Pentagon fears quaint Swiss Alps hotel bought by Chinese couple was Beijing spying post for unsecured airstrip

The Pentagon has raised fears a quaint Swiss Alps hotel bought by a Chinese family may have been a spying post for Beijing due to its proximity to an F-35 jet airstrip.

Hotel Rossli, in picturesque Unterbach, was purchased by the Wang family for almost $1 million in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Situated in a quintessentially-lush Swiss valley, on one side the hotel looks out onto stunning waterfalls and the area's popular hiking trails.

But just 100 yards out the back lies an unfenced airstrip which will soon house F-35s, the world's most advanced fighter jets and one of the US military's most closely guarded secrets.

The strip is so open that farmers regularly walk their cows across it to their fields, with bells clanking.  

Mounting suspicions ultimately led to the arrest of Wang Jin, his wife Lin Jing and their son Wang Dawei, 27. All have denied spying.

The Pentagon has raised fears a quaint Swiss Alps hotel bought by a Chinese family may have been a spying post for Beijing due to its proximity to an F-35 jet airstrip

The Hotel Rössli, in picturesque Unterbach, was purchased by the Wang family for almost $1 million in 2018

F-35s are the world's most advanced fighter jets and one of the US military's most closely guarded secrets

 'We were very surprised. It sounded like a kind of movie,' Juck Egli, chief administrator of the nearby town of Meiringen, told the Wall Street Journal.

American security officials began to get concerned about the Wangs' motivations in 2023.

They feared the hotel could be used as the perfect watch post in the escalating tensions between the US and Chinese president Xi Jinping's intelligence agencies.

They also raised concerns that the airstrip lacked security, pointing out that local farmers frequently herded cattle over the area.

But officials in Switzerland, a historically neutral country, were reluctant to take any action without concrete proof of spying.

However, the Pentagon forced their hand by issuing an ultimatum stating the jets could not be housed at the airstrip unless it was secured.

The F-35s were meant to arrive in 2028 but had already been seen taking off from the area a handful of times. 

National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that Beijing has been intent on learning the F-35s secrets since details of the weapons program became known.

US officials feared the hotel could be used as the perfect watch post in the escalating tensions between the US and Chinese president Xi Jinping's intelligence agencies.

The hotel was just 100 yards from the airstrip which was unfenced and easily accessible to the public. It can be seen circled in red in this photo from a nearby mountain road, with the airstrip in front of it

US officials also argued that a 2017 national security law introduce by Jinping would compel the Wangs to spy for him if they were asked.

And so last summer, the Swiss federal police finally swarmed the property and arrested the Wangs.

The family staunchly denied any spying allegations and were issued with $5,400 in fines for violating Swiss hospitality laws.

Wang Jin left the keys with a villager, saying he would be returning to China for a while and instructed them to keep the pipes running until his return.

However, the family has seemingly disappeared without a trace. The hotel was shuttered and has since been purchased by the Swiss military for around $1.8 million.

Locals in the hamlet of just 478 people have been left baffled by the entire situation. 

Wang Jin in particular had managed to ingratiate himself with the community, impressing them with his fluent German.

He explained his linguistic skills were the result of growing up as the son of Chinese diplomats who served in Germany and Switzerland.

last summer, the Swiss federal police finally swarmed the property and arrested the Wangs who denied spying but have since returned to China

There were however some grumblings among residents when the family shut down the hotel's restaurant almost immediately upon arrival.

Locals were also perplexed by the family's decision to travel back to China at Christmas, typically one of the hotel's most lucrative periods.

By 2020, much of the hotel's staff had been replaced with Chinese workers after the original staff became fed up with the establishment's decline. 

But the hotel's previous owner remains unconvinced about the spying narrative.

'If secret services were at work, this property purchase would probably be a very clumsy method of obtaining espionage results, ' Kaspar Kohler said.

China's foreign ministry has also vehemently refuted the allegations and accused the US of 'smears'.

'The United States has frequently hyped up 'Chinese espionage activities' in order to discredit and suppress China,' a spokesman for the Beijing Embassy in Washington said.