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. The surveillance was believed to have begun in 2012, when the headquarters of the African Union was opened, and was conducted via bugging equipment and digital backdoors installed in the building's electronics during construction.

Upon discovery, both the equipment manufacturer Huawei and the Chinese government denied the allegations. The African Union also publicly denied that such an incident had occurred, although one African Union official later stated that there were "many issues with the building that are still being resolved with the Chinese. It's not just cyber security."