Former German intelligence chief may have passed secret data to Chinese general – media
August Hanning, the former head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND), who was arrested on suspicion of espionage and divulging state secrets, may have passed confidential information to a Chinese military official.
According to Censor.NET, Der Spiegel reports this.
The person in question is retired Chinese Army Major General Wang Jianzhen, who served for many years as a military diplomat in Europe.
According to media reports, between 2010 and 2012, Hanning received nearly 2,000 internal documents through his former chief of staff, 64-year-old Manfred Dankesreiter.
It is alleged that the former head of German intelligence used some of this material to prepare an analytical report for a representative of a foreign intelligence service. According to media reports, the intelligence in question was from Azerbaijan.
The German Federal Prosecutor's Office also stated that Hanning maintained "close contact" with an employee of another foreign intelligence service and passed on confidential political information to him over the course of several years. According to the investigation, some of this information was based on materials from the intelligence agency.
To whom could Hanning have passed on information?
According to Der Spiegel, another of Hanning's foreign contacts may have been Wang Jianzhen, a retired major general in the Chinese army.
Wang served as a military diplomat in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for 23 years. He was first posted to East Berlin from 1987 to 1990, toward the end of the German Democratic Republic’s existence.
After German reunification, he returned to the country twice more. His last assignment lasted from 2009 to 2013.
A Chinese general has ties to German circles
Today, Vana is considered one of China's leading experts on Germany. He continues to work at the Chinese Institute of International Strategic Studies—a state-run think tank operating under the auspices of the Chinese armed forces.
According to *Der Spiegel*, Wang and Hanning likely met at several conferences. In addition, they both served on the advisory board of the German-Chinese Eco-Park in Qingdao, in eastern China.
The circumstances surrounding the alleged transfer of confidential information to a Chinese official have become part of an investigation into the former head of German intelligence. The information provided relates to suspicions and media reports and does not, in and of itself, constitute proof of Hanning’s guilt.
