The arrest of a Chinese woman in Germany’s leipzig town on suspicion of passing information about leipzig/halle airport to Chinese intelligence has come as huge embarrassment for the Xi government.
The Leipzig is known for being a key transport hub for the German defence industry. The development has brought back the focus on China’s involvement in spying activities abroad and within the country.
Identified as Yaqi X (38), the German authorities said that Yaqi had been working for a company providing logistics services at the airport.
The prosecutors said she had repeatedly sent details on flights, passengers and military cargo transport to another figure who worked for china’s secret services.
Yaqi X’s case appears to be linked to a spying case that unfolded last April involving parliamentary aide Jian g. Jian g, detained earlier this year had worked as an aide for a member of the European parliament from Germany’s far-right afdparty.
This development has raised global concern as the authorities use Airport for defence exports particularly to Ukraine.
And Mr Xi himself spent much of his political career in Fujian province – just across the ocean from Taiwan – which is perhaps the epicentre of China’s intelligence efforts given its proximity to the island nation that China claims as its own territory.
It is not an isolated incident. In June, British’s Intelligence Agency MI5 had branded a woman Chinese spy stating that she was a threat to the nation’s security.
In January 2022, the domestic spy agency MI5 sent out an alert notice (IA) about lawyer Christine Lee, alleging she was “involved in political interference activities” in the United Kingdom on behalf of China’s ruling Communist Party.
The unprecedented warning, circulated to lawmakers, said that Lee had “facilitated financial donations to serving and aspiring parliamentarians on behalf of foreign nationals based in Hong Kong and China”.
Available reports suggested that Lee, along with her son, were suing the spy agency on the ground that it had acted unlawfully.
The issue hit international headlines because of the sensitivity of the case and adversely affected the relations between London and Beijing.
According to the UK based Telegraph article, when the issue came to light that two men – one of them a British parliamentary researcher – had been arrested for spying.
Prompted by the development, the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that he was “acutely aware” that China posed a threat to the UK’s “open and democratic way of life”.
The arrests had followed a rare “parliamentary interference alert on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party” issued last year by the domestic security service MI5 about the activities of a UK-based lawyer, Christine Lee, who was publicly named as an “agent of influence”.
Lee, who arrived in Britain in 1974 aged just 11, and became legal adviser to the Chinese embassy in 2008, had donated almost half a million pounds to the office of Labour MP Barry Gardiner, with her son working for his office.
Ironically, China has been known for employing beautiful female spies — the dreaded “honeytrap” method — and blackmail to steal business secrets from French executives, reported the Week quoting leaked French intelligence files.
And it wouldn’t be the first time that China has used such tricks to gain access to privileged information the magazine reported.
China has used this technique in UK and several other countries. The week reported that in early 2010, Britain’s MI5 accused the Chinese government of using honeytrap schemes to hack into corporate British computer networks.
Two years earlier, MI5 had distributed a document titled “The Threat from Chinese Espionage” to security officials, British banks, and businesses, explicitly warning executives of honeytraps and subsequent blackmail attempts: “Chinese intelligence services have also been known to exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships and illegal activities to pressurize individuals to cooperate with them,” it read.
“Hotel rooms in major Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai which have been frequented by foreigners are likely to be bugged. Hotel rooms have been searched while the occupants are out of the room.”
Embarrassed by the recent incidents involving women Chinese spy, China got into damage control to divert the global attention recently issued an advisory to its citizens abroad.
China’s state security agency recently warned students with access to sensitive information against falling for “handsome men” or “beautiful women” that might entice them to spy for foreign powers.
Experts pointed out that the pattern of spying activity comes from the Chinese top leadership. The daily reported that influence work runs through Xi’s family history.
To China, policies conducted abroad are all about supporting internal interests – preserving its own national security and domestic stability.
His father, Xi Zhongxun, was key in such work involving Tibet, seeking to influence figures like the Dalai Lama. Two of his siblings were also involved in political warfare work on behalf of the military, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
And Mr Xi himself spent much of his political career in Fujian province – just across the ocean from Taiwan – which is perhaps the epicentre of China’s intelligence efforts given its proximity to the island nation that China claims as its own territory.
“The goal is the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” said Peter Mattis, president of the Jamestown Foundation, a US defence policy think tank, and former CIA analyst. “For them, it’s about ‘how do we shape the world in ways that moves the Party closer to its objectives?’ ”
And those objectives are many and varied: from culling pesky votes on the UN Security Council; pushing nations away from Taiwan; silencing criticism over human rights abuses in Xinjiang; to encouraging greater global trade dependency on China.
To China, policies conducted abroad are all about supporting internal interests – preserving its own national security and domestic stability.
However, the global community is keeping a close eye on China which is known for being unpredictable in spying activities within the country and abroad.
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