Agent of Two Faces. A Chinese assistant to an AfD MEP also reported to the Germans, the file revealed

The scandal surrounding the assistant to the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate Maximilian Krah in the European Parliament elections shook the German political scene. The German MEP, however, remained the number one candidate and already this week announced that he would fire his assistant, German-Chinese citizen Jian Kuo, who was detained by the police and accused of spying for Beijing. The newspaper Bild has now brought information from Jian Kuo’s file not only about his career in the secret services, which shows that he worked as a spy for both Beijing and Berlin.

The German police detained Jian Kuo in Dresden on Monday, April 22, on suspicion of spying for China, who was supposed to pass on information about the proceedings of the European Parliament and the activities of the Chinese opposition. However, according to the dossier, the content of which was published by the Bild newspaper, Jian Kuo was no newcomer to the German secret services.

He came to Dresden in 2001 and studied German language and history at the university there. He finished his studies in 2009, during which time his daughter was born in 2007, who currently attends a public school in Dresden. After graduating, Jian Kuo founded a company for the import and distribution of Chinese LED lights and light panels on behalf of his aunt. He himself was an employee of the company whose executive was his aunt, but after her retirement in 2012, Jian Kuo became the head of the company, which he renamed LEUDUS Electronics GmbH.

In 2007, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) informs the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV) in Saxony about Jian Kuo as a potential informant. A man originally from China had offered himself as an informant before, but the German intelligence services were not interested in him at the time. But that changed in 2007, and after an approval process, Jian Kuo was registered as an informant in December 2007.

He was supposed to provide the German secret service with information about the suspicious activities of Chinese intelligence services in Germany. His information was mainly focused on Beijing’s activities against supporters of the Chinese opposition living in Germany. He subsequently provided information on persons, companies, organizations and groups operating in Germany and Europe with possible contacts to Chinese intelligence services. According to the file available to the Bild newspaper, Jian Kuo did not receive any orders from the Germans.

After eight years since the beginning of cooperation with the German intelligence service, doubts about the credibility of Jian Kuo have increased. And it became clear to the secret services that Jian Kuo was working as an informant for Beijing, and the cooperation with the German intelligence service was only a cover. Thus, Jian Kuo begins to be monitored by the BND.

In 2016, Jian Kuo is then interrogated. However, the suspicion that he was a Chinese agent could not be refuted or substantiated. Since then, Jian Kuo has been treated as a suspicious case. Already in 2014, Jien Kuo approached the then young promising politician – Maximilian Krah for the first time with a proposal for cooperation. He wanted to finish his doctoral studies and find a job “in an area that is of interest to the Chinese intelligence services”.

In 2018, due to a lack of evidence, the Saxon intelligence services stop monitoring him, but the Federal Office of the Activities of Jien Kua continues to monitor the stables. But then the young Chinese drew attention to himself again – he traded his business life for the job of Maxmilian Krah’s assistant, and the German secret services are starting to take an interest in him again.

Even before Jian Kuo became Krah’s adviser, he organized several trips to China for the German politician, brokered contacts and founded and managed a lobby group. In 2019, several phone calls between Jian Kuo and an adviser from the Chinese embassy in Berlin were intercepted. So the intelligence services start monitoring Jian Kuo again. Their work culminated on April 22, 2024, when Jian Kuo was arrested.

Another scandal for the AfD

The leader of the AfD candidate in the European Parliament elections, Maxmilian Krah, then wrote on the X social network that if the accusations were confirmed, he would immediately fire his colleague. “I learned about the arrest of my colleague Jian Kuo this morning from the press. I have no further information. Espionage for a foreign state is a serious charge. If these allegations prove to be true, it would mean immediate termination of employment,” said Krah.

AfD co-presidents Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidelová repeatedly avoided answering whether Krah is the right party leader for the European elections at the afternoon press conference. They did not even say at the time whether Krah would participate in the beginning of the election campaign. However, several representatives of other German parties called on Krah to withdraw from the European Parliament candidate.

Despite this, the Alternative for Germany launched a campaign ahead of the June European Parliament elections on Saturday. The leader of the Krah candidate did not participate in the event. Although the AfD was competing with the conservatives for the top spots in German opinion polls at the beginning of the year, it has recently started to decline, even before Krah’s aide was arrested.

The second European candidate, Petr Bystroň, did not participate in the official launch of the campaign either. The Czech daily Deník N and the German weekly Der Spiegel reported at the end of March that the Czech Security and Information Service (BIS) suspected him of accepting bribes from an influential Russian organization. Bystroň called these accusations part of a campaign against his person. Krah said he remains the front runner but will play a lesser role in the campaign. At this stage, the party candidate lists are already final and cannot be changed.