Ah, ChinaLeaks! The title alone makes you want to dive into it, doesn’t it? It’s like a spy novel but with a touch of bureaucracy and a side of international intrigue – all served with a heaping of German efficiency. You know the Germans… they’ll turn a thrilling international espionage operation into a meticulous project plan faster than you can say "Wurst und Bier!"
Now, let’s dissect this rather bizarre scenario where a man just pops into an office uninvited, badge on show, like an overzealous pizza delivery guy who’s clearly delivered more than just pepperoni. “It’s about your son,” he says, which is a line that strikes the perfect balance between comforting and utterly chilling! It’s like finding out your Uber Eats driver is actually an undercover agent from the domestic secret service. "Welcome to the family dinner, hope you like your sausages with a side of surveillance!"
And then we have young Lutz Heppner, bless him. He’s living his best scholarly life, dabbling in Chinese studies, getting cozy with the Middle Kingdom – and suddenly, he’s the star of an unsolicited recruitment video! "You haven’t done anything illegal," assures the intelligence guy. That’s reassuring, isn’t it? But then they hit him with the bombshell: “The Chinese are interested in you.” I mean, I’m just imagining Lutz looking around like he’s just rolled into the Matrix. “Wait, am I supposed to be The One? Or just someone they need for a Chinese buffet study?”
You know, you can almost picture the frantic conversations amongst Lutz’s friends: "So, what do you do? Oh, I’m studying China and oh yeah, might sell my soul to their secret service for some extra cash. You know, typical student life."
And then there’s that staggering statistic – 35 attempts at recruitment in a single month. That’s, dare I say, more persistence than most of my ex’s displayed in trying to get me back! I mean seriously, put that energy into a career that isn’t centered around potentially selling state secrets, mate!
But let’s be fair. The allure of easy money is there, isn’t it? Writing a piece for Xinhua for 700 to 1000 euros? That’s not shabby for a doctoral student. It’s like being offered a gold star for your dissertation while selling your morality on the side. It’s like when your mother says, “You can be anything you want in life,” and then you get a job offer from a spy organization and you think, “Well, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind, is it?”
At the end of the day, it turns out that life in academia can be a slippery slope. One moment, you’re just a brainy student sipping overpriced coffee, and the next you’re being serenaded by a foreign government with promises of dollar bills… just needs you to do a little research on the side! Ah, the intrigue!
So, the take-home message here? If someone from protection services suddenly appears in your office, you might want to check if the local fabled “secret agent” got a bit too adventurous on his day-off! Or perhaps just switch your field of studies to something a bit less enticing – how about The History of Plasterboard or Advanced Lawn Care Techniques? No one’s giving you a call for those!
In order to influence politics, China has specifically built up high-level contacts and supporters in Germany. An excerpt from “ChinaLeaks – Beijing’s secret network in Germany”.
Suddenly the man stood in the middle of her office. She hadn’t seen him come in and wasn’t really expecting anyone else. Strangely enough, reception hadn’t reported the visitor either. The man flashed his badge. Protection of the Constitution? The older woman stared at the stranger and began to tremble. What could the domestic secret service possibly want from her? She had lived in the town in southern Germany for a long time, dutifully did her work in the local city museum and led a good middle-class life. Nothing exciting, everyday German life. She also had no contact with extremist circles or with representatives of questionable dictatorships on the other side of the world. “It’s about your son,” the man said immediately, “but you don’t need to be afraid.” Then he thought for a moment: “At least not yet.”
The informant hoped to be able to contact the son more discreetly through the mother – a correct assumption. Soon afterwards there was a meeting in a European capital. An agent from the counterintelligence department arranged to meet the young man in a café. To protect him, we call him Lutz Heppner. “You haven’t done anything illegal,” the intelligence official assured at the start of the meeting, “but I would like to talk to you.” Then the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution immediately got to the point. “The Chinese are interested in you.” This realization did not come as a surprise to Heppner; he had already discovered that himself. And that didn’t seem unusual to him, after all, he had studied Chinese studies. During his time at the university, a total of four years, he lived more in Beijing than in the German city where he was enrolled. And now he was doing his doctorate with a dissertation on the Middle Country, working for a small organization on China, organizing specialist conferences, writing research papers and meeting regularly with other experts. It would have been more worrying if the Chinese had not been interested in him.
Markus Frenzel: “ChinaLeaks. Beijing’s secret network in Germany”, 379 pages, CH Beck, 20 euros, available at, among others Amazon and Thalia
Just recently, a representative from the Chinese news agency had him at an evening reception over a glass of champagne Xinhua addressed. The man was surprised at how well Heppner spoke Chinese. He asked him about his doctoral topic and was impressed by the profound knowledge Heppner had about China. At some point he suggested to the German that he… Xinhua was able to write a text once. About three pages. They would pay between 700 and 1000 euros for this. For the doctoral student, the offer didn’t seem excessive. He said he wanted to think about it. Heppner had just submitted his dissertation and was still waiting for the result. The job he did was certainly just a stopgap measure. Let’s see what else is to come. The meeting was only a few days ago. “Last month we discovered 35 attempts to recruit you by Chinese services,” said the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution employee in the café. It hit Lutz Heppner like a punch in the stomach. 35 attempts? In a month? “It went far beyond what I expected,” Heppner recalls today of the meeting with the secret agent.
