A Chinese woman accused of spying on Germany’s defence industry was arrested in Leipzig on Tuesday, October 1st. The woman is “strongly suspected of acting as an intelligence agent for a Chinese secret service,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Named only as Yaqi X., the woman worked for a logistics services company, including at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany. She is alleged to have used her position to gather information on “the transport of military equipment and persons with connections to a German arms company.”
Der Spiegel reported that the 38-year-old had specifically targeted the arms giant Rheinmetall, which is involved in making Leopard tanks and which uses Leipzig airport for cargo flights.
Between mid-2023 and February 2024, Yaqi X. “repeatedly sent information on flights, cargo and passengers at the airport to an employee of a Chinese secret service—namely Jian G., who is being prosecuted separately,” prosecutors said.
The aforementioned Jian Guo was the parliamentary assistant to German MEP Maximilian Krah of the AfD party. Guo was arrested in April on suspicion of espionage and is believed to have obtained information on the European Parliament and Chinese dissidents in Germany.
Allegations of suspicious behaviour involving Jian Guo were first reported by The European Conservative in April of last year when party colleagues drew attention to the assistant’s aggressive lobbying for the Chinese Communist Party, lack of proficient English and German language skills, business connections, and habit of giving outlandish gifts.
Reacting to Tuesday’s arrest, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told the daily Bild that
the arrest of a suspected Chinese spy in Leipzig shows us once again that foreign intelligence services have long had Germany in their sights. This is especially true for intelligence services from countries with which we are in a systemic rivalry.
Tensions have been simmering between Berlin and Beijing over the past year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz unveiled a strategy towards de-risking Germany’s economic relationship with China, calling Beijing a “partner, competitor and systemic rival.”
The espionage scandal comes on the heels of repeated suspected sabotage efforts near German military sites and espionage activities attributed to Russian intelligence. Berlin severed its previously cordial ties with Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two-and-a-half years ago. Germany has armed Ukraine with an array of weapons, including anti-aircraft systems and battle tanks. It also gave its consent for Ukraine to use German weapons against targets inside Russian territory.
