The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) arrested three German nationals in the western German cities of Düsseldorf and Bad Homburg for allegedly working for the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS).
“Thomas R”, “Herwig F”, and “Ina F” allegedly funneled innovative German technologies through a front company to the Chinese military to build powerful ship engines for combat vessels in violation of the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act. The three were brought before German magistrates within 24 hours of their arrest and rendered ineffective.
One of the accused was allegedly in further negotiations about other research projects for the Chinese navy. He also obtained a special laser in Germany and exported it to China without authorization. In 2021, two Stuttgart companies were tasked to build, test, and field a high-energy laser weapon system for the German Navy.
So pervasive is the Chinese espionage threat to the US, in October 2021 CIA was compelled to establish a dedicated China Mission Center (CMC). By contrast, during the Cold War with the USSR the CIA, NSA, DIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA) were sufficient to deal with Soviet espionage without resorting to such an unprecedented allocation of IC resources.
Sources: www.dw.com/… foreignpolicy.com/...
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