France has confirmed the arrest of two agents of the French secret services accused of espionage for the Chinese government. It seems that the two officers were captured and indicted last December. However, their arrests were not made public at the time, because French counterintelligence officials wanted to avoid alerting other members of a possible ring of espionage, which some say could include up to five French citizens.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly told French television CNews on Friday that two French intelligence agents were "accused of extremely serious acts of treason" against the French state. The two officers had been accused of providing confidential information to a foreign power “. Parly added that the spouse of one of the officers was also investigated for participating in spying on behalf of a foreign country. When asked to identify the country for which the two officers are accused of espionage, the minister declined to answer. But the news agency Agence France Presse cited an anonymous "security source", who said the two intelligence agents were suspected of spying for China and that they had been caught following an undercover operation by of French counterintelligence agents.
French TV station TFI1 said Friday that both suspects are agents of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), France's main external intelligence agency. The television added that at least one of the two suspects was stationed at the French embassy in Beijing when French counterintelligence learned of the alleged spying. According to some reports, the two suspects had withdrawn from the DGSE when they were arrested, but committed their alleged espionage while still in the service of the spy agency. French government officials refused to provide information on the duration of the alleged espionage or the nature of classified information believed to have been compromised. Furthermore, no information is available as to whether the two alleged spies work in cooperation with each other. The BBC asked China about the arrests in France, but the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was unaware of the incident.