Assistant to MEP arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for China

Jian G. is suspected of having spied on Chinese opponents in Germany and of having shared information on the European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service.

An assistant to a MEP from the German far-right AfD party was arrested in Germany on Monday April 22 on suspicion of spying for China, the federal prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday. Jian G., according to the identity given by German justice, is accused of having spied on Chinese opponents in Germany and of having shared information on the European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service.

On the European Parliament website, Jian G. is part of the list of registered accredited assistants of MEP Maximilian Krah, head of the AfD list in the next European elections. He is a German national, who has worked as an assistant to the elected official in Brussels since 2019. The prosecution specifies that he is notably accused of having “transmitted in January 2024 on several occasions information on the negotiations and decisions of the European Parliament to his client from the intelligence service”.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called“extremely serious” this arrest. “If it is confirmed that Chinese intelligence services spied on the European Parliament from the inside, it would be an attack on European democracy”she said.

Beijing denies outright

“Reports regarding the arrest of an aide to Mr. Krah are very worryingfor its part reacted the AfD. As we currently have no further information on this matter, we must await further investigation by the Attorney General.” For their part, environmentalist MEPs have called for a rapid investigation into foreign interference in the European Parliament. This arrest comes a few weeks after the discovery of an influence network financed by Moscow and targeting the European institution.

Beijing has completely denied these suspicions of espionage, seeing it as a “calumny” specific to “destroy the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe”. “The theory of the threat of alleged Chinese espionage is not a new thing in European public opinion”declared Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy.

The announcement of this arrest comes the day after the arrest of three German nationals suspected of having worked for a Chinese secret service before June 2022. One of them notably “recovered information in Germany on innovative technologies that could be used for military purposes”, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.