and financial institutions in China — which have only grown murkier under China’s leader, Xi Jinping — can make it difficult to grasp how companies like Nuctech are structured and operate.
“Consider if the roles were reversed. If the Chinese were acquiring this equipment for their airports they’d want a whole variety of assurances,” Kennedy said. “China has launched a high-tech self-sufficiency drive because they don’t feel safe with foreign technology in their supply chain.”
What is clear is that Nuctech, from its very origins, has been tied to Chinese government, academic and military interests.
Nuctech was founded as an offshoot of Tsinghua University, an elite public research university in Beijing. It grew with backing from the Chinese government and for years was run by the son of China’s former leader, Hu Jintao.
Datenna, a Dutch economic intelligence company focused on China, mapped the ownership structure of Nuctech and found a dozen major entities across four layers of shareholding, including four state-owned enterprises and three government entities.
Today the majority shareholder in Nuctech is Tongfang Co., which has a 71% stake. The largest shareholder in Tongfang, in turn, is the investment arm of the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC), a state-run energy and defense conglomerate controlled by China’s State Council. The U.S. Defense Department classifies CNNC as a Chinese military company because it shares advanced technologies and expertise with the People’s Liberation Army.
Xi has further blurred the lines between China’s civilian and military activities and deepened the power of the ruling Communist Party within private enterprises. One way: the creation of dozens of government-backed financing vehicles designed to speed the development of technologies that have both military and commercial applications.
In fact, one of those vehicles, the National Military-Civil Fusion Industry Investment Fund, announced in June 2020 that it wanted to take a 4.4% stake in Nuctech’s majority shareholder, along with the right to appoint a director to the Tongfang board. It never happened — “changes in the market environment,” Tongfeng explained in a Chinese stock exchange filing.
But there are other links between Nuctech’s ownership structure and the fusion fund.
CNNC, which has a 21% interest in Nuctech, holds a stake of more than 7% in the fund, according to Qichacha, a Chinese corporate information platform. They also share personnel: Chen Shutang, a member of CNNC’s Party Leadership Group and the company’s chief accountant serves as a director of the fund, records show.
“The question here is whether or not we want to allow Nuctech, which is controlled by the Chinese state and linked to the Chinese military, to be involved in crucial parts of our border security and infrastructure,” said Jaap van Etten, a former Dutch diplomat and CEO of Datenna.
Nuctech maintains that its operations are shaped by market forces, not politics, and says CNNC doesn’t control its corporate management or decision-making.
“We are a normal commercial operator here in Europe which has to obey the laws,” said Nuctech’s Bos. “We work here with local staff members, we pay tax, contribute to the social community and have local suppliers.”
But experts say these touchpoints are further evidence of the government and military interests encircling the company and show its strategic interest to Beijing.
“Under Xi Jinping, the national security elements of the state are being fused with the technological and innovation dimensions of the state,” said Tai Ming Cheung, a professor at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy.
“Military-civil fusion is one of the key battlegrounds between the U.S. and China. The Europeans will have to figure out where they stand.”
