Germany and the United Kingdom announced on Monday the arrests or charges of five people suspected of spying for China, amid growing fears of Beijing’s aims in the West.
The three people arrested in western Germany, identified as Herwig F., Ina F. and Thomas R., “are strongly suspected of having worked for a Chinese secret service” before June 2022, writes the federal prosecutor’s office.
“Thomas R. worked as an agent for a member of the MSS [ministère de la Sécurité de l’État chinois] located in China. For him, he recovered information in Germany on innovative technologies that could be used for military purposes,” writes the prosecution.
China has “firmly” rejected the German accusations, Chinese state agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
“We ask the German side to stop using accusations of espionage to politically manipulate China’s image and defame China,” the Chinese Embassy in Berlin said in a statement to Xinhua.
For their part, 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.
Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry are both accused of obtaining, collecting, recording, publishing or communicating documents or information “meant to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy”, according to Scotland Yard.
British Parliament
According to press reports from last September, Christopher Cash had contacts with MPs from the ruling Conservative Party while he held a position as a parliamentary assistant.
They included Secretary of State for Security Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
In Germany, the main suspect used the couple Herwig F. and Ina F., who manage a company in Düsseldorf, serving as an intermediary for cooperation with the scientific and research world.
They commissioned a study for a Chinese partner into the technical condition of machine parts that are also important for the operation of powerful ship engines, for example in combat ships.
However, the Chinese partner was none other than the member of the MSS.
At the time of their arrest, the suspects were negotiating other research projects that could be useful in strengthening China’s combat capability, particularly in the maritime domain, according to the prosecution.
In addition, they are suspected of purchasing special laser equipment on behalf of the MSS and then exporting it to China without authorization.
The German Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, welcomed these arrests which come five days after those of two men of Russian and German nationality, suspected of having wanted to commit acts of sabotage against Russia for the benefit of Russia. aid to Ukraine, including on a US army base.
“Very vigilant”
Mme Faeser said German security services were “very vigilant” in the face of the “considerable danger of Chinese espionage in the economic, industrial and scientific fields.”
In its latest report, published at the end of 2023, German military counter-espionage warned of the activities of China, ready to use “cyber espionage and classic espionage measures” to achieve its goal of becoming a great power to the horizon 2049.
A year and a half ago, the leaders of the German secret services also denounced a certain naivety in the country towards China, wishing to appropriate Germany’s economic and scientific know-how.
The suspects in the United Kingdom were arrested last September.
Stressing that this was an “extremely complex investigation into very serious allegations”, the head of the counter-terrorism command Dominic Murphy called for “comment or speculation to be avoided so that the criminal legal process can now take its course “.
While refusing to go into the details of the investigation, the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, then indicated that he had denounced to his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang “interference” from Beijing in the Westminster Parliament.