The arrest on charges of espionage of a assistant to German MEP Maximilian Krah main candidate of the far-right formation AFD in the next elections for the renewal of the Strasbourg assembly, is the most recent testimony of the Beijing’s widespread and intense intelligence activity in Western countries.But how does this “unofficial” espionage work? Starting from a 2017 rule, which established the obligation for all Chinese citizens living abroad to cooperate by providing information to their country.
In a recent interview with Agi, Cyber Security expert Antonio Teti, author of the essay ‘China Intelligence’, recalls that “thanks to the law on national intelligence passed in 2017, Beijing can explicitly request all Chinese citizens and companies in the country to collaborate with national intelligence structures”.
Here is what the 2017 standard provides: “An organization or citizen must support, assist and cooperate in national intelligence work in accordance with the law and keep national intelligence work known to it confidential.
The State will protect the single organization that has supported, assisted or collaborated in national intelligence work”. It is a statement which, Teti further explains, “certifies, without a shadow of a doubt, that every Chinese company or citizen, wherever it operates, represents a potential information collection platform”. As noted by Alberto Manenti, director of the Aise from 2014 to 2018, citing a comparison made to him by a colleague from the British MI6, Chinese intelligence works like “an anthill”. “Millions of ants busy collecting and storing billions of fragments of a puzzle so vast that we can’t see the design.”