FBI and MI5 warn of China
British and American security authorities warn their European partners in emphatic terms of the danger posed by the Chinese intelligence services. China is also focusing on Switzerland, especially Geneva. The FIS is buttoned up. A secret service expert explains what Switzerland is doing about it.
Christoph Bernet / ch media
Palais des Nations – “Focal point of espionage”Image: EPA/KEYSTONE
In the world of secret services, people usually shy away from making a big entrance. It was all the more remarkable when, at the beginning of July, the head of the official domestic secret service MI5, Ken McCallum, and his US counterpart, FBI Director Christopher Wray, appeared together in London. In emphatic words, they warn of the global danger emanating from the “increasingly authoritarian” Chinese Communist Party, the ruler of the People’s Republic.
MI5 boss McCallum said that industrial espionage and western universities are particularly in China’s focus. This year, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency is conducting seven times as many China-related investigations as it did in 2018. The FBI opens two new investigations a day into Chinese activities.
China poses “the greatest long-term threat to the economy and our national security not only to Britain and the US, but also “to our allies in Europe and the rest of the world,” said FBI Director Wray.
“Chinese active in Geneva to a considerable extent”
This also includes Switzerland. And here, too, China’s intelligence services are working on behalf of their government. They are most active in Geneva, the seat of the UN and numerous other international organizations and NGOs. In its most recent situation report from June 2022, the Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) described the city as a “focal point of espionage”.
According to the FIS, various states have recently “built up their intelligence structures” in Geneva. This also has to do with the “increased competition from the great powers”, which the FIS includes the USA, Russia and China. According to the service, espionage activities in Geneva are likely to intensify.
The FIS does not answer detailed questions from CH Media about Chinese intelligence activities in Switzerland. Neither does the Swiss secret service reveal how it assesses the warnings from the FBI and MI5: “Basically, the FIS does not comment on statements from secret services from third countries,” writes media spokeswoman Carole Wälti. Espionage activities have been a main focus of the service for a long time:
“However, the FIS does not comment on individual cases or on its operational activities and procedures.”
German intelligence expert and publicist Erich Schmidt-Eenboom. “The Chinese are very active in intelligence in Geneva,” he told CH Media on the phone. According to Schmidt-Eenboom, China has stationed intelligence officers disguised as diplomats in the Rhone city in third place after Russia and the USA.
Their main focus is on the UN and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the surveillance and infiltration of dissident members of the opposition and NGOs. In addition, the Chinese intelligence services have always been “very active in supporting their country’s economic interests abroad.”
«The FIS knows its Pappenheimer»
This assessment seems to be shared by the intelligence service. At least spokeswoman Carole Wälti refers to a passage from last year’s FIS management report.
China uses “a significant part of its intelligence resources to educate domestic and foreign economic actors as well as communities and individuals detected as a threat,” it says in technical jargon. In addition, Wälti refers to a seven-page focus on China from the FIS status report from 2016. There the increased “economic and ideological influence” of China in Switzerland is mentioned.
The FIS does not reveal whether Switzerland has recently expelled Chinese diplomats from the country because of their intelligence activities. Intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Enboom describes such measures as a “double-edged sword”. On the one hand, they would result in aggressive countermeasures.
In view of this, from the point of view of counterintelligence, it is often more advantageous to tolerate the presence of well-known intelligence services in one’s own country, whose procedures and networks are at least partially known:
“The FIS runs a considerable observation effort and knows its Pappenheimer.”
If you expel them, simply send China new agents disguised as diplomats and the FIS’ work will start all over again, says Schmidt-Enboom.
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