China: How Beijing built a secret network in Germany

China: How Beijing built a secret network in Germany

In order to influence politics, China has specifically built up high-level contacts and supporters in Germany. An excerpt from “ChinaLeaks – Beijing’s secret network in Germany”.

Suddenly the man stood in the middle of her office. She hadn’t seen him come in and wasn’t really expecting anyone else. Strangely enough, reception hadn’t reported the visitor either. The man flashed his badge. Protection of the Constitution? The older woman stared at the stranger and began to tremble. What could the domestic secret service possibly want from her? She had lived in the town in southern Germany for a long time, dutifully did her work in the local city museum and led a good middle-class life. Nothing exciting, everyday German life. She also had no contact with extremist circles or with representatives of questionable dictatorships on the other side of the world. “It’s about your son,” the man said immediately, “but you don’t need to be afraid.” Then he thought for a moment: “At least not yet.”

The informant hoped to be able to contact the son more discreetly through the mother – a correct assumption. Soon afterwards there was a meeting in a European capital. An agent from the counterintelligence department arranged to meet the young man in a café. To protect him, we call him Lutz Heppner. “You haven’t done anything illegal,” the intelligence official assured at the beginning of the meeting, “but I would like to talk to you.” Then the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution immediately got to the point. “The Chinese are interested in you.” This realization did not come as a surprise to Heppner; he had already discovered that himself. And that didn’t seem unusual to him, after all, he had studied Chinese studies. During his time at the university, a total of four years, he lived more in Beijing than in the German city where he was enrolled. And now he was doing his doctorate with a dissertation on the Middle Country, working for a small organization on China, organizing specialist conferences, writing research papers and meeting regularly with other experts. It would have been more worrying if the Chinese had not been interested in him.

Just recently, a representative from the Chinese news agency had him at an evening reception over a glass of champagne Xinhua addressed. The man was surprised at how well Heppner spoke Chinese. He asked him about his doctoral topic and was impressed by the profound knowledge Heppner had about China. At some point he suggested to the German that he… Xinhua was able to write a text once. About three pages. They would pay between 700 and 1000 euros for this. For the doctoral student, the offer didn’t seem excessive. He said he wanted to think about it. Heppner had just submitted his dissertation and was still waiting for the result. The job he did was certainly just a stopgap measure. Let’s see what else is to come. The meeting was only a few days ago. “Last month we discovered 35 attempts to recruit you by Chinese services,” said the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution employee in the café. It hit Lutz Heppner like a punch in the stomach. 35 attempts? In a month? “It went far beyond what I expected,” Heppner recalls today of the meeting with the secret agent.

Source: Stern

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