LONDON — The Polish authorities arrested two people, including a Chinese employee of the telecommunications giant Huawei, and charged them with spying for Beijing, officials said on Friday, as the United States and its allies move to restrict the use of Chinese technology because of concerns that it is being used for espionage.

The arrest of the Huawei employee is almost certain to escalate tensions between Western countries and China over the company, which the authorities in the United States have accused of acting as an arm of the Chinese government and making equipment designed for spying.

In December, the daughter of Huawei’s founder was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States, which said she had committed fraud as part of a scheme to violate American sanctions against companies doing business with Iran. It was unclear whether the arrests in Poland had been requested by the United States. But a senior Western diplomat who was briefed on them said the Justice Department had been working with the Polish government.

Europe is increasingly a battleground in the fight over Huawei, the world’s second-largest smartphone maker and a top supplier of networking equipment. The company’s sales in the region have been growing, but many countries there now face pressure to reconsider its presence, particularly as construction begins for the next-generation wireless networks known as 5G. Germany, Britain, the Czech Republic and Norway are among the nations that have recently questioned how deeply Huawei should be involved in developing 5G infrastructure.