Suspicions of espionage around a Chinese institute linked to the VUB

The current director of the Confucius Institute of the VUB is suspected of espionage and is deprived of his Schengen visa.

The Confucius Institutes of VUB and ULB were founded in 2016 with the cooperation of the Chinese Ministry of Education. These institutions are presented as places of discovery and learning of the Chinese language and culture, and as a pole of exchange and meeting between China and Belgium. However, the State Security has always worried that it could also be a huge Trojan horse inside the two universities.

In fact, now the director of the site of the Flemish university is suspected of having used his network for espionage purposes, and of having recruited students and people from the business world for the Chinese secret service. The man denies the facts. The management of the ULB site has nothing to do with this case. Contacted however this Tuesday afternoon for a comment, it was unreachable.