BEIJING: Beijing warned Germany on Friday (Jan 10) to stop “exaggerating” the chance of espionage, a day after its prosecutor’s office indicted three people suspected of providing Chinese intelligence with technological information.
German federal prosecutors on Thursday charged three of its residents, identified only as Herwig F, Ina F and Thomas R, with obtaining “information about innovative technologies that could be used for military purposes.”
In a press release, prosecutors said that between February 2017 and April 2024, they “repeatedly collected information that could be particularly useful for increasing China’s maritime combat power.”
Beijing expressed hope on Friday that “Germany will stop promoting the so-called espionage risk from China and will not create obstacles to the healthy and stable development of China-Germany relations.”
“China has always advocated developing China-Germany relations based on the principle of mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s affairs and… compliance with laws and regulations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a daily news conference.
German prosecutors said Thomas R “acted as an agent of a China-based MSS employee” since 2017.
It is alleged that he made contact with a married couple, Herwig F and Ina F, who ran an organization in Dusseldorf within the west of the country.
The group was arrested in April last 12 months and official charges were laid in December.
 to stop "hyping up" spying risks a day after prosecutors there charged three people suspected of supplying technological information to Chinese intelligence. The German federal prosecutor's office accused three of its citizens, identified only as Herw){kind=link}