Germany to boost monitoring of Chinese spies-report

BERLIN, Apr 1 (Reuters) German security officials will increase their surveillance of Chinese spies, because Beijing has been obtaining sensitive military, economic and political information about Germany, a magazine reported today.

Citing unnamed security sources, the weekly magazine Focus said that Germany's BfV domestic intelligence and security office would be in charge of the increased surveillance.

The spies were being managed by the Chinese embassy in Berlin, Focus said in excerpts from Monday's edition.

The agents are part of an operation aimed at building a network of sources in all areas of German society, Focus cited a BfV report as saying.

Focus said Chinese agents were aggressively going after exiles who disagreed with the policies of communist China.

''Chinese secret services are cracking down on dissidents living in Germany,'' the Focus report said.

It also said that the BfV was reducing the number of people working in its Russian department even though there were at least 65 Russian secret agents operating in Germany.

Reuters SHB GC2147