Three people with German citizenship were arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for the Chinese secret service. Just a few days ago, two suspected Russian saboteurs were arrested. Claudia Kade, head of politics at the German newspaper “Welt”, explains the background.
SRF News: There have been several espionage cases in Germany in the last few days. What’s going on in Germany?
Claudia Kade: Germany has taken on a new role, especially when we talk about Russian espionage. Germany is the second largest arms supplier to Ukraine. This means that it is also becoming more of a focus for Russian secret services. When we talk about Chinese espionage, Germany is also under strong pressure from its international partners.
The USA in particular expects Germany to be more vigilant.
The USA in particular expects Germany to be more vigilant, act more sensitively and also take a tougher approach, especially against Chinese espionage attempts. These cases that we are experiencing now are part of these twofold changes in Germany’s role – on the one hand in the international context and on the other hand, its own vigilance, which is being increased.
The German secret service discovered or prevented two espionage cases within a short period of time. How do you rate this performance, especially after the recent arrests?
Performance is a good keyword. I think that the German secret services, both domestic and foreign, are under a bit of pressure. Because here in Germany we are currently having a trial against an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service, i.e. the foreign secret service, and against one of his accomplices. This employee of the Federal Intelligence Service is said to have passed on documents to Russia directly from the secret service.
It’s also a bit about the German security authorities and secret services showing once again that they have clout.
This is of course a worst case scenario and actually an embarrassment for the intelligence service. It’s also a bit about the German security authorities and secret services showing once again that they have clout and that they can proactively uncover things themselves. Now that this really, really blatant case of alleged espionage is in court.
Would you say that the current arrests are at best understood to mean that Germany now wants to take a tougher course against China?
I guess so. Germany wants to curb its dependencies on China in an economic context and is therefore not quite on the same political path as the German economy sees it. The political side, specifically the federal government, actually wants to reduce dependencies more than the German business representatives actually want to implement.
The fact that the German authorities are now taking the lead, so to speak, and saying: ‘We are really serious about what politicians want, we are implementing it, we are actually taking tougher and more vigilant action against Chinese espionage attempts’ is also a signal to the business representatives : ‘We take this seriously, please do the same and think about how you can actually protect yourself from dependence on the Chinese regime’.
The interview was conducted by Can Külahcigil.