German think tank chief’s wife also charged with passing secrets to China

Prosecutors say Klara K assisted her husband Klaus L in passing information to Chinese intelligence from 2010 to 2019

German media said the husband had also been a spy for Germany’s foreign intelligence services (BND) and did not deny spying for China

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The Chinese flag flies in front of the country’s embassy in Berlin. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:19pm, 2 Aug 2021Updated: 1:57am, 3 Aug 2021

The wife of a German academic charged with spying for China has been indicted herself, with federal prosecutors on Monday saying she assisted her husband in sharing information with Chinese secret services.

According to prosecutors in Karlsruhe, German-Italian national Klara K and her husband Klaus L were approached by Chinese agents during a lecture tour to Shanghai in 2010.

From then until November 2019, the couple “regularly passed on information to the Chinese intelligence service in the run-up to or after state visits or multinational conferences”, prosecutors allege.

Klaus L had been running a political think tank since 2001, gaining international importance due to his scientific reputation and the networks he had built up over many years, the prosecutors said.

The pair obtained information primarily from his numerous high-ranking political contacts, they said. Chinese intelligence allegedly paid for the tips and for the pair to travel to meetings with their handlers.

Neither Klaus L nor his wife are in pre-trial detention.

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