China has rejected allegations that it has been finishing up spying operations in Germany, describing the claims as slanderous.
“The intention behind this hype is kind of apparent, specifically to slander and suppress China and undermine the environment of cooperation between China and Europe,” mentioned a spokesman for the Overseas Ministry in Beijing on Tuesday.
China has at all times adhered to the ideas of mutual respect and non-interference within the inner affairs of different states, the spokesman mentioned. Germany’s “Chilly Struggle mentality” should be overcome, he mentioned, including that emphasizing so-called espionage dangers shouldn’t be misused for political operations towards China.
The remarks comply with the arrest of an worker of the German European Parliament lawmaker Maximilian Krah on suspicion of spying for China, in keeping with safety circles.
Federal prosecutors reported on the arrest in Dresden with out naming Krah, who’s from the far-right AfD. In keeping with prosecutors, the arrested man is alleged to have handed on info from the European Parliament.
Krah was initially unavailable for remark, nevertheless the MEP instructed the Bild newspaper at Strasbourg airport that he solely noticed all of this on his cell phone when he landed. So far as he knew, his colleague had solely maintained “contacts with official Chinese language places of work within the embassy.”
In a sepaerate incident, three suspected spies who had been allegedly working for China had been arrested on Monday in Germany.
The Chinese language embassy in Berlin referred to as on Germany to “cease exploiting the accusation of espionage to politically manipulate the picture of China and defame China,” China’s official information company Xinhua reported on Monday night time.