A former aide to a far-right German EU lawmaker is charged with spying for China

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This article was published 29/04/2025 (483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BERLIN (AP) — A man who worked for a prominent German far-right lawmaker in the European Parliament has been charged with spying for China for more than four years, authorities said Tuesday.

The office of the federal prosecutor accused Jian Guo of working for a Chinese intelligence service and of repeatedly passing on information on negotiations and decisions in the EU Parliament between September 2019 and April 2024, when he was arrested.

He also allegedly snooped on Chinese dissidents in Germany.

Guo, a German citizen, remains in custody. The federal prosecutor has named him as Jian G., in line with the country’s privacy rules. His former boss, far-right lawmaker Maximilian Krah, previously identified him. Krah did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

The federal prosecutor alleges that Guo obtained more than 500 documents, including some that the EU Parliament had classified as particularly sensitive, for the Chinese intelligence service, his employer since 2002.

Guo also allegedly gathered information on prominent politicians with the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

A Chinese citizen who worked for a company that provides logistics services, identified as Yaqi X., was also charged. She allegedly helped Guo by providing him with information regarding flights, cargo and passengers at Leipzig Airport. She passed along information about military equipment transport as well as details about people with connections to a German arms company, the federal prosecutor said.

China’s foreign ministry last year said reports in Europe about Chinese spying are all “hyping up with an aim to smear and suppress China.”

Guo’s arrest cast an unflattering light on the AfD, which already faced criticism for having Russia-friendly positions.

Krah at the time had been AfD’s top candidate in the European Parliament elections, which occurred last June. Krah said there was no wrongdoing on his part and vowed to investigate.

The party banned him from the EU elections weeks later after he told an Italian newspaper that not all members of the Nazis’ elite SS unit, which was involved in major war crimes during World War II, were war criminals.

Still, he won a seat in the German parliament earlier this year as part of the party’s historic gains in the Bundestag during the national election.

AfD’s second-place finish cemented the party’s status as a factor that other politicians can’t ignore, but mainstream German parties have upheld the so-called “firewall” by refusing to work with it.