A CBC News investigation has uncovered the identity of a Canadian intern accused of spying at NATO's military headquarters, according to CBC News.
The woman is Bi Wei Zhang, who also goes by Claire and Katina. She is in her 30s and is fluent in English, French and Mandarin.
Zhang was arrested in Belgium last week on charges of espionage and of being a member of a criminal organization.
Over the past decade she built an extensive resume, working at the World Trade Organization in Switzerland, the European Space Agency in Italy, the Canadian Space Agency as a systems engineer in its satellite operations department, and earlier as an economist with Statistics Canada.
It was her most recent position at SHAPE, NATO's military headquarters near Mons, Belgium, that led to her arrest.
The Belgian federal prosecutor issued a press release in three languages with few details, and under Belgian law suspects are not named until their charges go to trial. CBC News said it identified Zhang through her CV, academic writings and social media profiles, including a post last summer in which she looked for a room to rent for her SHAPE internship. The charges have not been tested in court and Zhang remains in custody.
Even an internship at NATO requires a comprehensive security clearance and a months-long background check, which for a Canadian would fall to the RCMP and CSIS. CBC News reported that in 2019 Zhang applied for a job with the Canada Border Services Agency by submitting two forms under slightly different names, giving her two attempts at the application exam, and the Public Service Commission determined that was fraud in a decision upheld by a 2024 judicial review.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangari said the government is concerned about any potential security breach or flaw in its screening process and that it is important to get to the bottom of what happened, while Global Affairs Canada, which oversees the vetting process, and CSIS, which provides assessments, declined to discuss specifics of the ongoing case.