(TibetanReview.net, Apr27’24) —An aide to a German member of the European Parliament arrested for spying for China was not only a familiar presence in the overseas Chinese pro-democracy movement but had also organized a group visit to the Dalai Lama in India and was well-placed to convey sensitive information to Beijing, reported the Cantonese service of rfa.org Apr 26, citing activists.
German citizen Guo Jian, who has since been suspended from his job as an aide to far-right Member of the European Parliament Maximilian Krah, was reported arrested on Apr 22 by police in Dresden.
Federal prosecutors have said he was working for a Chinese intelligence agency, and that he repeatedly passed to it information on European Parliament negotiations and decisions in January. He is also accused of spying on Chinese dissidents and overseas activists in Germany.
Canada-based writer and activist Sheng Xue has said she had met Guo several times at pro-democracy events, where she noticed he didn’t say much, but spent most of his time observing.
“He was a director of the Federation for a Democratic China and the secretary-general of the China Republican Party, so he knew all of the details of the people who attended their meetings.”
“Guo Jian has been active in the Chinese democratic circle in Germany,” Germany-based rights activist and journalist Su Yutong has, likewise, written in a tweet on Apr 23. Because he had served on those two posts, “people in the democracy movement trusted him a great deal,” and “many well-known democrats have participated in the meetings he helped to prepare.”
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According to Su, Guo had also been “close to Tibetan organizations” and had led a group of people to visit Dharamshala, meet the Dalai Lama there, and shared a photo from the trip.
The report noted that an account of the 2018 visit penned by Guo was still visible on the official Chinese-language website of the Tibetan government-in-exile on Apr 25, confirming Su’s claim, along with the same photo she shared of Guo with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
The report said that in that article, endorsed by the Central Tibetan Administration’s European Liaison Office, Guo had described his visit as “a democratic learning journey,” saying “democracy activists must communicate more with Tibetans and learn about their democratic achievements.”
Sheng sees Guo’s arrest as highlighting the enormity of China’s global reach when it comes to targeting dissidents and activists overseas.
“The Chinese Communist Party has put huge effort into bribing and infiltrating the politics, economy, media and academic life of various countries,” she has said.
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Earlier in 2017, Sweden’s Security Police (SÄPO) arrested a Tibetan refugee named Dorjee Gyantsan, 49, for spying on the Tibetan community in the country as well in nearby countries, such as Denmark, Norway, and Poland, for China’s Ministry of Sate Security. He reported to a handler named Lei Da in meetings in Finland and Poland, where the latter worked as a secretary at the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw.
Dorjee, having fled to Nepal from Tibet in 1997, was a real refugee. He changed his name to Dorjee Gyantsan to reflect his Tibetan ancestry on his mother’s side – his previous name was Abdul Ma, after his father who was a Hui Muslim. He moved to Stockholm in 2002 after being granted refugee status by the UNHCR and offered asylum in Sweden.
Jamyang Choedon, the then head of the Tibetan community organization in Sweden, told Safeguard Defenders at that time that everyone was shocked by his arrest, and about the fact that a spy had been placed in their midst.
Dorjee was sentenced to 22 months for spying on Tibetans in Sweden for China.
After this release from Mariefreds prison in central Sweden on May 14, 2020, SÄPO placed him into custody immediately, remanded him to Sollentuna häkte, one of Sweden’s newest detention centres, just north of Stockholm, and requested his expulsion from the country on the ground that he was a threat to Sweden’s national security. He was not allowed to go home to his family, a wife, and two children.
After the Swedish Migration Board and High Court of Migration agreed in July and September, respectively, Sweden’s Home Minister approved Dorjee’s expulsion for life on Oct 22. However, because of his status as a UNCHR refugee under Swedish law, there were legal hurdles to sending him back to China. And so Dorjee remained in custody awaiting his fate amid a possible prolonged legal wrangling.