The Federal Prosecutor has charged a former employee of AfD politician Maximilian Krah and a suspected accomplice for espionage for a Chinese secret service. The man is said to have repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament and spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany for the intelligence service, the indictment said. He also compiled information about leading AfD politicians.
Jian G., a Chinese -born German citizen, has been an employee of a Chinese secret service since 2002. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office had him arrested in Dresden in April 2024. It accuses him of a particularly severe case of intelligence agent activity. He is said to have procured more than 500 documents, “including some that the European Parliament had classified as particularly sensitive”. In 2023 and 2024, the man spied Chinese opposition and dissidents in Germany. For this, he had appeared on social media as a critic of the Chinese government.
In addition, Jian G. is said to have compiled information about leading AfD politicians, according to Spiegel He apparently created Dossiers in Chinese at the end of 2023/early 2024who are said to have contained detailed assessments of role, status and position of top officials of the AfD, also to the party leader Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla. Jian G. is still in custody.
Maximilian Krah said the Süddeutsche Zeitunghis ex-employee Jian G. did not specifically ask AfD top politicians. “There was nothing. He wasn’t so interested in party internal, he was responsible for foreign trade.” But: “Of course, as an employee in a four-man office, you will receive a lot.” In this case, Krah sees himself as a victim, not as a perpetrator. In the meantime, he has hired a lawyer who carefully checked new employees of his office, said Krah. The AfD politician was sitting in the EU Parliament until early 2025, and was elected to the Bundestag in February.
Shortly after the arrest in April 2024, the Supreme Court of Germany had G. and Krah searched in the European Parliament in Brussels. In doing so, she emphasized that the search by Krah’s offices was “a measure among witnesses”. The European Parliament had approved the entry of the premises.
Chinesin worked for a logistics company at Leipzig Airport
At the end of September, officials from the Federal Criminal Police Office on behalf of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Leipzig arrested a Chinese woman who worked for a logistics service company at Leipzig/Halle Airport. It is said to have passed on information about flights, freight and passengers of the airport to the former Krah employee-it was primarily about transporting armaments and people with connections to a German armaments company. The woman is also suspicious of the intelligence agent activity for a Chinese secret service. She also sits in custody. The Dresden Higher Regional Court must now decide whether it allows the indictment and starts a process.
Krah had that Picture-Zeitung after the arrest of G. said that his employee had only maintained “contacts to official Chinese positions in the message”. After the arrest of the Chinese, he said about the short message service X that there was no connection to his work. The accused only communicated with his ex-employee. “The only allegation that I make in connection with my Chinese-born ex-employee is not to be careful.”
On the same day as G., the federal prosecutor had three more suspected spies for China in Düsseldorf and Bad Homburg. The two men and a woman in Germany are said to have procured information about military technology in connection with research projects in order to pass them on to the Chinese secret service. China rejected the reports of his own spies in Germany and spoke of defamation.
Stricter safety precautions planned
The then Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) warned of further spy cases. The cabinet also decided stricter security checks so that Saboture and informant foreign secret services do not find any access to intelligence services and other security -relevant areas in the state and business.
The amendment to the Security Check Act was no longer advised in the Bundestag before the early Bundestag election. Among other things, she also provided for increased internet research on social networks.
Over time, more about the history of Krah’s ex-employee. G. had tried to work for the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) a few years ago. However, the foreign intelligence service refused to collaboration according to information from the German Press Agency at the time. Later, the man was said to be presented with the Saxon constitutional protection, but where he also did not come into play – also because he was not considered reliable.
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