2018 China–African Union espionage allegations

In January 2018, French newspaper Le Monde Afrique published a story alleging that the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa was being spied on by the Chinese government.

[9][10] According to Le Monde Afrique, in January 2017, the African Union's IT department noticed that their server traffic was unusually full between midnight and 2 a.m. local time, when few people were working.

[14]: 323  Rwandan President and then-chairman of the AU, Paul Kagame, stated that he was not worried by the discovery, but expressed regret for the African Union not self-funding its headquarters, and instead relying on the Chinese government.

[5] The Chinese ambassador to the African Union, Kuang Weilin, called the allegations "absurd" and "preposterous" and claimed they were intended to put pressure on Sino-African relations.

[14]: 323  Wang stated that the agreement should end rumors of data leakage and that "AU has totally audited their IT system for the whole organization and nothing corroborates what was said in media reports one year ago.