European member of parliament for Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Maximilian Krah, initially reacted cautiously to reports of the arrest of his employee on suspicion of spying for China.
"I learned of the arrest of my colleague Jian Guo this morning from the press," he wrote on X.
"I have no further information. Spying for a foreign state is a serious accusation. Should the allegations prove to be true, this would result in the immediate termination of his employment."
The AfD's leading candidate for the European elections told the Bild newspaper at the airport in Strasbourg that, to his knowledge, his employee had only maintained "contacts with official Chinese offices in the embassy."
The suspect, who was arrest in Dresden on Tuesday, is said to have passed on information from the European Parliament to China.
An AfD spokesman said on Tuesday that the party would do everything it could to support the investigation.