Berlin invited Chinese diplomat to meet over spying case linked to Hong Kong trade body ex-employee
- Berlin’s Federal Foreign Office tells Post that Chinese embassy’s charge d’affaires invited to urgent meeting after three German nationals arrested over spying
- Trio believed to include Thomas Reichenbach, former marketing manager at Hong Kong Trade Development Council, but body is not subject of investigation
Berlin has invited a senior Chinese embassy official to an urgent meeting after three suspects, allegedly including an ex-employee of a Hong Kong trade promotion body, were arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing, German authorities have told the Post.
“After the espionage allegations became known, we invited the charge d’affaires of the Chinese embassy to an urgent meeting at the foreign office,” a German Federal Foreign Office spokesman told the Post on Monday.
He stopped short of revealing whether the meeting had already taken place or offering further details about the ongoing investigation led by the country’s federal public prosecutor general.
The Post has reached out to the Chinese embassy in Berlin for comment.
In a press release published after the arrests were made on April 22, German prosecutors identified one of the suspects as Thomas R, without revealing his full name.
The other two were listed as married couple Herwig F and Ina F.
