Getting a bad reputation: Renault suspects Chinese role in spy case.

[GoFlyKiteNow]

Renault suspects Chinese role in spy case
AFP - Saturday, January 8

PARIS (AFP) - – French automaker Renault suspects that top managers suspended for alleged industrial espionage were supplying details of the company's electric cars to China, a newspaper and officials said Friday.

The daily Le Figaro cited "several internal sources" at the company anonymously as saying that Renault and the French secret service suspect Chinese involvement in the affair.

"Suspicions are indeed leading in that direction," towards China, said Bernard Carayon, a lawmaker for President Nicolas Sarkozy's UM party who has authored several specialist reports on economic intelligence.

One industry ministry source told AFP: "We cannot accept that an innovation financed by the French taxpayer end up in the hands of the Chinese."

An official at the French domestic intelligence service DCRI said Friday it had "so far" no judicial orders to investigate the affair but could be instructed to do so "at any time."

Renault and its Japanese partner Nissan have staked their future on electric vehicles and plan to launch several models by 2014 to meet the rapidly rising demand for more environmentally-friendly methods of transport.

They have invested four billion euros (5.2 billion dollars) in the programme.

The firm's senior vice president Christian Husson told AFP on Thursday that the suspected espionage "was a very serious incident concerning persons in a particularly strategic position in the company.

"We are looking into all legal options which will inevitably lead us to file a complaint," he said.

The suspensions are the latest in a series of industrial espionage shocks to hit France's strategically important auto sector, which employs 10 percent of the entire French workforce.

Tyre manufacturer Michelin and auto parts maker Valeo have also been targets of spying.

 

[GoFlyKiteNow]

France probes China link in Renault spy scandal
Helen Massy-Beresford
PARIS— Reuters

French intelligence services are looking into China’s possible role in an industrial espionage scandal at car maker Renault that a senior minister has said involved “economic warfare,“ a government source told Reuters.

Three Renault executives, including one member of its management committee, were suspended on Monday in the case, which has prompted the French government to warn of an “overall risk” to French industry.

The government source said French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office had ordered the investigation. Renault, which declined to comment, is 15-per-cent owned by the French state.

“The Elysee has charged the DCRI (intelligence services) with an investigation. It is following a Chinese lead,” the source said.

Relations between France and China hit a low roughly two years ago when Mr. Sarkozy criticized Beijing’s policy on Tibet, prompting Chinese citizens to call for boycotts of French products.