Chinese spies sought to gain information on Samuel Cogolati, a Belgian co-chair of the Greens party and prominent China critic, by attempting to coerce one of his political opponents, local media reported on Wednesday.
Chinese intelligence services in 2020 approached Eric Dosogne, the then mayor of the Wallonian town Huy and a political rival of Cogolati, the media reported, adding that Dosogne had a close relationship with the Chinese state due to a city friendship agreement.
Belgian security services were monitoring the phone of the Chinese agent that approached Dosogne and warned the local politician of the risks of interference and espionage at least two times, say the reports. Services later warned Cogolati and the chairman of the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS), Paul Magnette, of the threat.
News publications Le Soir, Knack, De Tijd and public broadcaster RTBF first reported on the news.
Dosogne declined to comment on the reports. The Belgian intelligence services also declined to comment.
It is not the first time a Belgian politician has been embroiled with the Chinese spy agency. In December 2023, far-right politician Frank Creyelman was expelled from the Vlaams Belang party after it was revealed he was involved in influencing discussions on issues ranging from China’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong to its persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Cogolati — who was placed on a sanctions list by Beijing in March 2021 — has been a key voice pushing back against Alibaba’s logistics hub investment in Liège, criticizing Uyghur forced labor in China and pushing to restrict the use of Huawei in Belgian 5G networks.
He was previously the target of a cyberattack for his work in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a coalition of lawmakers critical of Beijing.
Huy, where both Cogolati and Dosogne are active in local politics, is also home to one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist centers in Europe, which the Dalai Lama has visited several times.
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