Germany’s ambassador to China says she was summoned by Chinese authorities after four Germans were arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

The German ambassador to China said on Thursday that she had been summoned by Chinese authorities to answer questions about the arrests of four Germans this week who are suspected of spying for Beijing.

“After four Germans were arrested this week for allegedly spying for Chinese secret services, I was summoned to the MFA [ministry of foreign affairs] today,” Patricia Flor wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that it was “a quite telling move.”

Using the summons as “a good opportunity to explain a few things,” she insisted that “We do not tolerate espionage in Germany, regardless of which country it comes from [and] we protect our democracy and our constitutional state by constitutional means.”

She concluded: “The Federal Public Prosecutor General conducts the investigations. In the end, an independent court will decide on the accusations.”

A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry confirmed the summons to the Reuters news agency, adding that the Chinese envoy to Berlin had been summoned earlier in the week to be briefed on the German government’s “clear position on the ongoing investigations into suspected Chinese espionage activities”.