London, May 19 (IANS) Norway has arrested a Chinese national on suspicion of attempted espionage. This is the second such case reported this month, a report has highlighted.
Eirik Veum, a media spokesman for the interior security service PST, said that the man was suspected of trying to conduct “illegal intelligence activities in Nordland.” Later, the man was remanded in custody for four weeks. The Chinese citizen has denied the allegations, UK-based Independent reported.
Earlier, a woman was accused of using a firm registered in Norway “as a cover for an attempt by a Chinese state actor to establish a receiving station to download data from satellites in the polar orbit,” according to PST prosecutor Thomas Blom.
Blom said that the suspect, identified as a Chinese woman, allegedly tried to create a “receiver for downloads from satellites in polar orbits suitable for collecting data that could harm fundamental Norwegian interests if it becomes known to a foreign state”, adding that it had “complicity in an attempt at serious espionage against state secrets.”
Police said several people had been charged in that case. However, the police did not reveal the nationalities or whether they had been detained, The Independent reported.
At the time, Norwegian authorities had carried out searches at two places related to the arrest, a site on a northern island hosting the Andoya Spaceport, an important part of Europe’s space ambitions and another in Innlandet in the south.
Earlier in February, a California-based political operative has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for acting as a covert agent of the People’s Republic of China and influencing local US politics.
Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, was sentenced to 48 months by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner of the Central District of California, the Department of Justice said. Sun pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
According to the Justice Department, Sun acted at the direction of Chinese government officials from at least 2022 to January 2024 without notifying the US Attorney General, as required by law.
“For years, Sun received and executed taskings from Chinese government officials, distorted our public discourse by disseminating Chinese propaganda, and surveilled groups in the United States that China viewed as threatening its interests as part of a campaign of intimidation,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.
“His conduct represents a brazen violation of our national sovereignty. This sentence reflects our commitment to prosecuting those who would extend the authoritarian reach of the Chinese government on US soil,” Eisenberg said.
Sun served as a campaign advisor for a political candidate identified in court documents as “Individual 1,” who was elected to a Southern California city council in November 2022.
–IANS
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