Germany charges academic's wife with spying for China

Couple allegedly shared information with Beijing for nearly a decade

The couple reportedly were first approached by Chinese spies in Shanghai in June 2010.

The wife of a German political scientist accused of spying for China has herself been charged with sharing information with Beijing.

Prosecutors in Germany say that German-Italian citizen Klara K assisted her husband Klaus L in passing information to the Chinese intelligence services.

They allege that the couple were first approached by Chinese spies at a lecture in Shanghai in June 2010.

From then until November 2019, the pair “regularly passed on information to the Chinese intelligence service in the run-up to or after state visits or multinational conferences”, it is claimed.

They gathered intelligence via the high-level contacts that Klaus L had built up since establishing a think tank in 2001.

Chinese spies allegedly paid for the trips and for the couple to travel to meetings with their handlers.

Although the home of Klaus L was searched in November 2019, it was only until earlier this year that he was formally charged.

German public broadcaster ARD has claimed that the 75-year-old academic had also worked for Germany’s intelligence services for decades, although it is not known if China was aware of this reported link.