European security officials have revealed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is suspected of using fake accounts on the professional social media platform LinkedIn to collect information on employees of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), attempting to steal sensitive data. Sources indicate that this operation is believed to be orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeting dozens of NATO and EU personnel.
According to reports from Agence France-Presse (AFP), Chinese authorities are primarily interested in obtaining information from the EU regarding sanctions against China, as well as NATO’s strategic operations in Asia, particularly those related to Taiwan.
European security sources state that this operation, planned by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, primarily targeted dozens of EU and NATO employees from countries such as France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Chinese spies disguised themselves as recruiters on the LinkedIn platform, initially paying individuals for reports and later requesting confidential and even classified information.
One particularly active fake account used the name “Kevin Zhang” and claimed to be the head of a fictitious Hong Kong company called “OrientalConsulting,” offering NATO or EU employees hundreds to thousands of dollars in compensation for providing information.
Belgium’s Minister of Justice, Annelies Verlinden, has stated that government officials, scholars, and other prominent individuals worldwide have been contacted, only to later discover that they were actually Chinese (CCP) intelligence operatives. She noted that through these actions, “a significant amount of important information and intelligence may have flowed to China,” criticizing social media platforms as breeding grounds for espionage activities and propaganda, allowing major powers to use money to persuade others to engage in spying.
Security experts warn that such online manipulation tactics are becoming a new trend in modern international intelligence activities, posing a serious challenge to European security and intelligence defenses.
In 2023, the former director of France’s external intelligence agency had warned that Beijing initiated large-scale espionage operations in 2014 through social platforms, with LinkedIn being particularly prominent in these activities.