Chinese secret services are trying to obtain important confidential information through Belgium, especially from NATO and the EU, using fake profiles on LinkedIn, De Tijd and L'Echo reported on Tuesday, cited by La Libre.
Thus, the profile of a consultant from Hong Kong recruiting in Belgium was actually hiding spies from Shanghai. Investigative journalists discovered that a recently deleted profile “Kevin Zhang, Project Manager at Oriental Consulting in Hong Kong” was serving as a front for China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing's top intelligence service.
Through this profile, the agents tried to get in touch with civil servants, university professors and other influential personalities involved in strategic files in Belgium, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands or Italy.
Those who fell into the trap were invited, in exchange for remuneration, to write and submit reports, for example on the EU's intended restrictions on Chinese investment in critical raw materials or on NATO's strategy on Taiwan.
These people were pushed to divulge information from closed-door meetings or from inside the EU administration.
Annelies Verlinden, Belgium's justice minister, confirmed that “thanks to an ingenious system developed over the years, various officials, academics and other influential figures around the world were approached by what turns out to be a Chinese intelligence agent.”
This case also shows “that we need to develop significant resilience in the face of this strategy,” she added.
