El País: China expands its spy networks across the European Union and beyond

According to a multi-country investigation by El País, China's Ministry of State Security and United Front Work Department are rapidly expanding economic espionage, technology monitoring on university campuses and surveillance of Uyghur, Tibetan and Hong Kong diaspora communities across European Union states. Citing assessments from intelligence services in Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy, the paper says registered operational investigations have risen 65 percent over the past two years.

The newspaper reports that the European Commission's security directorate is preparing to propose a coordinated counter-response framework to member states. The framework includes the closure of facilities described as parallel police outposts, tighter technology transfer controls and a shared single list of non-diplomatic operational personnel. China's embassy in Brussels has called the claims "baseless".

International relations analysts warn that Europe will have to balance economic dependency on China with security concerns. Germany's BfV and Spain's CNI had already flagged similar worries in their latest reports. The European Parliament's foreign affairs committee will take up the matter in its next session.