Germany accuses Russia, China, others of espionage

The intelligence service of the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg on Monday accused Iran, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Russia and China of espionage activities.

The Jerusalem Post’s review of the 181-page intelligence document authored by German officials shows that Syria’s regime is believed to have exploited migration waves to maximize its covert activities in Germany. Jordan, which has previously not appeared in prior intelligence documents, engaged in espionage there.

“With the progressive stabilization of the regime in the civil war, the Syrian intelligence services are again able to work at home and abroad. The main task remains to research opponents of the regime. This includes Islamist groups as well as secular and Kurdish opposition groups. With the migration movements in recent years, both opponents and supporters of the regime have come to Germany. The number of references to spying attempts among Syrians living here has been increasing for years. It can be assumed that the Syrian services will also use the migration movement to infiltrate agents,” said the report.

The intelligence report stated that, “States such as India or Jordan, which previously had little or no focus on security agencies in Germany, also developed intelligence activities. In Russia and

China in particular, the intelligence services are now increasingly turning their attention to people who are there for a long time, professionally or privately. These include, in particular, family members of diplomatic missions and government officials, company representatives, academics or students.”

The report did not outline the nature of the Jordanian state espionage activities.

The report said “The advancing digitization in administration and economy and the increasing networking of industrial production with the latest information and communication technology open up new opportunities for espionage. Various locations in Baden-Württemberg have been in focus in the past year for suspected intelligence-led cyberattacks. Russia remains unchanged in this area; China and Iran are the main players.”

The main actors in the sectors of electronic warfare and cyberattacks are Russia, Iran, China and Turkey.

“In Baden-Württemberg, it became known that suspected Chinese intelligence officials had spied on Uighur asylum-seekers from China in order to transmit the data obtained to the Chinese authorities,” wrote the intelligence officials.

Germany’s foreign ministry has tended to avoid confrontation with countries that engage in espionage within the territory of the federal republic.