German justice announced on Tuesday the arrest of a suspected Chinese agent in the heart of the European Union Parliament, fueling fears around Beijing’s espionage before the European elections in June and in strategic sectors. The announcement comes the day after German authorities arrested three nationals, also accused of spying for China, and the indictment of two men in London on similar suspicions.
An extremely serious arrest
The latest suspect, named only Jian G., is accused of having spied on Chinese opponents in Germany and of having shared information on the European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service, indicates the German federal prosecutor’s office in a press release.
On the European Parliament website, Jian Guo is part of the list of accredited assistants to MEP Maximilian Krah, head of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) list in the next European elections on June 9. A German national, he has worked as his assistant in Brussels since 2019. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described the arrest as “extremely serious”.
“If it is confirmed that Chinese intelligence services spied on the European Parliament from the inside, this would be an attack on European democracy,” she said in a statement. European environmentalists have urged the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, to speed up the investigation into the links between certain deputies and foreign powers. “Autocracies like China or Russia actively seek to undermine our democracies in Europe. This must stop,” denounced MP Terry Reintke in a press release.
China cries “slander”
Beijing denied it outright. “The theory of the threat of alleged Chinese espionage is not a new thing in European public opinion,” declared a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin. He deplored a “slander” likely to “destroy the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China in mid-April to strengthen economic ties with this country, Germany’s largest economic partner, and to try to convince Chinese President Xi Jinping to use his influence over his country. Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to put an end to his war of aggression in Ukraine.
According to German justice, “the accused transmitted information on the negotiations and decisions of the European Parliament to his client in the intelligence service on several occasions in January 2024”. Jian Guo was arrested on Monday in Dresden, eastern Germany, and his home was searched.
The German far right in embarrassment
This arrest is a new blow for the AfD, an anti-euro and anti-immigration party, currently in second position behind the conservatives in opinion polls, but whose popularity is crumbling due to several controversies. The information concerning the arrest of an assistant to Maximilian Krah is “very worrying”, declared the party in Berlin.
“I learned of the arrest of my colleague Jian Guo this morning from the press. I have no other information,” reacted Maximilian Krah in a position sent to AFP, adding that he would end working relations with him “if the accusations prove to be founded”.
Among the three German nationals whose arrest had been announced the day before, one notably “recovered information in Germany on innovative technologies that could be used for military purposes”. For its part, the London police announced on Monday the indictment of two men aged 29 and 32 suspected of spying for China between the end of 2021 and February 2023. According to German media, the two cases are not linked. .