Germany arrests married couple on China spying charges

A German flag is fixed on top of the silo of a farm in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

German police on Wednesday arrested a married couple on charges of spying for China, accusing them of seeking information on advanced technology with military uses.

The couple, German nationals partially named as Xuejun C. and Hua S., were arrested in the southern city of Munich, said the federal prosecution service, which alleged that the pair “work for a Chinese intelligence agency.”

Their homes and workplaces in Munich were being searched.

The couple are alleged to have “established contacts with numerous academics at German universities and research institutions, in particular with chairs in the fields of aerospace engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence.”

To make these contacts, the couple are believed to have “posed as interpreters or as employees of an automobile manufacturer.”

Some scientists were then “enticed to travel to China under the pretext of giving paid lectures to a civilian audience,” but actually ended up addressing employees of state-owned arms manufacturers, prosecutors said.

As well as the suspects’ arrests, prosecutors said that “further measures” were being carried out “concerning a total of 10 people who are not suspected of any offence but are potential witnesses” in Berlin, Munich and several other locations across the country.

Latest in string

There have been a number of high-profile recent espionage cases in Germany linked to China.

In February a U.S. citizen was jailed by a court in the western city of Koblenz for offering China sensitive information while working as a civilian contractor at a U.S. military base.

In September a former aide to far-right politician Maximilian Krah was jailed for more than four years after a court found him guilty of acting as an agent for a Chinese intelligence service while working for Krah.

Prosecutors have also opened an investigation into Krah himself over allegations he took money from Russia and China during his time as a European parliamentarian, which he denies.

Earlier this week German Green MP Konstantin von Notz, deputy chief of the intelligence oversight committee, warned of a growing threat from China.

“We are massively underestimating the energy and aggression with which China is acting against the West, including against Europe and Germany,” he told a podcast by the Politico website.

Pointing to China’s ties with Russia, he added that “autocrats have a common interest in forging alliances and sticking together against their supposed enemy,” he said.