Warsaw, Jan 12 (AP/UNB) — Poland has arrested a director at the Chinese tech giant Huawei and one of its own former cybersecurity experts and charged them with spying for China, authorities said Friday.

The development comes as the U.S. is exerting pressure on its allies not to use Huawei, the world's biggest maker of telecommunications network equipment, over data security concerns.

The two men  — one a Chinese citizen who was a former envoy in Poland before moving over to a senior position at Huawei and the other a Pole who held several top government cybersecurity positions — were arrested Tuesday, according to Poland's Internal Security Agency.

Polish security agents searched the Warsaw offices of Huawei and Orange, Poland's leading communications provider, where the former Polish security expert recently worked, seizing documents and electronic data. The homes of both men, also in Warsaw, were also searched, according to agency spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn.

It's the latest setback for Huawei in Europe, where the company has ambitious plans to roll out next-generation "5G" mobile networks, which it is a leader in developing. The arrest is a fresh sign that a U.S. dispute with China over its ban on the company is spilling over to Europe, Huawei's biggest foreign market.

Some European governments and telecom companies are following the U.S. lead in questioning whether using Huawei for vital infrastructure for mobile networks could leave them exposed to snooping by the Chinese government.

Maciej Wasik, deputy head of Poland's Special Services agency, said the operation that resulted in the arrests of the two suspects had been underway for a long time. He said "both carried out espionage activities against Poland."

Zaryn told The Associated Press that prosecutors have charged the two men with espionage, but agents are continuing to collect evidence and interview witnesses. Further indictments are expected, he said.

He said no further details would be released about the case because it is classified and the investigation is ongoing.

Polish state television TVP reported that the men have proclaimed their innocence, but Zaryn said he could not confirm that. If convicted, they could face up to 10 years in prison each.

TVP identified the arrested Chinese man as Weijing W., saying he was a director in Poland at Huawei. It said he also went by the Polish first name of Stanislaw and had previously worked at the Chinese consulate in Gdansk.

A LinkedIn profile for a man named Stanislaw Wang appears to match details of the man described by Polish television.

Wang's resume said he worked at China's General Consulate in Gdansk from 2006-2011 and at Huawei Enterprise Poland since 2011, where he was first director of public affairs and since 2017 the "sales director of public sector." The resume said he received a bachelor's degree in 2004 from the Beijing University of Foreign Studies.

State TV identified the Polish man as Piotr D., and said he was a high-ranking employee at the Internal Security Agency, where he served as deputy director in the department of information security, until 2011.

The Polish state news agency, PAP, said the man had also held top cybersecurity positions at the Interior Ministry and the Office of Electronic Communications, a regulatory body that oversees cyber and other telecommunications issues.

It said, while at the Internal Security Agency, he was involved in building a mobile communications system for top Polish officials, and he was fired in 2011 amid a major corruption scandal.

Geopolitical tensions over Huawei have intensified since Canada arrested a top executive last month at the request of U.S. authorities. The company has been blocked in the U.S. since 2012 over fears that its equipment is a security risk, and last year Australia, New Zealand and Japan instituted their own bans against using Huawei.

U.S. officials have reportedly fanned out across Europe recently to make their case with governments and Huawei suppliers for blocking the company.

The company and analysts have long maintained that it has never been found guilty of a cybersecurity breach but the latest accusation, if confirmed, will deal a blow to that defense.

"One thing is clear: this is another nail in the coffin of Huawei's European ambitions," said Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute, a think tank.

The arrest might not have a big impact on broader trade tensions between China and the U.S., but it shows that "there will always be competition and acrimony related to Chinese tech companies," Benner said.

Huawei, which also makes smartphones and other consumer devices, issued a statement from its Chinese headquarters saying it was aware of the situation in Poland and was looking into it.

"We have no comment for the time being. Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, and we require every employee to abide by the laws and regulations in the countries where they are based," the statement said.

Poland is Huawei's headquarters for Central and Eastern Europe and the Nordic region.

An official at the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw said China attaches "great importance to the detention" of the Chinese citizen in Poland and that Chinese envoys had met with Polish Foreign Ministry officials to urge them to arrange a consular visit "as soon as possible."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said late Friday it is "closely following the detention of Huawei employee Wang Weijing" and has asked Poland to "handle the case lawfully, fairly, properly and to effectively guarantee the legitimate rights of the person, his safety and his humanitarian treatment," according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Orange Poland told the AP on Friday it was cooperating with Polish security services in the case and had "handed over belongings of one of our employees" in Tuesday's search of its offices. Orange told the AP it did not know if the suspicions against its employee were related to his work at Orange or elsewhere.

Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested Dec. 1 in Canada in connection with U.S. accusations that the company violated restrictions on sales of American technology to Iran.

The United States wants Meng extradited to face charges that she misled banks about the company's business dealings in Iran. She is out on bail in Canada awaiting extradition proceedings.

On Dec. 10, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor on vague national security allegations in apparent retaliation for Meng's arrest.

China's ambassador to Canada accused the country this week of "white supremacy" in calling for the release of the two Canadians, while describing the detentions as an "act of self-defense."

Dhaka, Jan 10 (UNB)- To celebrate the 11th Techshohor.com Smartphone & Tab Expo to a grand scale, leading smartphone brand Huawei has announced exciting offers and lucrative discounts on its devices and accessories. The expo is scheduled to be held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital from January 10-12, 2019.

On the occasion, Huawei will provide up to 20% special discount on Smartphones with attractive gifts during the expo and up to 40% special discount on Tab and Huawei original accessories item (Earphone, Bluetooth Headset, Quick Charger, OTG Cable, Selfie Stick, and Smart Scale etc.). Moreover, there will be special offers on Huawei Power Bank and Color Band A2 and B2 for this expo only. 

In this expo, customer will be able to buy Huawei nova 3e at BDT 22,500 instead of regular price of BDT 27,990. Moreover, Huawei nova 3i will be available at BDT 25,500 with an attractive gift box while the regular price of the handset is BDT 26,990.   

Popular smartphone at present, Huawei Mate 20 Pro will be available for BDT 89,990 with exclusive gifts. Also customer can buy Huawei Matebook X with a discounted price of BDT 110,000. 

In addition, customer can buy Huawei’s popular tab: T3 7” (1+8GB) with a minimum price of BDT 8,990 and Huawei Media pad T3 10” will be sold at BDT 17,990 instead of regular price of BDT 19,490.  Moreover, Huawei Color Band A2 will be sold at 15% discounted to BDT 2,190 and color Band B2 at BDT 2,950  

To enhance the enjoyment of the customer further, Huawei will also organize raffle draw each day during the expo and customer can get a chance to win attractive gifts including Swan Bluetooth Speaker, Headphone and BPL ticket.

Dhaka, Jan 7 (UNB)- Huawei has announced the industry's highest-performance Advanced RISC Machine (ARM)-based CPU - Kunpeng 920 in an event at Shenzen in China.

William Xu, Director of the Board and Chief Strategy Marketing Officer of Huawei, launched the new CPU.

Kunpeng 920 is designed to boost the development of computing in big data, distributed storage and ARM-native application scenarios. Huawei will join with industry players to advance the ARM industry and create an open, collaborative and win-win ecosystem, taking computing performance to new heights.

Kunpeng 920, the industry's highest-performance ARM-based server CPU was independently designed by Huawei using the cutting-edge 7nm process. It delivers improved processing performance by optimizing branch prediction algorithms, increasing the number of OP units and improving the memory subsystem architecture. 

The Kunpeng 920 CPU will perform 25% higher than the industry benchmark and consumes 30% less power than industry counterparts. It integrates 64 cores at a frequency of 2.6 GHz. Kunpeng 920 provides 640 Gbps total bandwidth.

William Xu, Director of the Board and Chief Strategy Marketing Officer of Huawei said "Huawei has continuously innovated in the computing domain in order to create customer value. Currently, the diversity of applications and data is driving heterogeneous computing requirements. Huawei has long partnered with Intel to make great achievements. Together we have contributed to the development of the ICT industry. Huawei and Intel will continue our long-term strategic partnerships and continue to innovate together."

Huawei has also released its TaiShan series servers powered by Kunpeng 920. TaiShan will deliver 20% higher computing performance and much lower power consumption for enterprises.

"We will work with global partners to drive the development of the ARM ecosystem and expand the computing space and embrace a diversified computing era. Huawei has invested patiently and intensively in computing innovation to continuously make breakthroughs. We will work with our customers and partners to build a fully connected, intelligent world," Xu added.
 

San Francisco, Jan 3 (AP/UNB) — Apple acknowledged that demand for iPhones is waning, confirming investor fears that the company's most profitable product has lost some of its luster.

The reckoning came in a letter from Apple CEO Tim Cook to the company's shareholders released after the stock market closed Wednesday.

Cook said Apple's revenue for the October-December quarter — including the crucial holiday shopping season — will fall well below the company's earlier projections and those of analysts, whose estimates sway the stock market.

Apple now expects revenue of $84 billion for the period. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Apple's revenue to be about 9 percent higher — $91.3 billion. The official results are scheduled to be released Jan. 29.

Cook traced most of the revenue drop to China, where the economy has been slowing and Apple has faced tougher competition from home-team smartphone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi. President Donald Trump has also raised new tensions between the U.S. and China by imposing tariffs on more than $200 billion in goods, although so far the iPhone hasn't been affected directly.

China's "economy began to slow there for the second half," Cook said during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday afternoon. "The trade tensions between the United States and China put additional pressure on their economy."

Cook also acknowledged that consumers in other markets aren't buying as many of the latest iPhones, released last fall, as Apple had anticipated — a factor that could stem from a starting price of $1,000 for Apple's top-of-the-line iPhones.

Apple's stock plunged 7 percent to $146.40 in Wednesday's extended trading. The shares had already fallen 32 percent from their peak in early October when investors still had high hopes for the new iPhone models. Apple's troubles may have ripple effects on other technology companies, given investors have been bailing on the industry in recent months. The tech-driven Nasdaq composite index now stands 18 percent down from its record closing high reached in August.

Now, Apple must try to find a way to win back Wall Street's confidence and reverse a steep decline that has erased $350 billion in shareholder wealth in just three months.

"This is Apple's darkest day during the Cook era," Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said. "No one expected China to just fall off a cliff like this."

While President Donald Trump's trade war with China isn't helping Apple and other U.S. technology companies, Ives believes Apple miscalculated by continuing to roll out high-priced phones in China, creating an opening for rivals with less costly alternatives that still worked well.

The price gap is one reason Huawei surpassed Apple in smartphone sales from April through September last year to seize the No. 2 spot behind industry leader Samsung, according to the research firm International Data Corp.

"The question now is will Apple change its strategy or stick to its hubris," Ives said.

To help boost iPhone sales, Cook said Apple will expand its financing plans and build upon its recent efforts to make it easier to trade in older models at its stores.

But outsiders will find it harder to see how that's working out. In November, Apple unexpectedly announced that it would no longer disclose how many iPhones it ships each quarter, ending a long-running practice. Wall Street immediately interpreted the move as an attempt to mask a slow but steady downturn in sales.

Apple said at the time that it wanted to reduce investor focus on its iPhone division and instead highlight other promising areas of its business, including its services division that sells subscriptions for music streaming, collects app-related commissions and repairs malfunctioning devices.

But the company now expects its annual revenue to fall 5 percent from the previous year's level. That reversal of fortune could reinforce fears of a global economic slowdown .

Shenzhen, Dec 25 (Xinhua/UNB)- Chinese technology firm Huawei said on Tuesday that it had shipped more than 200 million smartphones so far this year, a new record high for the company.

In 2010, Huawei's smartphone shipments were 3 million units, according to market research firm IDC.

The company overtook Apple in the second and the third quarters of 2018 to become the world's second-largest phone vendor, IDC said.

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, said the group hopes to become a pioneer and leader in the new generation of the smartphone revolution, continue to create values for the consumers and make Huawei a more favored global brand.

Headquartered in the south China city of Shenzhen, privately-owned Huawei is a world-leading telecom solution provider and also one of the world's major smartphone brands.