Suddenly, Chinese Spies Seem to Be Popping Up All Over Europe

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A flurry of arrests this week bespeak the continent’s recently toughened effect to Beijing’s espionage activities and governmental meddling.

A Chinese emblem  successful  beforehand   of a modern   grey  building.
The Chinese Embassy successful Berlin. Arrests this week successful Germany and Britain suggest not truthful overmuch that Beijing has ramped up espionage enactment but that European countries person stepped up their response. Credit...Markus Schreiber/Associated Press

April 27, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET

One of the men, a young Briton known for his hawkish views connected China, worked arsenic an adjutant to a salient subordinate of the British Parliament. Another, a German national of Chinese descent, was an adjunct to a subordinate of the European Parliament representing Germany’s acold right.

While from antithetic countries and seemingly divergent backgrounds and outlooks, some men became ensnared this week successful accusations of espionage connected behalf of China — and a widening pushback successful Europe against malign Chinese power successful authorities and commerce.

In all, six radical successful 3 abstracted cases person been charged this week successful Europe with spying for China: 2 successful Britain and 4 successful Germany.

On Friday, arsenic the 2 Britons made an archetypal tribunal quality successful London, the U.S. caput of state, Antony J. Blinken, met successful Beijing with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, successful the latest effort by the 2 rivals to support communications unfastened adjacent arsenic disputes escalate implicit trade, nationalist information and geopolitical frictions.

Image

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken with President Xi Jinping of China successful Beijing connected Friday.Credit...Pool photograph by Mark Schiefelbein

The espionage cases successful Britain and Germany, the archetypal of their benignant successful 2 countries that erstwhile cultivated lukewarm relations with Beijing, served arsenic eye-catching exclamation points successful Europe’s long, often anguished breakup with China.


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