Prague police and the Czech Security and Information Service (BIS) have charged a Chinese citizen who worked for a long time as a correspondent for the state-run newspaper Guangming Daily in Prague. The man, identified by the media as Jang I-min, was detained on 17 January 2026 and formally charged with illegal activities on behalf of a foreign power — the first criminal case under new Czech espionage legislation that came into force last year.
According to Czech intelligence services and media reports, the suspect used his journalist accreditation as a cover to gather information. He interviewed a number of Czech and Slovak politicians, including representatives of the ruling and opposition parties. Investigators believe that the information obtained was passed on to Chinese intelligence services.
This is not the first high-profile case of tension between Prague and Beijing in recent years. The Czech Republic remains one of the toughest countries in the EU towards China: regular contacts with Taiwan, President Petr Pavel’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2025, and accusations of cyberattacks by Chinese hacker groups (in particular, APT31) have led to a serious cooling of relations.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš called the arrest ‘a much more serious step’ than a normal diplomatic demarche and criticised the Foreign Ministry for allowing the suspect to retain his press accreditation for so long.
Official Beijing has not yet publicly commented on the arrest and charges. The date of the trial has not yet been announced, but the case has already been referred to the prosecutor’s office.