Chinese Tech Giant Huawei on Europe Recruitment Drive

Controversial Chinese technology giant Huawei which has been condemned as a security risk in the US and Australia is to recruit hundreds of research and development staff in Europe, the president of its French subsidiary said.

"In the next two or three years, we are going to double our researchers" in Europe, who currently number around 800, Francois Quentin told AFP.

A total of 200 of the new staff, including applied mathematicians and designers, will be based in France.

In July, Huawei was ranked as the world's number three smartphone maker by sales, behind South Korea's Samsung and Apple of the US, according to research firm International Data Corp.

It has 17 research sites in Europe spread across eight countries, including Germany, Finland and Italy, and expects to employ 13,000 people across the continent by 2017.

The Shenzhen-based firm was founded in 1987 by former People's Liberation Army engineer Ren Zhengfei, and is now among the world's top makers of telecommunications equipment.

Washington has long seen it as a security threat due to perceived close links to the Chinese government, which the company denies, and both the United States and Australia have barred it from involvement in broadband projects over espionage fears. It denies such allegations vigorously.

Huawei announced net profit of 21 billion yuan ($3.47 billion) last year, up from 15.62 billion in 2012. Sales revenue surged 8.5 percent year on year to 239.03 billion yuan, it said.

© Thomson Reuters 2014