Berlin/Brussels.
After a spy balloon was shot down over the USA, security authorities warn of China’s secret service activities in Germany too.
It was an unusual measure by the German delegation: when Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) Beijing landed, many of his employees had a new mobile phone with them. Many mobile phones remained on board the Chancellor’s aircraft, other devices were stowed in sealed bags in a box, which was sealed and stored during the visit in China was not neglected. In the China Government phones used should be destroyed after the trip. The federal government’s distrust of China is great.
The President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwangwarned in October against the background of the current conflict with Russia that the greater threat to German security emanated from China: “Russia is the storm, China is climate change.”
In the current report for the protection of the constitution, politics and administration, business, science and technology as well as the military are the targets Chinese espionage called in Germany. China’s thirst for information is not only alarming for German security authorities. China’s espionage activities have also increased massively in other countries in the last ten years.
China: FBI and MI5 warn against espionage
A few months ago, the director of the American FBI, Christopher Wray, and the head of the British secret service MI5, Ken McCallum, sounded the alarm: Chinese espionage is “the greatest challenge for Western intelligence,” they warned at the London MI5 headquarters of the handpicked expert audience.
The FBI chief speaks of a “serious threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States”. The FBI handles thousands of ongoing counterintelligence cases against China, adding an average of two new cases every day.
The British report that the volume of investigations related to China has increased sevenfold since 2018. MI5 boss McCullan says: “Chinese espionage is subtle and patient.” The assessment in Berlin is similar: “We have to assume that China is also trying to spy on our sensitive data in Germany,” said the FDP foreign politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff to our editorial team . Serious efforts are needed to increase the resilience of state institutions and a “China stress test” to determine dependencies in critical infrastructure.
Chinese espionage: the secret service is big and patient
China operates one of the largest and most active intelligence agencies in the world. The focus is on the Ministry for State Security (MSS), which was set up in the 1980s on the model of the Russian KGB and combines foreign espionage, defence, cyber attacks and influence operations under one roof. In Brussels alone, the seat of many EU institutions and NATO, up to 250 Chinese agents are said to be on the move, according to estimates by security officials from the European Foreign Service.
China is also particularly active in Germany in the field of industrial espionage. The MSS proceeds in a targeted and very comprehensive manner. It collects large amounts of personal data from citizens and searches it for potential targets for recruiting sources. For example, Chinese spies at a US Bureau of Security Clearance stole the data of 22 million Americans, including details of personal vulnerabilities.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns of Chinese espionage in business and science
In this country, too, certain people are being specifically targeted by Chinese agents. “In order to implement its ambitious industrial policy, China uses espionage in business and science, buys all or part of German high-tech companies and specifically recruits knowledge carriers,” analyze the German constitutional protection officers.
In a publication on espionage in science and research, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution expressly warns against China’s efforts to gain knowledge about so-called dual-use goods to provide, which can serve both civil and military purposes. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a common procedure is to recruit scientists from Germany, for example in the context of academic events in China.
Also interesting:Germany’s economy is so dependent on China
China’s hacker attacks in Germany: These are the goals
In addition, there is cyber espionage: Chinese hacker attacks in Germany in recent years have been directed primarily against companies in the technology, chemical, shipping and armaments sectors. At first it was for them cyber espionage The intelligence service of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is primarily responsible, but the MSS now also coordinates the military’s cyber activities.
In one of the most spectacular cases, the MSS hackers are said to have broken into hundreds of thousands of servers around the world in 2021 and stolen emails, documents and other data from companies, governments and organizations. Western experts estimate that several hundred thousand analysts are involved in evaluating the huge amounts of data generated by such attacks. FBI chief Wray says the cyber-espionage is “particularly brazen” and more extensive than the activities of all other countries combined.
China’s secret services are also closely monitoring citizens living abroad. In Germany, the Chinese community, members of the opposition living in Germany and members of ethnic groups striving for independence, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, are particularly feeling the effects of Beijing’s long arm. With so-called “overseas police stations”, the Chinese diaspora explored and influenced in Europe and other parts of the world. According to the federal government, there are also two such stations in Germany.
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