Germany takes aim at ‘systemic rival’ China in long-awaited, first-ever national security strategy

Germany unveiled its first-ever national security strategy on Wednesday, accusing China of “repeatedly acting in contradiction to our interests and values”.

Branding China a “systemic rival”, Berlin in its long-awaited policy document used tougher language towards Beijing than it has in the past towards, naming and alluding to the threat posed by the world’s second-largest economy.

Its release comes ahead of a new China-specific strategy that is expected to be issued in July and sets a potentially thorny stage for government-to-government consultations between Berlin and Beijing next week.

“China is trying in various ways to reshape the existing rules-based international order, is increasingly aggressively claiming regional supremacy,” according to the document, which runs to 75 pages and contains six direct references to China.

“Regional stability and international security are increasingly put under pressure, human rights are disregarded. China is deliberately using its economic power to achieve political goals,” it added.

The strategy was commissioned after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which ushered in a new era of muscular geopolitics in Berlin and in Europe writ large. The strategy saw Berlin commit to spending 2 per cent of its GDP on defence, a target expected of all Nato members.

But it also drilled down on the economic elements of national security, one week before the EU releases its own economic security strategy – a recently embraced term taken as shorthand for reducing exposure to China.

National security means having reliable supply chains, supporting democracy, and approaching foreign policy with values such as human rights front-and-centre, the strategy said.

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“We are living in an era that is increasingly multipolar and marked by rising systemic rivalry. Like us, the overwhelming majority of states are committed to the United Nations Charter and a free international order based on international law,” the report stated.

“However, as a result of their perception of systemic rivalry, some states seek to undermine this order and give effect to their revisionist notions of spheres of influence,” it added.

“They view human rights, civil liberties and democratic participation as a threat to their power.”

At a press conference in Berlin to greet the release, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said German businesses had been told that in the event of a large-scale crisis in China, the government would not be able to bail companies out to a significant degree. Companies had come to the “same conclusions” as the government when assessing their dependencies on China, she added.

The paper saw the light of day after copious delays – a product of disagreements within the governing coalition. The clashes meant the strategy was “probably the lowest common denominator parties could agree on”, according to Gesine Weber, a German Marshall Fund fellow.

“The strategy says on the one hand that China is reshaping the global order, but also that global challenges cannot be addressed without it. This is very much in line with the former positions of the government,” Weber said.

While China was “using economic power to achieve political goals”, it “remains a partner without whom many global challenges and crises cannot be solved”, the report stated.

Next month’s China strategy is expected to delve more deeply into specifics on items like outbound investment controls, supply-chain stress testing and Taiwan. It is likely to more closely reflect the views of the German foreign ministry, which is seen as more hawkish on China than the chancellery.

A draft text from last November said Germany would “maintain close and good relations with Taiwan in many areas and want to expand them”.

“Within the framework of our one-China policy, we support Taiwan’s relevant participation of Taiwan in international organisations. We maintain: a change of the status quo in the Taiwan may only take place peacefully and by mutual agreement,” it read.

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Chinese government ministries will descend on Berlin next week for the first in-person joint consultations since before the coronavirus pandemic. Politico reported that the German government had asked China to downsize its delegation, as it was “keen to avoid giving the impression that it’s receiving China with all-too-open arms”.

On the same day in Brussels, the EU will launch its own economic security strategy, aimed at “de-risking” its trading ties with China.

Frank Müller-Rosentritt, a lawmaker from the Free Democratic Party and member of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, welcomed the German strategy’s focus on economic security.

“Securing the supply of critical raw materials and medicines by ensuring the security of our trade and supply chains is as important as evaluating and consistently reducing our dependencies on China,” he said.

“Even though we are still waiting for the China strategy, the dimension of systemic rivalry with China is already coming to the fore.”