Ex-Assistant of AfD Facing Trial for Alleged Spying for China – DW – May 8, 2025

Skip next section Harsh migration policies showing benefits — Berlin’s governing mayor

Harsh migration policies showing benefits — Berlin’s governing mayor

The stricter policies on migration recently introduced by Germany are starting to show their effects, according to Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, the head of government in the city-state.

“We are seeing a significant relief in the influx of refugees,” saod Wegner, a member of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), to which Chancellor Friedrich Merz also belongs.

He told the DPA news agency that twice the number of people were currently leaving Berlin than that of people arriving, with the city now having some 6,000 vacant beds for refugees.

“The pressure in Berlin has eased a little,” he said.

Wegner said he hoped the recently introduced policies would help free up capacities to implement integration measures targeting refugees who have received permission to stay in the country.

The German capital took in almost 32,000 refugees in 2023, including more than 15,000 from Ukraine.

In 2024, new arrivals dropped to just above 21,000 and 6,089 were registered in the first half of 2025.

Between 2022 and 2025, the costs of housing and supporting refugees in Berlin nearly doubled to €2.24 billion ($2.58 billion).

https://p.dw.com/p/4yWJX

China espionage trial to open in Dresden

A court in the eastern city of Dresden is to begin its trial of two people suspected of spying for China, with one of the defendants a former assistant to a lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The former AfD aide, identified only as Jian G. under German privacy laws, is charged with providing information to Chinese intelligence from 2002, including during a period when he worked for Maximilian Krah, at the time a member of the European Parliament for the far-right populist party.

Prosecutors in Dresden accuse Jian G. of passing on information on debates and decisions at the European Parliament, along with sensitive documents.

It is also possible that information collected by Jian G. includes sensitive details about the workings of the AfD itself whose revelation could prove an embarrassment to the party, although Krah has told news magazine Der Spiegel that he never discussed certain internal problems with the defendant.

The second defendant, named only as Yaqi X., worked at a company that provided Leipzig airport with logistics services. She is accused of helping Jian G. access information on flights and passengers, especially to do with the transport of defense equipment.

Krah himself is under separate investigation on suspicion of money laundering and corruption partly connected with firms linked to Jian G.

He was also at the center of a scandal over remarks that seemed to downplay the seriousness of the crimes committed by the Nazis’ notorious SS

https://p.dw.com/p/4yWIZ

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