A French legislator announced yesterday that there are clear indications that of Chinese involvement in the case. Bernard Carayon, an expert on industrial espionage, stated that "proven, diverse and reliable" sources pointed to an effort to obtain secrets from the Renault executives by a Chinese buyer.
"There are in effect several sources that are typically thought to be serious who consider that a Chinese buyer is in fact behind this operation," said Carayon, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party, on France-Info radio, according to a recent Detroit News article.
The French administration has not made any statement on the matter and the country’s counterterrorism agency, DCRI, has not investigated the matter either. The carmaker is also keeping its lips tight about the whole situation, only saying that it wants to take legal action against the three former company officials, whose identities are to be preserved in accordance to French labor laws, but Renault did state that the managers were people with “extremely strategic” positions in the company. So the situation might also mean a change of head staff of the carmaker.
French Industry Minister Besson said Thursday that the information leak is believed to be related to Renault’s electric car development, one of the carmaker’s biggest priorities. He also stated he believes stronger laws should be in place in order to protect France’s manufacturers against industrial espionage.
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