An aide to a German far-right member of the European Parliament has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German prosecutors said yesterday, deepening concerns about foreign interference ahead of June’s EU elections.
The allegations, coming a day after three other people suspected of spying for China were detained in Germany, sparked an angry reaction from Beijing, which said the arrest was designed to “smear and suppress” China.
It was also a new blow for the far-right party AfD, which has been battling a series of scandals, including claims that some of its members have links to Russia.
Photo: AFP
The suspect, identified only as Jian G, stands accused of sharing European Parliament information with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The European Parliament lists Jian Guo as an accredited assistant to Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s lead candidate in the forthcoming EU-wide elections.
Guo is a German national who has reportedly worked as an aide to Krah in Brussels since 2019.
Prosecutors said the suspect “is an employee of a Chinese secret service.”
“In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament,” they said. “He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.”
German Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser called the allegations “very serious” and demanded a thorough investigation.
“If it is confirmed that spying for China is happening from the European Parliament, then that is an attack on European democracy from within,” she said.
An AfD spokesman described the allegations as “very disturbing” and said the party had no further information about the case.
Krah said that he had found out about his aide’s arrest from the media.
“Spying for a foreign state is a serious allegation. Should the allegations prove to be true, this would result in an immediate termination of employment,” he said in a statement.
Lawmakers in the European Parliament’s left-wing Greens group called on the parliament to speed up a probe into links between MEPs and foreign powers.
“Citizens will vote for the European Parliament in less than seven weeks. They need to be 100 percent sure that the candidates standing in the elections are democratically working for Europe — and not for Russia, China or any other authoritarian regime,” European Greens lead candidate Bas Eickhout said.
According to research by German broadcasters ARD, RBB and SWR — who first broke news of the arrest — Guo is no stranger to German intelligence. He reportedly offered his services as an informer at least a decade ago, but was turned down on suspicion he might be a Chinese double agent.
The Guo case comes after Germany on Monday arrested three German nationals suspected of spying for China by providing access to secret maritime technology, allegations strongly rejected by the Chinese embassy in Berlin.
In the UK on Monday, two men were charged with passing information to China between 2021 and last year. One of the suspects previously worked in Britain’s parliament as a researcher.
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