According to a senior European intelligence official, Beijing is recruiting agents among EU politicians who have demonstrated fealty to Moscow, underscoring their alignment, POLITICO writes.
China and Russia’s “no limits” friendship is getting a trial run in Europe.
Beijing and Moscow’s spy operations, including the recruitment of agents, are increasingly overlapping within the European Union, a senior European intelligence official told POLITICO.
Security analysts point to growing attempts by Beijing to influence EU affairs.
Michal Koudelka, head of the Czech Republic’s domestic intelligence agency said the two powers share similar aims of undermining the West, weakening support for Ukraine and dividing liberal democracies.
“It is not a coincidence that the same entities might serve the interests of both the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China,” Koudelka said. According to Gunnar Wiegand, a former top Asia official at the EU’s diplomatic service, the risk of Chinese intelligence influencing European politics through Russia-cultivated networks that have penetrated the EU’s extreme political parties on the far right and the far left is continuously rising. “This could also be observed recently in the context of the European Parliament elections,” he added.
A recent example of how this cross-recruitment might work is Frank Creyelman, a Flemish nationalist politician. Creyelman was excluded from his Vlaams Belaang party following a bombshell 2023 media report asserting that he accepted payments from a Chinese spy in exchange for carrying out various tasks helpful to Beijing. Creyelman had previously been known for pro-Russian positions, having traveled to Moscow and publicly opposing Western aid for Ukraine.
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