Alibaba’s European Hub Is Causing Espionage Concerns in Belgium
Belgium’s Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne raised concerns over Chinese espionage in connection to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s logistics center under construction in Belgium’s Liège Airport.
Liège Airport is the seventh-largest airport in Europe. It is situated at the heart of the Amsterdam-Paris-Frankfurt golden triangle, a very dense area of production in Europe.
Alibaba Group and the Belgium government signed an agreement in December 2018 to open Alibaba’s first Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) in Europe. The logistics arm of Alibaba Group and Liège Airport also signed a contract to lease a 220,000-square-meter area to build a logistics hub at the airport, which became a subject of concern.