Chinese spies and Swiss "neutrality"
Switzerland had agreed to allow agents from China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to roam freely – unsupervised - inside the country in a secret agreement that came into effect on 8 December 2015. The deal was so secretive that it was not reported until late summer this year.
According to a report from Safeguard Defenders, an NGO safeguarding human rights across the most hostile environments in Asia, MPS agents operate completely freely and unsupervised when they are in Switzerland. They are free to meet with the individual (Chinese nationals whose stays are suspected by Switzerland to be “irregular”) and conduct “interviews”.
These Chinese agents are permitted to stay for 2 weeks; up to 6 persons can be “evaluated” per day; making a total of 60 people per agent per visit. China’s MPS, while oversees immigration, it is also the nation’s police agency, in charge of policing, national security, and with dedicated branches dealing with espionage and counterintelligence. It is also a body implicated in widespread, systematic, and wide-ranging human rights abuses. Switzerland agreed to keep the identity of visiting agents secret. Agents are selected by China, and Switzerland has no part in the selection. China thus selects any member of the MPS to be sent to Switzerland, and it most certainly aren’t any immigration officers being sent. Not a single agreement with any other country or region reviewed has this kind of om arrangement! At the end of each visit, the Chinese side submits a report. Based on this, Switzerland will work with the Chinese embassy to decide which individuals will be returned to China. Furthermore, Switzerland bears the total cost of this for the Chinese side. That includes flights, accommodation, per diem costs, communication, office space, and any other costs. Namely, Swiss taxpayers are paying for Chinese police agents to secretly enter Switzerland and conduct unsupervised operations against Chinese people inside their country. In 2016, 13 people, including 4 asylum seekers, were sent back under the agreement. The MPS report on these individuals are not made public, so who they were, what happened to them once they were returned to China, and what steps, if any, the Swiss side took to ensure their safety
In addition, by having the Swiss side agree to make these visiting delegations of selected MPS agents unofficial, we can only assume - unless an additional secret agreement exists - that they are given regular tourist visas, which would give those agents free access to the entire Schengen area. As such, within the timeframe of the two-week visit period, intelligence agents from the MPS are, theoretically, given direct access, undercover, to almost all the European Union, and as no border controls exist, and these visits are not supervised by the Swiss side, poses a very significant security risk.
MP Hans-Peter Portmann, from the Liberal Party (FDP), said "There is no reason to have a different practice with China than with countries with which we are also in an ongoing dialogue on human rights issues". Far right Swiss People's Party (SVP) told Safeguard Defenders on December 3 via email “It is above all left-wing circles who oppose this agreement with China. Such deportations are of course in the interest of the SVP.” SVP and human rights cannot go together.
Nik Gugger, an MP with the European People's Party (EPP) perhaps summed it up best when saying “Switzerland is top at doing business. But unfortunately, also world champion in looking away”. This story resembles and reminds us the stance that Switzerland had had during WWII against the Jews and the collaboration that it initiated with the Nazis. Many were turned away at the frontier, or even handed to the Nazis by the Swiss. In addition to that, Switzerland helped the German Reichsbank realize most of its gold bullion sales, providing a valuable source of income for Hitler’s war machine.
