Technicians from the Chinese company Huawei Technologies helped in at least two cases the governments of Uganda and Zambia in spying on political opponents, writes the Wall Street Journal.
The names of the company's employees who helped "break into" the private communications of the opposition leader, which led to their arrest, are found in internal police documents, according to the American newspaper.
The media cited senior security officials from the two countries as having worked with technicians from the Chinese tech giant, which, in addition to dominating the African continent in terms of telecommunications networks, sells surveillance and security equipment to African governments.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the espionage involved the interception of their coded communications and social networks.
Officials from both countries confirmed that there was cooperation with spy agencies and Huawei engineers, reports B92, stating that the Wall Street Journal's investigation found no evidence that official Beijing also spied on or approved the actions.
Huawei strongly rejected the paper's investigation in a written statement to The Wall Street Journal.
"Huawei rejects these completely unfounded and inaccurate allegations against our business. Our internal investigation clearly showed that Huawei and its employees did not participate in the mentioned activities. We have neither contracts nor the ability to do so," the statement said.
Bonus video:
