Commentator believes it is “reprehensible” that Johaug does not break with the Chinese company – VG

In a post on the Minerva magazine website, he asked Johaug to end the collaboration with Huawei.

IPVM, a US-based surveillance research company, said in a report this week that Huawei has been involved in testing a facial recognition technique in China, which can send alerts to police when it identifies minority faces. Uigur. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed the accusations as “defamation.”

China has been heavily criticized for sending Uighurs and members of other minorities to so-called retraining camps, while Chinese authorities believe they are there voluntarily.

Snoen also targets safety. The Police Security Service (PST) has previously asked Norwegian authorities to keep an eye on Huawei due to its close ties with the Chinese authorities.

Swedish star artist Zara Larsson (22) said this summer that her collaboration with Huawei has ended. On Thursday, the same message came from soccer star Antoine Griezmann. And on the same day, Aftonbladet was able to reveal that swimming queen Sarah Sjöström is not expanding her collaboration with the telecommunications giant.

Therese Johaug also has a sponsorship deal with Huawei. Facing the development of the last 24 hours, Johaug’s manager Jørn Ernst speaks in this way to VG and other Norwegian media on Friday:

“We relate to Huawei’s official fact-based information on the company’s role and position on this matter, and the company’s commitment to human rights (https://www.huawei.com/uk/declarations/huawei%20human%20rights%20commitment).
In our overall assessment of our collaboration with Huawei, we take as a basis that Norwegian authorities and companies maintain close and extensive business cooperation with Chinese companies.
We relate to our cooperation agreement with Huawei, and beyond this, we have no comment related to the decisions of other players regarding their cooperation with Huawei ».

Snoen insists that Johaug should break the deal:

– There has been a long-standing debate that Huawei is a dubious company in terms of security, but mostly because Huawei is involved in serious human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur minority. An elite Norwegian athlete cannot stand up to such an undertaking, says Jan Arild Snoen.

– Do you think there is evidence that Huawei is involved in human rights violations?

Yes, I think there is proof of that, most recently in the Washington Post this week. This was also the reason why Griezmann withdrew from his deal.

Snoen reacts to Jørn Ernst by talking about them in relation to “the official fact-based information from Huawei”:

– This is a company that constantly lies. Here, there is a naivety that is justified by only one thing: making money, Minerva’s commentator believes.

– So Johaug should break the deal?

– I think it is completely reprehensible that it continues like this. It’s just a shame that an athlete is so deaf to the world around him, says Jan Arild Snoen.

The police security service (PST) previously warned about Huawei’s activities. The warning was related to fears that the company could be used for espionage for Chinese intelligence, and that this was a potential threat to Norwegian security.

– We have said that Huawei must be taken into account as a player in relation to the 5G network that is going to be expanded. Not because we think there is something wrong with Huawei and the people who work in Norway, but Huawei as a company probably has fairly close ties to the Chinese authorities, PST chief Benedicte Bjørnland said in February 2019.