Europe ill-prepared to counter China espionage push: analysts

AFP | Paris     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

China is rapidly emerging as a major spying superpower and its agents are becoming increasingly bold, in a shift that Europe has so far been slow to counter, analysts say.

This week’s cases of alleged Chinese espionage in Germany and Britain are the latest reminder of Beijing’s immense intelligence network and its ability to penetrate into the heart of European capitals.

In the run-up to European elections, Germany and the United Kingdom announced Monday that five people had been arrested or charged on suspicion of spying for China. And on Tuesday German prosecutors announced that an aide to a far-right member of the European Parliament had been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

There is no immediate evidence to link those cases, or to explain the timing of the announcements. But the accusations have come on the heels of multiple Western warnings of Chinese intelligence services seeking to spy on European economies and companies, penetrate educational establishments, and shape public opinion. China has strongly denied the claims of wrong-doing.

“There is a long tradition of Chinese intelligence geared towards capturing information assets, patents and strategic intellectual resources,” Alexandre Papaemmanuel, a Paris-based intelligence expert, told AFP. For a long time, Europe has turned a blind eye. “Awareness was late in coming, partly due to naivety and excessive confidence in a somewhat utopian form of globalisation,” he said.