An aide to a far-right German member of the European Parliament has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, in the latest espionage case to come to light in Germany.
The suspect, an employee of lawmaker Maximilian Krah of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), is said to have passed on information from the European Parliament to China, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors reported the arrest in Dresden on Tuesday, without linking the arrest to Krah, who is the AfD's top candidate in upcoming European elections. Prosecutors said the suspect had also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany.
Krah initially reacted cautiously to reports of the arrest.
"I learned of the arrest of my colleague Jian Guo this morning from the press," he wrote on X.
"I have no further information. Spying for a foreign state is a serious accusation. Should the allegations prove to be true, this would result in the immediate termination of his employment."
The AfD party leadership has scheduled a crisis meeting, and Krah is on his way to Berlin, party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla announced on Tuesday afternoon.
"We will sit down with him this evening or tomorrow morning at the latest," said Chrupalla. "We see it as absolutely worrying if, of course, an employee here has been detained."
Chrupalla and Weidel did not respond to questions from journalists as to whether Krah was still the right person to be the AfD's top candidate for the European elections.
"The reports about the arrest of an employee of Mr Krah on suspicion of espionage are very worrying. As we currently have no further information on the case, we must await further investigations by the Federal Public Prosecutor General," said the AfD's federal office on Tuesday.
China, meanwhile, rejected allegations that it had been carrying out spying operations in Germany, describing the claims as slanderous.
"The intention behind this hype is quite obvious, namely to slander and suppress China and undermine the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing on Tuesday.
China has always adhered to the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, the spokesman said. Germany's "Cold War mentality" must be overcome, he said.
The announcement of the political aide's detention comes a day after three Germans were arrested in western Germany on suspicion of spying for the Chinese secret service.
They were suspected to have been discussing research projects that could be useful for the expansion of China's maritime combat power, according to the prosecutors.
Last week, two German-Russian nationals were arrested in southern Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described the latest espionage allegations on Tuesday as "extremely serious."
"If it is confirmed that spying for Chinese intelligence services was taking place from within the European Parliament then this is an attack from within European democracy," Faeser said in Berlin.
The accusation of spying on members of the Chinese opposition in Germany is just as serious, she said.
"Anyone who employs such an employee also bears responsibility for this," Faeser said.
"All connections and backgrounds must be investigated. Our security authorities, above all the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution [domestic intelligence agency], have massively strengthened their counter-espionage measures."
They are protecting themselves against hybrid threats from Russia, but also against espionage from China, she said. "The current investigative successes show that."
