Germany released its first national security strategy on Wednesday, signalling the will to change its stance on China and assuming a stronger geopolitical view over a purely economy-based one. The document highlighted that China poses a threat to global security, due to its aggressive actions in Asia.
The document is a “major change” by Germany according to chancellor Olaf Scholz. The new strategy points at several critical issues that Berlin is expected to face with few policy specifics on how cope with them. Scholz while presenting the document said that the government will release soon a more detailed China strategy.
At the presentation, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock underlined that “in future, we will focus more on security when it comes to decisions on economic policy.” She mentioned that Germany paid Russian gas with “our national security.”
The document pushes Germany to lower reliance on other countries and stockpile strategic resources. China is Germany top trading partner and is a key country for minerals used for carbon neutral transition. The strategy warns that “China is deliberately exerting its economic power to reach political goals.”
In order to avoid over-reliance on China, Germany is in talks with companies active in China to work on a common strategy. Several companies, including car giants Volkswagen and BMW, and chemical firm BASF have China as their core foreign market.
However, Baerbock said that “German companies are drawing similar conclusions to the German federal government,” regarding dependency on China and many businesses agree that the dependency on China for raw materials is a concern.
Despite the blunt language on China, the new strategy doesn’t mention Taiwan at all, perhaps because Germany is still figuring how to deal with its top trading partner while toughening its stance. According to opposition MP Norbert Roettgen, the government document is also unclear on European security order, whether Ukraine should join NATO or how Moldova and Georgia can be protected from Russia.
