Federal Prosecutors in Germany Have Accused Three German Citizens of Spying for China
Federal prosecutors in Germany have accused three German citizens of spying for China and of illegally exporting sensitive technology to the Asian nation. According to the charges, one of the accused worked as an agent for a Chinese intelligence service in China, starting in 2017, and in this capacity, together with his two co-defendants, he allegedly acquired information on military-useful innovative technologies in Germany.
The co-defendants, a married couple, allegedly used a company they had established in Düsseldorf to gather information and establish contacts with German companies and scientific institutions. The prosecutors claim that the couple repeatedly gathered information between February 2017 and April 2024 that could be useful for China’s military development, including information on boat engines, sonar systems, aircraft protection systems, tank drive systems, and military-useful drones.
The information is said to have been passed on to the Chinese intelligence service through the first accused, who had a contact at the MSS in China. In one case, the married couple allegedly entered into a cooperation agreement with a German university, initially for a study on the state of the art of bearings, which are used in ship engines, among other things. The Chinese partner behind the agreement was allegedly the MSS employee, and the project was allegedly financed by the Chinese state.