German authorities have arrested a Chinese national accused of passing information on a major air freight hub to a man who is suspected of spying for China, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
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The woman, identified only as Yaqi X. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in the eastern city of Leipzig on Monday, federal prosecutors said in a statement. She is suspected of working for a Chinese intelligence service, providing information on flights, freight including military equipment and passengers.
The suspect works for a company that provides logistical services at sites including the Leipzig/Halle Airport, prosecutors said. The airport handles both passengers and freight but is known principally as a cargo hub.
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They alleged that, between August 2023 and mid-February this year, she repeatedly passed information to Jian Guo – a German national who was an aide to far-right European Parliament lawmaker Maximilian Krah and was arrested in April. That, prosecutors said, included above all information on the transport of military equipment and of people with connections to a German defence company, which they didn’t identify.
