A former aide to a far-right AfD politician is one of five people being held in Germany, charged with passing on sensitive information to Chinese intelligence agencies. Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office filed espionage charges yesterday against the former aide of Maximilian Krah, a far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician, and against a Chinese national. Three others, two men and a woman, were arrested in Düsseldorf and in the town of Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt, also suspected of spying for Beijing.
Jian “G.”, a German citizen (privacy laws require that surnames appear only as an initial), is accused of passing on classified information about European Parliament negotiations and decisions. He is suspected of illegally accessing more than 500 documents classified by the European Parliament as “particularly sensitive” during the time Krah, his boss, had served as an MEP from 2019 to 2025. G., who was arrested in Dresden in April 2024, is also suspected of gathering information on senior AfD figures, among them the party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla.
According to Spiegel magazine, G. acquired insights into their roles and standing within the party based on confidential conversations with Krah. The latter’s Brussels office was searched yesterday – purely as a “witness measure”, according to prosecutors, who have also accused a Chinese national of espionage.
Meanwhile, a woman suspected of being a Chinese intelligence agent who worked for a logistics company at Leipzig/Halle airport has been accused of spying on German military logistics. A Chinese national, she was arrested in November on suspicion of having passed information on flights, freight and passengers at the airport to Krah’s former aide, allegedly concerning people linked to an unnamed German arms manufacturer and about the transport of arms-related goods.
An AfD spokesperson said the party had no information beyond the state prosecutor’s “vague statement”. In contrast, AfD’s Krah said he trusted that a potential trial would bring “clarity” in the matter, telling Germany’s dpa news agency that he would “like to know whether I’ve been deceived and whether these are reliable accusations.” Subsequently, on social media, Krah said the “only thing” he could blame himself for was not having “paid more attention” in his dealings with his “former colleague of Chinese heritage.”
The two men and the woman arrested yesterday in Düsseldorf and Bad Homburg are suspected of having used research projects to access information about military technology to pass on to Chinese intelligence.
