China Boosts Efforts to Recruit Spies in EU’s Czech Republic
China Boosts Efforts to Recruit Spies in EU’s Czech Republic
(Bloomberg) -- The Czech Republic’s top intelligence agency warned that China increased its efforts to recruit agents and destabilize state institutions last year as it and Russia continued to threaten the nation’s security.
Diplomatic ties between China and the European Union and NATO member have soured over a dispute between Beijing and Prague over the “One-China Principle“ in regards to the sovereignty of Taiwan and Tibet. At the same time, President Milos Zeman is an enthusiastic promoter of closer economic ties with China and a vocal supporter of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The central European country of 10.7 million is a hotbed of intelligence activity, with Russia and China using it as a prospective foothold to boost their influence in Europe. Both powers engaged in cyber attacks against state institutions, and they remain major threats to national security, the Czech Intelligence Service said in a report published Tuesday about espionage activity in 2018.
The service noted the “increased activity of Chinese intelligence officers that can be definitely assessed as searching and contacting potential collaborators and agents among Czech citizens.”
In particular, it outlined a growing number of invitations to Czech professionals, students, state officials and academics to participate in training, seminars and tourism in China. The costs of the events were to be paid by Beijing, whose agents also contacted people via the social media site LinkedIn.
Chinese agents also “maximized” efforts to collect information about Czech political and economic relations with Taiwan, in order to weaken them, the report said.
The Czech Republic’s relation with Taiwan triggered the Beijing-Prague dispute, with the latter withdrawing from a sister-city agreement when China refused to remove mention of the One-China Principle from their deal.
The Czech capital has also long been a bastion of support for Tibet, with late President Vaclav Havel and other politicians hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama -- to the disapproval of Beijing.
In December, the Czech government’s cybersecurity agency also issued a directive warning that the Chinese company Huawei presented a security threat.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lenka Ponikelska in Prague at lponikelska1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Peter Laca, Michael Winfrey
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