German prosecutors said Tuesday that an aide to a German lawmaker in the European Parliament had been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
Prosecutors identified the man only as Jian G., in line with German privacy laws, and said he repeatedly passed information about European Parliament negotiations to a Chinese intelligence service.
The man also spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, prosecutors said.
China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday the allegation is an attempt to “smear and suppress China and to destroy the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe.”
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the allegations “extremely serious.”
“If it is confirmed that there was spying for Chinese intelligence from inside the European Parliament, then that is an attack from inside on European democracy,” Faeser said in a statement.
After multiple media outlets identified the accused as an aide to Maximilian Krah of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a party spokesman called the spying allegations “very disturbing.”
"As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors," party spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf said in a statement.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters