A Chinese citizen was detained on suspicion of espionage at a naval base in Germany.

This was reported by Reuters news agency.

He was captured on December 9 at the German Navy base in Kiel. The man was carrying a camera.

Prosecutors accuse him of taking pictures of military facilities.

Karola Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the Schleswig-Holstein Criminal Investigation Department, said that law enforcement officials had opened an investigation.

“We have opened an investigation into the Chinese man who was found in the seaport,” she stated.

It is noted that the case is being investigated amid increased attention to security threats from China.

The city of Kiel is located on the shores of the Kiel Bay of the Baltic Sea. It is home to one of the three flotillas of the German Navy and a dry dock where ThyssenKrupp builds submarines.

Other arrests

In October, Militarnyi reported on the detention in Leipzig of a Chinese citizen who was then accused of spying for arms supplies. Law enforcement suspected that she was an intelligence agent for the Chinese secret service.

She was then identified as Yaqi X., who used her position to gather information about “the transportation of military equipment and people associated with a German arms company.”

According to the German prosecutor’s office, Yaqi X. worked for a company that provides logistics services at Leipzig-Halle Airport. It is an important logistics center for the German military industry, from where arms exports are carried out, including military cargo for Ukraine.

From mid-August 2023 to mid-February 2024, Yaqi X. allegedly provided the information she collected to another suspect of working for Chinese intelligence, Jian G. The information concerned flights, cargo and passengers at the airport, as well as the transportation of military equipment.