Speaking with TVP World, Grabowski said China’s operations blend traditional human intelligence with academic networks, business ties, and long-term influence-building that exploits Europe’s openness, News.Az reports, citing the Kyiv Post.
Grabowski noted that despite the heavy emphasis on cyber espionage, recent European cases show Beijing increasingly investing in human sources. Their methods, he said, rely on patient relationship-building, often through roles that appear benign—researchers, students, business representatives, or think tank affiliates.
In contrast to Russian intelligence, which now carries immediate political stigma due to the war in Ukraine, Chinese operatives face fewer social barriers inside European institutions. Until recently, cooperation with China in academia and technology was widely encouraged. “That has changed,” Grabowski said, “but the access channels remain open, especially in research and development.”
He pointed to recent British cases in which fake headhunters approached parliamentary staff with lucrative job offers, a tactic highlighted by MI5. He also described encounters at academic events where “students” later appeared to be acting on behalf of Chinese authorities.
According to Grabowski, China’s espionage strategy is a “long game,” using diplomatic cover, business activity, and academic collaboration to map European decision-making and technological capacity. With espionage now “a natural element of international politics,” he said, Europe must recognize that China’s intelligence presence is neither marginal nor new—and continues to expand.
