The security equipment company was the target of the raid conducted at dawn on Tuesday by Brussels authorities using new anti-foreign subsidy powers. The machinery also present at Pisa airport
04/26/2024
The security equipment giant Nuctech is the Chinese company that was the subject of the raid conducted at dawn on Tuesday by the Brussels authorities using the new anti-foreign subsidies powers. The group, whose offices in Poland and the Netherlands were visited by police forces, is well known in Brussels having won – according to Commission documents analyzed by Financial Times – over 160 public tenders for around €120 million in Europe over the last decade, despite national security warnings regarding the company’s products. The Chinese state-owned company makes cargo, baggage and people scanners used across Europe, from border checkpoints to numerous airports to the continent’s largest seaports that handle tens of millions of containers every year.
Nuctech, the newspaper recalls, has long been criticized for its close ties with Beijing (there was also Hu Haifengson of the former leader Hu Jintao) and has been flagged by the United States for potential national security risks.
Experts express concern about possible security risks, including Nuctech’s access to internal customs systems that link scanner images to shipment data. The Chinese company said that its equipment is protected by strict controls and that all data generated by its devices belongs exclusively to customers. Nuctech also assured that it intends to collaborate with the European Commission to defend its reputation as an independent and self-sufficient economic operator.
Nuctech’s machinery has been purchased from the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, the airports of Stockholm and Pisa and the Eurostar terminal in Brussels for trains to the UK. Although Belgium imposed a ban on purchasing Nuctech equipment in 2023, some of its products remain in use, including several container and baggage scanners. Among the other countries that have purchased Nuctech machines, the Financial Times mentions Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania.
