Germany under attack from China, warns intelligence insider

Yahoo

29-01-2025

Germany is under 'attack' from China, a senior opposition MP has warned, as Berlin grapples with a fresh wave of cyber attacks and espionage plots.
Roderich Kiesewetter, the crisis prevention spokesman for the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said Germans needed to stop thinking of China as a 'partner'.
'Many in Germany are turning a blind eye… China is no longer a partner, but a systemic rival that is attacking us,' Mr Kiesewetter, a former colonel in the Bundeswehr, told The Telegraph.
'Germany is at the centre of Chinese hybrid influence operations in Europe – it uses all the tools in its toolbox; espionage, sabotage, lawfare, repression and disinformation,' added Mr Kiesewetter, who is also the deputy chairman of the German parliament's intelligence committee.
His comments are a major intervention in Germany, where China wields immense influence over the German economy despite rising tensions over Beijing's tacit support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and apparent plans to invade Taiwan.
Polls suggest Mr Kiesewetter's CDU party, led by Friedrich Merz, will comfortably win next month's elections and lead the government, but it will have to contend with the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as opposition.
Mr Kiesewetter warned that China, which is accused of planting spies in the AfD's European parliament offices, had recently become 'particularly interested in German military technology' and in buying up 'critical infrastructure' for Germany, such as wind turbines in the North Sea.
He said China felt more confident engaging in espionage in Germany than other EU member states due to Germany's 'naive' foreign policy and security stance.
'China has been particularly active in espionage, not only in terms of cyber attacks but the extraction of data through various methods and platforms,' he said.
'Espionage activities are also enormous and fall on fertile ground in Germany in view of China-friendly naivety, a lack of sensitivity and weak protective measures, particularly in the area of counterintelligence.'
Germany earlier this month arrested three German citizens on suspicion of spying for China, accusing them of trying to pass on military secrets to China.
Last summer Jian Guo, an aide to an AfD MEP, was arrested as a suspected Chinese spy, with his alleged accomplice 'Yaqi X' then arrested in October.
German prosecutors allege that Yaqi X gathered information about German military technology, and an unnamed German defence firm, and then transferred it to Mr Jian.
China has rejected such accusations as an attempt by Germany to 'politically manipulate the image of China and defame China'.
A study by German IT trade body Bitkom found that nearly 50 per cent of German businesses were hit by Chinese cyber attacks in 2024, whereas just 39 per cent of cyber attacks in the same period came from Russia.
The most severe recent data breach concerned Volkswagen, which between 2010 and 2015 lost 19,000 documents – including intellectual property material – to Chinese hackers, according to a 2024 investigation by German broadcaster ZDF.
Mr Kiesewetter expressed concerns that if Germany's China policy does not change then its response to any future invasion of Taiwan would be just as weak as its initial response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
'I am afraid that support for Taiwan would be even lower if there is no fundamental change in our China policy. Germany is pursuing an approach of appeasement and self-deterrence towards China, allowing itself to be lulled into complacency,' he said.
Germany faced an avalanche of criticism over its initial reaction to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, such as offering helmets to Kyiv instead of urgently needed weapons and ammunition.
The sluggishness of Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, was at that time largely due to fears of angering Russia, as well as Germany's heavy reliance on cheap Russian gas.
Mr Merz has said he wants to 'face up to China with confidence' and prove himself as far tougher on global security than Mr Scholz.
In a further hardening of his stance, Mr Merz last week told German business leaders that there was 'great risk' in investing in China and that they should not come to the state for help if their businesses fold.
'My heartfelt request to all companies... limit the risk you take in order to avoid endangering your own company if it triggers an immediate write-off. If you take this risk and if you have to write off these investments from one year to the next, then please do not, under any circumstances, come to the state... for help,' he said.
But experts say Germany is 'extremely misaligned with Europe' as it continues to invest billions in Chinese trade at a time where other allies, like France and Britain, are pulling away from Beijing over security concerns.
'You still have policymakers and especially a chancellor [Olaf Scholz] intent on building the relationship with China and terrified of China retaliating, and closing off access for those big German firms,' Agatha Kratz, a senior China analyst at Rhodium Group, said.
Earlier this month, The Telegraph revealed that Germany has launched a new initiative, 'Project Lionheart' to try and wean German companies off Chinese imports of lithium, a crucial ingredient in car and phone batteries.
The project, led by energy firm Vulcan, aims to locally produce enough lithium from brine water in the Rhinelands for up to half a million electric car batteries per year.
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