LITHUANIA BLOCKS CHINESE AIRPORT SCANNER FIRM NUCTECH

A Chinese state-owned maker of security-screening equipment should be blocked from supplying equipment for Lithuania’s three international airports over national security concerns, the Lithuanian government said.

Beijing-based Nuctech last year won a bid to install baggage scanners at airports in Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga, government spokeswoman Rasa Jakilaitiene said. No deal has been signed.

However, a parliament-appointed panel concluded this week that Nuctech’s luggage and cargo-screening equipment doesn’t meet national security interests.

The government was expected to follow the panel’s conclusion next week when a decision is made, which is considered a formality.

The panel said Nuctech’s screening equipment can collect data on passengers and luggage, which could be available to China’s intelligence and security services under a 2017 Chinese law that compels companies to help with intelligence gathering.

The chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, Laurynas Kasciunas, told the Baltic News Service (BNS), the region’s main news agency, that it “shows that Lithuania has decided not to be part of the techno-sphere being created and controlled by China.”

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