The Chinese army bought a Belgian mapping software.

According to a Chinese newspaper, China has acquired 'the Ferrari of the war room software'. This software is the work of LuciadLightspee, a Belgian company from Leuven, even if the company itself denies it. Luciad is a kind of spin-off of the Belgian university KU Leuven specializing in geospatial information systems, which was bought last year by the Swedish firm Hexagon.

Luciad is a kind of spin-off of the Belgian university KU Leuven specializing in geospatial information systems, which was bought last year by the Swedish firm Hexagon. (Illustration source: Luciad)

According to the South China Morning Post quoted by the Belgian magazine Le Vif, it is not only a question of cartographic software but also of the same information system that the United States and NATO notably use to map war in real time. This is how Luciad collects data from drones, radar, sensors, as well as satellite images, before mapping them in real time to fast animated objects with an accuracy of about three centimeters. The United States uses Luciad among others in support of their secret missions, according to the newspaper.

But this redemption is controversial. The South China Morning Post evokes two scenarios. On the one hand, China requires foreign suppliers to show their source code to the authorities. This would then allow China to view all the details, but also the capabilities of the software used by NATO and the United States to control military situations. Moreover, and especially if China does not have access to the source code, it would not be excluded, according to a Chinese security expert interviewed by the newspaper, that it is question of code allowing Luciad (or d 'other software') to visualize its use by the Chinese.

Luciad did not tell the Chinese paper what answer she gave China about viewing the source code. For its part, Data News also asked some comments about this to the Belgian firm. In a reaction, Hexagon informs Data news that the information published by the South China Morning Post is not correct: "We are very honored by the complimentary review, but the content of the article is totally incorrect," said Christophe De Preter, chief commercial officer at Hexagon. Hexagon and Luciad have a subsidiary in China and sell mapping software in various sectors. But it's not a military solution, as it is in the article, and even less a software that interests the Chinese defense department. "We are complying with EU and US regulations on technology export," concludes De Preter.