The Higher Regional Court in Dresden convicted Jian Guo, a German national, of espionage for China on Tuesday.
The judges ruled his intelligence activity while working in the European Parliament for far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Maximilian Krah constituted a “particularly serious case” of espionage.
What did the judges decide in the China espionage case?
Judges found that Guo had collected information on party leadership figures while working for Krah between 2019 and 2024, and had transferred partly confidential documents to Chinese authorities. He also monitored Chinese dissidents living in Europe, the judges said.
Guo denied the charges in his final statement, insisting he never worked for a Chinese service. His defense lawyer sought acquittal, citing a lack of evidence. Prosecutors had demanded a seven-and-a-half-year sentence.
Co-defendant Jaqi X., accused of supplying cargo and passenger data from her job at Leipzig Airport, admitted passing information but denied knowledge of espionage. She was given a suspended sentence of one year and nine months.
Krah, who testified as a witness, told the court he was unaware of his aide’s Communist Party membership or covert activities. He himself is under separate investigation for bribery and money laundering related to Chinese payments.
German MP’s ex-aide guilty of spying for China: What to know
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Chinese spy who ‘lived in the darkness’
Jian Guo displayed no emotion as the judge read the guilty verdict aloud. Throughout the trial, he gave little away: no statement, no expression, and certainly no hint of the spy he was found to be.
Piecing together Guo’s life was left to the correspondence, surveillance records, and the testimony of his co-defendant, Jaqi X., who said he was “obsessed with money.”
Guo moved to Germany in 2001 to study. After earning a master’s degree, he worked for various firms before starting an import business.
In 2007, he contacted German domestic intelligence agency, offering to become an informant. The judge said that he was “convinced” that Guo was a spy since around this time, primarily gathering information on exiled Chinese opposition figures living in Germany.
In 2015 Guo made two new friends. One was a Chinese student who had recently arrived in Germany. Guo contacted Jaqi X. via Chinese social media site WeChat, offering to help her settle in. They began an affair, before Guo’s wife found out, causing the relationship to cool off.
Jaqi X. told the court that Guo had told her he was someone “who lived in the darkness.” He would take her to his second apartment, and she wondered where he got the money for it.
‘The most serious instance of Chinese espionage’ in Germany
The other friend was Maximilian Krah, an aspiring politician. Around that time, Guo’s firm hired Krah as a lawyer. The two hit it off.
In 2019, when Krah was elected to represent the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the European Parliament, he asked Guo to work for him as an advisor. Krah said that the job offer was “a sort of arrival in Germany” for Guo.
During an early 2024 visit to China, Guo downloaded EU Parliament documents, some of which were marked as sensitive, onto a USB stick and handed it to a Chinese intelligence officer.
Around 2023, Guo reconnected with Jaqi X., who by that time was working for an aviation logistics firm based at Leipzig Halle Airport. She started sending Guo photographs of military aircraft, passenger lists, and information about weapons shipments and troop movements.
Guo forwarded these messages with Chinese notes attached. In one pertaining to German troops deployed to Hungary, he wrote, “Remains to be seen if they will go to Ukraine.”
Jaqi X. was given a suspended sentence of one year and nine months.
In response to the verdict, prosecutor Stephan Morweiser told reporters that Guo’s case was “the most serious instance of Chinese espionage uncovered in Germany thus far.”
Edited by: Karl Sexton, Dmytro Hubenko
