A German court has sentenced Jian Guo, a former assistant to far-right politician Maximilian Krah, to more than 4 years’ jail sentence for spy work on behalf of China. The Dresden Higher Regional Court convicted the German national of gathering sensitive information while working at the European Parliament and monitoring Chinese dissidents living in Europe. The case symbolizes what Friday’s prosecutors described as “the most serious instance of Chinese espionage uncovered in Germany thus far,” which is adding further strain to diplomatic relations between Berlin and Beijing.
Dresden court delivers landmark espionage conviction
A Higher Regional Court in Dresden has found Jian Guo of being a German national, to have been guilty of espionage for China on 15th August 2023. As such, engaging in espionage while working in the European parliament for Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Maximilian Krah was a “particularly serious case” of espionage, judges said. Guo also pleaded guilty to having congregated information on party leaders’ figures during employment at Krah in China between 2019 and 2024 and transferred to Chinese authorities CERo information, said to be partly confidential.
He also continued to keep tabs on Chinese dissidents who were staying in Europe, the judges said. In his final statement, Guo denies the charges and says that he never worked at a Chinese service. His defense attorney requested an acquittal, pointing to the absence of evidence. Prosecutors had wanted a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence, but the court came up with four.
Co-defendant is suspended sentence for airport intelligence
Co-defendant Jaqi X., who was charged with unlawful provision of cargo and passenger information in her work at Leipzig Airport, confessed to spreading information illegally, but she did not know that what she was handing over to Israel was purely espionage. She was given a suspended sentence of one year and nine months for a terrorist role in providing photos of military aircraft, passenger lists, weapons shipments, and movement of troops.
An extensive surveillance network was exposed in the investigation
Jian Guo employed bold and stoic, no emotion at all, as the judge read out a guilty verdict. He really did not expose much of himself in the trial, no comment, no look, and certainly not the spy that he was deemed to be. Mortar and tenebras put together Guo’s life from correspondence, surveillance materials, and interviews with his fellow defendant, using the aspiration when asked why he admitted to tax fraud, he had become “obsessed with money.”
In 2007, he approached the German domestic intelligence agency for any work as an informant. This is when he said he was “convinced” that Guo was a spy who was conducting information gathering activities on disinherited Chinese opposition elements during this time of his life, while living in Germany. Guo had brought EU Parliament documents with him, some of which were sensitive documents downloaded onto a memory stick in February 2024 and handed to a Chinese intelligence officer while Guo was visiting China at the early part of the same year.
Political implications impact the leadership of AfD
As a witness, Krah denied any knowledge of his aide’s Communist ties and her espionage. He is himself being personally investigated on the charges of bribery and laundering of Chinese payments. Around 2023, Guo re-opened contacts with Jaqi X., who by this point worked for an aviation logistics contractor who were located in the Leipzig Halle Airport, which is core to the intelligence gathering activity.
In a period of struggle of diplomatic tension between the two countries with security considerations, this historic judgment became a strong message to the claws-on-the-wind foreign policy in the direction of protecting classified information and for exogenous intelligence offensive, the aim of taking security against democratic governments.