‘White on the outside but red on the inside’: Switzerland and Chinese intelligence networks during the Cold War

Abstract

ABSTRACTUsing previously classified archival records, this article discusses how Chinese diplomatic staff operated a variety of intelligence networks from Switzerland during the Cold War. As the site of China’s first diplomatic mission in central Western Europe and the location of the United Nations’ European headquarters, Switzerland was uniquely suited as China’s intelligence hub in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. Chinese officials established and ran a variety of European and even global intelligence networks out of Switzerland, whose members included Chinese officials; Taiwanese diplomats; Chinese, Taiwanese, and Chinese Indonesian scientists and students; owners and staff of Chinese restaurants; Communists and communist sympathisers; and businessmen.