Archived

[…]

Like Britain in this case, Germany does not call China an “enemy’. Instead it describes the country as a “systemic rival”. But in recent years, politicians in Germany have increasingly started to perceive the Communist regime there as a threat.

German federal prosecutors are more determined than the politicians to take action against infiltration. Espionage cases have been brought to court more often in recent years and are being prosecuted harshly and systematically, in co-operation with the Federal Criminal Police Office.

[…]

The Germans have learnt the hard way that the Chinese are not harmless friends, a people you can do business with and make a fortune in the process. […] Initially, China functioned as an extended workbench for the German automotive industry. Cheap manufacturing was outsourced there in huge mega-factories with low wages and dubious working conditions in order to exploit the huge market opening up thanks to an emerging Chinese middle class. German car companies such as Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, and the chemicals multinational BASF, thrived in China. VW once sold one in three cars in the People’s Republic. Brands such as Siemens, Puma and Nivea did well, too.

One of the conditions for setting up a subsidiary in China was to give half the company to a local partner to form a joint venture.

The result was that in many cases China did not need to resort to industrial espionage to steal trade secrets: the new owners could simply walk into the development department and collect the latest designs for car models or robots, for example. It is certainly no coincidence that Chinese premium cars look almost identical in design to a Porsche or BMW.

[…]

A rethink is slowly taking place, however. In 2024, China became Germany’s second-biggest trading partner, falling from the top spot after eight years. It is the UK’s third largest.

In 2023 Annalena Baerbock, a Green Party politician who was then the German foreign minister, described China’s President Xi as a “dictator” in a television interview. No one had ever called out the country so clearly before. Beijing’s reaction was to accuse Germany of “seriously violating China’s dignity” and making an “open political provocation”.

[…]

Germany’s official “China strategy” was released two years ago by the foreign ministry, calling the People’s Republic a “systemic rival”. The new direction of politics is clear.

Last year a married couple, known only as Herwig F and Ina F, and an accomplice, Thomas R, were accused of using their Düsseldorf business as a front to pass information about “innovative technologies” to the Chinese state to enhance its navy. This included information on sonar systems, military drones, armoured vehicles and engines for combat ships. They deny the allegations and a trial, which started in May, continues.

The Chinese embassy in Berlin has denounced the allegations, calling on Germany to “desist from exploiting the espionage accusation to politically manipulate the image of China and defame China”. German intelligence, in turn, said this is likely to be “the tip of the iceberg” of Chinese espionage.

Some threats are more subtle. In Germany, as in the UK, there are also “agents of influence” — prominent political lobbyists, business leaders and others who are bribed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to further the country’s influence abroad.

Both the UK and Germany could learn from countries such as Australia, where last year, Di Sanh “Sunny” Duong, a Chinese citizen, was convicted of planning to covertly influence a federal government minister to advance the aims of the CCP; he was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison. Duong was the first Chinese “agent of influence” to be convicted anywhere in the world.

The menace is global and threatens the democratic West. More politicians are learning this the hard way.