Top French China "fixer" Gérard Houa prepares for life without HNA

• LONDON - KCS gets in the game with new football investigations' unit

• HOUSTON - Straife poaches Croissant as it prospects in Caucasus
  

• PARIS/BEIJING - Diplomat consultant Gourdault-Montagne extends China stay
  

Ex-Airbus China agent Gerard Houa off French taxman's hook 

In a decision dated 2 February, the Paris Court of Appeal handed down a harsh ruling against the tax authorities' investigation, which was attempting to target the former sales agent of Airbus Group and Veolia in China.

DRSD wants higher staff skills to meet Chinese threat 

DRSD director Eric Bucquet wants more flexibility when it comes to recruitment, so to efficiently prevent China's attempts to spy on the French military.

Weapons group Poly teams with satellite services player Unistrong 

Unistrong, headed by Guo Xinping, is a supplier to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Ministry of Public Security, or Gonganbu.

Cybersecurity firm Winicssec eyes IPO 

Winicssec, a cybersecurity firm headed by a former Huawei employee, is working with China's Ministry of Public Security to set security standards at industrial sites.

Blacklisted Luokung maintains defence ties through Superengine subsidiary 

Superengine, which was acquired by Luokung in 2018, is headed by Zhang Dongpu, a former executive at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).

Geochip rises to challenge US leaders in 5G chip race 

Geochip, founded by two former Qualcomm employees, plans to ramp up development of its radio frequency chips and apply them to drone technology.

GrandHonor gets boost from Qingdao state funds 

GrandHonor, a big data company founded by a former Huawei employee, hopes to harness its technology for smart cities and facial recognition projects.

Weblink takes up encryption to keep in step with Xi's military-civil fusion strategy 

The cryptography company Weblink has ties to the Strategic Support Force, which is responsible for cyber and space operations.

Chinese blind spots in global Airbus anti-corruption probe 

Britain's SFO and its French equivalent, the PNF, split the regions targeted in the Airbus corruption investigation between them. But Chinese contracts drew the attention of both the PNF and the DoJ.

Airbus makes head start on SFO probe 

Under investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the European aeronautical company is receiving help to carry out its own internal investigation.

Dilsat Atus, Airbus' Uighur go-between 

According to our sources, Dilsat Atus, a Chinese Uighur businessman, is now Airbus' main consultant on sales to China. Atus worked for many years with two consultants now taking legal action against the company.

EDF's relations with DGSE and DCRI 

All of France's multinationals have dealings with the French intelligence services - but they don't often say it in so many words.