Poland Must Pay For The Arrest: Global Times

Poland "must pay" for arresting an employee of Chinese telecom giant Huawei for alleged espionage, state-run tabloid Global Times said on Monday.

Last week's detention of Wang Weijing follows the December arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer in Canada, and US efforts to blacklist the company internationally over security concerns.

"Beijing should resolutely negotiate with Warsaw and conduct relative counter-measures, helping the world understand that Poland is an accomplice of the US," the Global Times said in a strongly worded editorial.

If Huawei suffers a blow, it will affect the confidence of "Chinese society" and the world would think it "doable to bully Chinese enterprises," said the newspaper, which is run by Communist party mouthpiece People's Daily.

"China must not be soft at this point. Beijing will not bully Warsaw – and it is unworthy to do so – but the latter must pay for the offence," the editorial said.

The newspaper did not say what kind of measures Beijing should take.

While China voiced concerns about Wang's arrest in Poland, Huawei has sought to distance itself from the case as it fired the employee, saying his "alleged actions have no relation to the company".

A Polish man was also arrested for alleged espionage along with Wang on Tuesday.

Both men are suspected of having "worked for Chinese services and to the detriment of Poland", said Polish special services spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn. (AFP)