Alice Weidel, the AfD party leader in Germany, had secret meetings with China’s ambassador to Germany, Wu Ken, for years, a new probe has uncovered. The monthly meetings at a private home in Berlin have sparked fears of foreign influence in the run-up to Germany’s parliamentary elections.
According to a report by German newspaper Bild, Alice Weidel met Wu Ken, who served as China’s ambassador to Germany from 2019 to 2024, once a month in undisclosed, off-the-books meetings. These meetings reportedly took place in a highly secured building in Berlin.
Confronted with the evidence, Weidel acknowledged meeting Wu but denied the frequency of the meetings. “Perhaps once in nine months,” she minimized the frequency of their meetings.
Alice Weidel explained that her main intention in seeing Wu was to understand China’s position on Germany and the world. “How do the Chinese perceive the situation in Ukraine with Russia? The Chinese place great emphasis on formalities,” she said, refraining from being specific about her talks with Wu.
AfD’s Rising Power and China Worries
The disclosure of Weidel’s meetings coincides with AfD gaining ground in German politics, second in popularity, the latest opinion polls show. Its increasing power has sent shock waves among mainstream politicians, particularly given its connections with the neo-Nazi movement and isolation by other parties in Germany.
AfD’s connections to China have now brought another layer of concern. Since China is Russia’s key ally, there are questions about whether Weidel’s meetings with the Chinese ambassador represent deeper foreign interference. The European far-right has long had support from Russia, and Weidel’s meetings represent a possible new front in outside political influence.
This is not the first time that AfD has been accused of foreign connections. The party once faced accusations of spying for China, a case that led it to break ranks with France’s far-right National Rally (RN) in the 2024 European Union (EU) poll. The recent revelations also intensify the observation of AfD’s foreign linkages.
Weidel’s Extensive Ties with China
Apart from the encounters with Wu, Weidel has decades-long relations with China. Bild’s investigation revealed that Weidel became interested in China at the age of 14 when she started studying Mandarin. She is now a native speaker of the language.
Weidel was an economist who had worked in the state-owned Bank of China and spent six years residing in China. It is reported that she was on a scholarship while there. She wrote her doctoral thesis on China’s pension system and had worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-run academy.
Afraid of Chinese Influence on AfD Leadership
The recent revelations of Weidel’s clandestine meetings have once again fueled fears over whether China has been involved in influencing her political agenda. With her huge experience in China and ongoing contact with senior Chinese leaders, some are concerned that she could have been strategically trained to advance Chinese interests in Germany and Europe.
Bild further reported that Wu Ken had met with Weidel more often than he had met with German foreign ministry officials, and this sparked additional suspicion concerning their relationship. The meetings had been conducted in a private residence that Wu maintained in Berlin and was highly fenced with guard dogs.
Weidel’s party, AfD, has been condemned for its extreme positions, prompting it to become isolated from German mainstream politics. Even France’s National Rally, a leading far-right party, cut ties with AfD over its radical positions.
Adding fuel to the fire is the family background of Weidel. While she heads a party associated with neo-Nazi ideologies, her own grandparents were Nazi Party members. Her grandfather, Hans Weidel, was a Nazi judge who was appointed by Adolf Hitler, and he was infamous for persecuting political rivals.
Election Implications and Increasing Scrutiny
As Germany’s parliamentary elections near, the discovery of Weidel’s connections with China may affect AfD’s political position strongly. Opposition parties will probably utilize the findings to question AfD’s credibility and scrutinize its foreign loyalties.
As the investigations go on, political pundits caution that Weidel’s long connections with China and her secret meetings with senior Chinese envoys are also in need of further investigation. The degree to which Beijing is affecting AfD and its leaders remains a sore point for Germany’s politics.
