German police have arrested an associate of an MEP from the far-right Alternative for Germany party on suspicion of a “particularly serious case” of espionage for China, Reuters reported, citing German prosecutors.
Jiang G., an aide to Maximilian Kra, the leading candidate of the Alternative for Germany party in June’s European elections, is accused of providing the Chinese intelligence service with information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament, prosecutors said in a statement.
Jiang G., who lived in Brussels and the eastern German city of Dresden, also spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, prosecutors said. The authorities arrested him yesterday in Dresden and searched his apartments.
“He is accused of a particularly serious case of cooperation with a foreign secret service,” the statement said.
German Interior Minister Nancy Feser said the espionage allegations were “very serious,” according to the Associated Press.
“If it is confirmed that there was espionage in the European Parliament for the benefit of Chinese intelligence, then this is an attack on European democracy from within,” Feser noted in a statement. “Anyone who appoints such an employee is also responsible,” she added. “This case must be examined precisely, all connections and prerequisites must be brought to light,” the minister’s statement also says.
Maximilian Kra reacted cautiously to reports of the arrest of his associate on suspicion of espionage for China, DPA reported.
“I learned about the arrest of my colleague Jiang Guo this morning from the media,” Kra wrote on the X social network. “I have no further information. Spying for a foreign country is a serious charge. If these allegations are found to be true, he will be fired immediately,” added the German politician.
Kra told a Bild reporter at the Strasbourg airport that, as far as he knew, his associate had “contacts only with official Chinese offices in the Chinese embassy.”
A spokesman for the AzG said the party would do everything possible to cooperate with the investigation.
Meanwhile, Beijing rejected the accusations as defamatory.
“Behind all this hype is an obvious goal, namely to slander and pressure China and sabotage the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe,” said a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry. He stressed that China has always adhered to the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Germany must overcome its “Cold War mentality” and must not abuse the so-called “risks of espionage” using them for political operations against China, the foreign ministry spokesman also said.
Yesterday there was another incident in Germany, in which three people were arrested on suspicion of working for China, DPA recalls.
The Chinese embassy in Berlin called on Germany “to stop using the accusation of espionage for political manipulation of China’s image and for defamation”, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported last night, following Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to China, where he aimed to prove pressure Beijing over its support for Russia’s wartime economy and to raise the issue of intellectual property theft and fair market access.
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