A distinguished political scientist and university lecturer has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China. According to authorities, he was recruited by Chinese intelligence while lecturing in Shanghai in 2010.

University lecturer arrested for allegedly spying

German federal authorities have arrested and charged a 75-year-old man with spying for China. The man, who has only been identified as Klaus L due to German privacy laws, was allegedly recruited by Chinese intelligence while lecturing at Tonji University in Shanghai in 2010. It is said that he regularly passed information to his Chinese handlers, in return for money and trips to China.

German police arrested the man at his home in November 2019. He had just returned from Italy and was planning on travelling to the airport in Munich, so that he could fly to Macau to meet his Chinese supervisors, when German officers came to the property. After his arrest, the house was searched and several flash drives and computers were confiscated.

Who is Klaus L?

Klaus L has been identified as a semi-retired political scientist and university lecturer, who since 2001 has run the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Munich, a political research institution affiliated with the Christian Social Union (CSU). He then went on to establish the Institute for Transnational Studies. Klaus L has worked for the Hanns Seidel Foundation since the 1980s and often travelled around the world to give lectures. 

It has been reported that Klaus L also worked for the German intelligence service (BND) for around 50 years, working as an “intelligence liaison”. German media claim that Klaus L was a regular visitor at the BND headquarters in Bavaria and had a wide-reaching web of contacts, including those further up the chain of command. It has also been asserted that German intelligence personnel would be present at events at the Institute for Transnational Studies, although it has not been determined whether the institute itself was being used as a front for the security services.

Since his arrest, Klaus has told investigators that once he was approached by Chinese intelligence officials, he informed his supervisors at the BND. He maintains that the BND told him to find out what the Chinese officials wanted, but failed to disclose his subsequent communications. The Chinese intelligence service is said to have then supplied him with encrypted communication devices. Klaus was apparently asked to be at the World Uyghur Congress in Munich, but he refused.

According to the federal prosecutor’s office, a warrant for Klaus L’s arrest was issued on June 21 and he was arrested on Monday. He appeared before the State Protection Senate of the Munich Higher Regional Court later that day.