Spain’s National Intelligence Center has certified over 70 Huawei products, including those for defense and banking, coinciding with the Prime Minister’s visit to Beijing.
Huawei Products Gain Top-Level Security Clearance
The Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI), through its National Cryptologic Center (CCN), has published a list of security certificates for software and devices approved for use in Spain. Over 70 Huawei products are included, deemed safe for use.
Nineteen Huawei products received the highest level of certification, granting full approval for use in critical infrastructure sectors such as defense, healthcare, energy, and banking.
Routers, Storage Arrays, and More
The scale of these certifications is significant given the global debate surrounding technology supply chain security and frequent restrictions on solutions from Western countries.
For comparison, Spanish firms Teldat and Indra received 45 and 9 certificates respectively, while Telefónica received 8. Huawei significantly outperforms domestic Spanish technology companies.
High-Level Qualification Standards
According to the CCN, products with a high-level qualification have undergone the most rigorous security tests, guaranteeing protection against damage to national security, public services, or citizens.
The CPSTIC catalog includes products cleared for processing classified information, ranging from “Restricted” to “Top Secret,” and systems qualified as basic, medium, or high security.
Certified Huawei Products Include Key Infrastructure Components
Certified Huawei products include corporate-class routers for managing data traffic in large data centers, firewalls for network traffic inspection and VPN creation, storage arrays with data encryption, professional WiFi access points, and network infrastructure management software.
The CNI stated that none of these products contain backdoors enabling data leaks.
Spain-China Relations Strengthen
The publication of the certification list coincided with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s official visit to China, where he met with President Xi Jinping and expressed a desire to strengthen bilateral relations.
This meeting occurs during a period of geopolitical tension, including the war in Ukraine, instability in the Middle East, and a cooling of relations between Madrid and Washington.
Pressure to Exclude Huawei Previously Existed
Previously, Spain, like other European countries, faced pressure from the United States to exclude Huawei equipment from its telecommunications infrastructure, including 5G networks.
Washington has long asserted that Chinese technology firms may be legally obligated to provide data to intelligence services operating for Beijing, though public evidence of Huawei devices being used for espionage remains lacking.
France Also Pursuing Tech Independence
In April, the French government announced plans to partially migrate public administration computers from Microsoft Windows to Linux, aiming to reduce reliance on American solutions.
