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The Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang on Friday expelled former senator Frank Creyelman over accusations he was recruited by China to spy on Europe.
Tom Van Grieken, the party’s chair, announced Creyelman’s immediate expulsion on X saying: “His actions go against the purpose and essence, even the name, of our party.” He added: “The only loyalty for nationalists can only be to their own nation.”
The move follows an explosive investigation published by the Financial Times, Der Spiegel and Le Monde detailing how China’s spy agency allegedly used Creyelman over the course of three years to influence discussions in Europe on issues ranging from China’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong to its persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
“I take that very seriously,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told journalists when asked about the report as he arrived at a European Council summit in Brussels. “That would actually mean that some people are sabotaging our prosperity, our security, our democracy from within, from a party that sits in our country’s parliament, in the senate … A senator from Vlaams Belang being on the front page of the Financial Times — the whole world has seen that.”
De Croo added: “It shows that the extreme right is quite dangerous for our society.”
The allegations against Creyelman include documented text messages he exchanged with a Chinese spy agency officer, Daniel Woo, between 2019 and 2022.
In one example, the reports detail that in late 2022, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was about to visit China, Woo asked Creyelman to convince two right-wing members of the European Parliament to push the idea that the U.S. and U.K. were undermining European energy security.
Woo allegedly told Creyelman in a text message: “Our purpose is to divide the US-European relationship.”
The former Vlaams Belang party member served in the Flemish parliament until 2014. Before that he was a member of the Belgian senate.
Creyelman did not provide comment to the publications regarding the allegations.
Barbara Moens contributed to reporting from Brussels.
