Did employees of AfD politician Krah spy for China?

The police are following ARD-Information a man was arrested in Dresden on suspicion of espionage. This is an employee of the AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, Krah. The man is said to have spied for China.

Jian G. was arrested that night in Dresden. According to information from ARD capital studio, RBB and SWR the Federal Prosecutor General accuses the 43-year-old of acting as a secret service agent for a foreign power – specifically, G. is said to have worked for the Chinese secret service.

Information passed on from the EU Parliament

G. works as an assistant for the AfD European MP Maximilian Krah and is said to live in both Brussels and Dresden. The investigators assume that in this role he transmitted information from parliamentary operations to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS). Above all, they accuse him of spying on Chinese opposition members in Germany.

G. has been no stranger to the German security authorities for over ten years: According to research, he is said to have offered himself to them as an informant at least ten years ago. However, there apparently was no collaboration. At the time, he was considered unreliable and a possible double agent for China.

Krah has apparently had relations with China for a long time

G. has been a German citizen for several years, but has Chinese roots. He came to Dresden in 2002 as a student and eventually worked as a businessman. He was temporarily a member of the SPD. Over the years, he is said to have met Maximilian Krah, who worked as a lawyer in Dresden, in connection with setting up a company.

Last year, the news portal t-online was the first to report on Krah’s dubious relationships with China, as well as on his assistant G. and the founding of companies and associations with a connection to China. When Krah entered the European Parliament for the AfD in 2019, he hired G. as an assistant.

In this role, he had access to information from parliamentary operations, which would undoubtedly have been of great value to the Chinese secret service.

No connection to Monday’s arrests

G. has also been active in the Chinese opposition movement abroad for many years. He is said to have used this connection to spy on Chinese opposition figures for the Chinese secret service.

G’s arrest is the second within 24 hours that is said to be related to secret service agent activity for China. On Monday, the federal prosecutor’s office arrested two men and a woman who are suspected of being in contact with the Chinese secret service and spying for China. However, the two cases are apparently not related.