A week after the shock arrest of a NATO intern under suspicion of espionage, further details on the suspect – a Canadian national with Chinese origins – have emerged.
Last week, an intern at NATO's Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) in Mons (Hainault) was charged with espionage for a third country and membership of a criminal organisation.
Two sources with knowledge of the case said that the suspected spy was indeed working for China, according to Reuters.
While the individual was not named, Belgium’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the arrest of a "Canadian national of Chinese origin".
According to a CBC News investigation, the alleged suspect has been identified as Biwei Zhang, a systems engineer with a background in economics.
It found that Biwei Zhang appears to be her legal name, but she uses the name Claire Zhang professionally, and goes by Catina Zhang on Facebook.
Similar investigations at Follow the Money alongside media partners Le Soir, Knack, and La Lettre, also corroborate these findings about the suspect’s identity.
Social media profiles linked to the suspect are not responding to media inquiries. Neither the woman nor her lawyer have issued a statement.
Illustration picture shows Belgium's Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade Theo Francken pictured at a head of states summit of the NATO military alliance, Tuesday 07 July 2026, in Ankara, Turkey. Credit: Belga / Benoit Doppagne
Canada had been responsible for vetting interns it sent to work at NATO, leading to mounting domestic concern that about the intern's previous institutional work.
Indeed, the CBC investigation further revealed that Zhang has previously worked at the Canadian Space Agency and Statistics Canada.
A security source also told Reuters earlier a LinkedIn profile that is believed to belong to the suspect details that she previously worked for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
This source also confirmed the suspect as Claire Z, a woman in her 30s, who was not a student and worked at SHAPE's IT department.
According to CBC, their investigation matched the description given by Belgian authorities when identifying information on Zhang's LinkedIn, Facebook and Threads profiles, as well as her graduate thesis and a federal court case.
The woman came under suspicion while interning at SHAPE in Mons. Credit: Virginie Lefour/Belga
CBC allege to have found a Facebook post by Zhang in July 2025, asking for a room to rent in Mons, Belgium, (where SHAPE is located) for an internship which "begins on Monday".
NATO internships are traditionally six months, and most reports said that the intern had either just completed or was ending her internship this month. This means that she may have interned at NATO for around a year.
Yet the military alliance's internal policy does allow a six-month internship to be extended "in exceptional cases based on divisional needs." This could be possible given the highly technical nature of Zhang’s role as a systems engineer.
Under Belgian law, defendants cannot be publicly identified in criminal investigations until the trial. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office did confirm the suspect will remain in pre-trial detention for at least another month as the investigation progresses.
On Thursday, the suspected spy is reportedly appealing her pre-trial detention, according to the Belga News Agency. The chamber of indictment must now rule on her appeal within two weeks.
The intern’s alleged suspicious behaviour drew the attention of NATO’s internal security services during her internship, according to Le Soir.
Excessive curiosity about her colleagues, a tendency to enter areas to which she was not authorised, and claims that she had accessed files outside her professional remit led SHAPE’s internal security team to first flag the suspect.
