Chinese, Russian envoys expand spying in Czech Republic

PRAGUE: The Czech intelligence agency said on Monday that Russian and Chinese diplomats intensified their espionage activities on Czech soil in 2017 thanks to Russia´s large embassy in Prague and China´s hefty financial resources.

"The intensity of intelligence activities by Chinese spies with a diplomatic cover in the Czech Republic and intelligence activities against Czech targets managed from China has grown remarkably," the Czech Security Information Service (BIS) said in its 2017 annual report published on Monday.

Chinese spies are seeking to disrupt the European Union through Czech entities, it added, saying they also focused on the defence and interior ministries and on economic and scientific espionage.