An assistant to the leading candidate of Germany’s far-right AfD party for the forthcoming European elections has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for China, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday.
The man, Jian G., is accused of spying on Chinese opponents in Germany and sharing information about the European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Jian G. is an assistant to MEP Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s head of the list in the forthcoming European elections. In a reaction, a spokesperson for the far-right party described the case as “very worrying”.
This arrest follows those announced on Monday of three Germans suspected of spying for the Chinese Secret Service (MSS). Identified as Herwig F., Ina F. and Thomas R. by the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office, they were arrested in Düsseldorf and Bad Homburg, in the west of the country.
Their homes and places of work were searched. Thomas R. is said to have obtained information on innovative technologies that could be used for military purposes, and Herwig F. and Ina F. are said to have acted as intermediaries. Beijing "firmly" rejected these accusations.
On Tuesday, China once again denied any "alleged Chinese espionage" and denounced a "slander" aimed at "destroying the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe."
For her part, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described the facts as "extremely serious". "If it is confirmed that the Chinese intelligence services spied on the European Parliament from the inside, this would be an attack on European democracy", she said in a statement.
In Belgium, former Vlaams Belang MP Frank Creyelman is suspected of having been bought by a Chinese spy in order to exert influence for the benefit of Beijing.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation on the basis of information from State Security and a journalistic investigation by Le Monde, Financial Times and Der Spiegel published last December.
