Belgian prosecutors have detained a Chinese-Belgian national in connection with an espionage investigation linked to China, the Federal Prosecutor's Office has announced.
The suspect was detained in May, as he was about to board a flight to Beijing, though authorities disclosed the arrest only now.
Prosecutors are investigating charges of espionage, participation in a criminal organisation, misuse of company assets and unlawful disclosure of trade secrets in connection with Belgian semiconductor company BELGAN BV, which went bankrupt in 2024, leaving 400 employees without jobs.
According to prosecutors, the 52-year-old suspect held a senior research position at BELGAN while also serving as a director of a Chinese company with similar manufacturing activities, financed by a Chinese investment fund.
"The investigation may point to the unlawful transfer abroad of specialised intellectual property and trade secrets relating to the production of gallium nitride chips," the Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
The technology is used in electric vehicles, aerospace and military applications.
Prosecutors confirmed to Euronews that a second suspect is being sought in the case. Authorities have carried out searches and seized data storage devices. According to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF, the detained man denies the charges against him.
Belgian authorities had already begun investigating BELGAN's 2024 bankruptcy. The company, which was developing a new generation of chips, was partially acquired by Hong Kong-based Chinese investors, who appointed managers to the Belgian firm.
The same investors reportedly set up a similarly focused company in China, GaNkool, and transferred sensitive licences and technologies to it.
Chinese espionage cases on the rise
Several China-related espionage investigations have been launched across Europe in recent months. In June, a Canadian intern of Chinese origin was arrested in Mons, Belgium.
The suspect worked in IT at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and had access to sensitive data.
In 2025, Jian Guo, a former assistant of Chinese origin to German far-right lawmaker Maximilian Krah at the European Parliament, was sentenced to five years in prison for passing sensitive EU documents to Beijing.
And in the United Kingdom, two British-Chinese dual nationals were convicted and jailed this summer for surveilling exiled Hong Kong dissidents on British soil.