Germany calls China a growing threat as it steps up focus on security

BERLIN - China

poses a growing threat to global security,

Germany said in its first national security strategy on Wednesday, underscoring Berlin’s shift in emphasis from economic interests to geopolitics following

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Using blunt language about Germany’s top trading partner, the strategy document describes Beijing as aggressively claiming supremacy in Asia and seeking to use its economic might to achieve political goals.

The document highlights the main threats Germany perceives it faces, from climate change to supply chain disruptions, and includes a few policy specifics, such as a commitment to raising defence spending and creating an agency to fight cyber attacks.

Analysts noted that the document does not prioritise which threats to fight or contain any major surprises. It also omits some major issues, such as Taiwan, and, as expected, does not create a National Security Council that would help its implementation.

“This is a major change being carried out by us in Germany in how we deal with security policy,” moving from a military strategy towards an integrated security concept, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the presentation of the document, while adding that a more detailed China strategy should be ready soon.

“In future, we will focus more on security when it comes to decisions on economic policy,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said. “We paid for every cubic metre of Russian gas twofold and threefold with our national security.”

Germany’s reliance on Russia for around half of its gas imports

prevented it from immediately being able to stop energy trade with Moscow after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia is the top threat to European peace “for now”, the National Security Strategy (NSS) said.

The document highlights the need for Germany to reduce all dependencies on other countries for commodities and incentivise companies to hold strategic reserves.

These measures are particularly relevant now to Germany, with Europe’s reliance on China for critical minerals key to the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.

“China is deliberately exerting its economic power to reach political goals,” reads the NSS, which comes just a week before German-Chinese government consultations are due in Berlin.

But China remains a partner the world needs to resolve global challenges and crises, it adds.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Premier Li Qiang will depart Beijing on Saturday for visits to Germany and France in his first overseas trip since taking office in March.

He will head the Chinese delegation for inter-governmental consultations with Germany set for next Tuesday, and attend a Summit for a New Global Financial Pact taking place in Paris from June 22 to 23.

‘Unthinkable’

At nearly €300 billion (S$436 billion) in imports and exports, China is Germany’s most important trading partner and a core market for top German firms including Volkswagen, BASF and BMW. Many German chief executives have warned of the risks of cutting or reducing links with the world’s second-biggest economy.

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius said in April that decoupling from China was “unthinkable for almost all of German industry”.

However, many German businesses accept that dependency on China for critical raw materials needs to be addressed.

Ms Baerbock said government officials had held “intensive talks” with companies active in China. “The good thing is that German companies are drawing similar conclusions to the German federal government,” she said.

Still, Mr Noah Barkin, an analyst with Rhodium Group, said the strategy may be most interesting for what it does not contain. “There is no mention of Taiwan – probably the biggest security challenge of the coming years,” he said.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

Mr Norbert Roettgen of the opposition conservatives said the strategy lacked clarity on the creation of a new security order for Europe, such as how Moldova and Georgia can be shielded from Russia, and if Ukraine should join Nato.

Defence spending pledge

Days after Russia’s invasion, Mr Scholz heralded a shift to a new era or “Zeitenwende” in which he said Germany would invest more than 2 per cent of economic output on defence, after years of resisting pleas from Nato allies to do so.

The NSS contains a slightly weaker pledge for Germany to spend 2 per cent of economic output “as an average over a multi-year period” on defence, initially in part by using a special €100 billion fund created in 2022.

Germany aims to reach the 2 per cent defence spending target from 2024, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said. REUTERS