According to a study by the community institutions published last year, there are around 800 journalists in Brussels accredited to follow European information.. Much less than in 2013, when the historical record was broken with 1,330, but double than 20 years ago, when there were less than 400. Of all of them, a few dozen are Chinese who work for the nine media outlets or consortiums that are registered.. The figure is not bad at all, just behind powers like the United Kingdom or the United States, among countries outside the Union.. The interesting thing is that any continental colleague could recite from memory without problems and automatically the names of dozens of Anglo-Saxon colleagues, but it is practically impossible with the Chinese, and not because of a language problem..

In a decade doing this job in the city, I have never met one of those alleged colleagues. In nothing. I have never heard them ask a question (except at the Summit of both blocks), we have never shared a table or room at a Summit, an interview or a briefing. Not even a greeting was exchanged.

According to informal estimates by the Belgian security services, collected in different publications in recent years, at least one in five of them are spies.. And few seem to me. Chinese spies, or fake Chinese journalist-spies, are involved in all kinds of scandals. The last of them has emerged in recent days and is anything but a surprise.

The far-right Vlaams Belang party expelled former senator Frank Creyelman on Friday after an investigation by the FT, Le Monde and Der Spiegel revealed that he had been serving Beijing for years to spy and act in favor of the Asian giant.. Tom Van Grieken, president of the party that, after suffering a cordon sanitaire for decades, is very high in the polls heading into 2024, stated that “his actions go against the purpose and essence, even the name, of our party.”. And he added: “The only loyalty of nationalists can only be towards their own nation.”. Sweet irony, because Creyelman was not the only one who conspired, sold information, lobbied or offered bribes to justify the repression against democracy in Hong Kong, the persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang or simply to facilitate rapprochements with senior Belgian and community officials.. The local media Het Nieuwsblad has added that another far-right politician, Filip Dwinter, was also part of the network of a certain Daniel Woo and provided the same infamous services, documented in SMS and emails for years.

In 2020, Fraser Cameron, former MI6 and director of a think tank, the EU-Asia Center, was targeted for his links with two fake journalists and being accused of working for Beijing.. A few months earlier, the Free University of Brussels closed the Confucius Institute after its director was expelled from the Schengen zone for a decade for spying.. And a doctoral student was also sent home in 2021 because his academic life was a cover for his intelligence work. They are everywhere, but at least some of them hide it. Those with the camera and the microphone, not even a bit.