HUAWEI, a Chinese maker of telecoms equipment, has found Europe, by and large, a welcoming sort of place. Gartner, a research firm, estimates that last year it doubled its share of the western European market for mobile operators’ infrastructure, to 19%. Its share in eastern Europe is even higher. But in America, where Chinese kit is seen as a security threat, Huawei cannot get a sniff. In Australia it was blocked on similar grounds from bidding for a broadband project last year.

Now Huawei and ZTE, its smaller neighbour in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, are feeling a chill in Europe, too. They are accused not of being spies (though Europeans also worry about security) but of being too cheap. On May 15th the European Commission agreed “in principle” to investigate the dumping of and subsidies for Chinese mobile-network equipment, of which the EU imports just over €1 billion-worth ($1.3 billion) a year. Karel De Gucht, the EU’s trade commissioner, says he will not start yet, to allow time for negotiations. Huawei, which is privately owned, has long denied being a tool of the Chinese state. ZTE, which is listed, insists it is “in full conformity” with the rules of the World Trade Organisation.