Germany’s national security strategy: No decoupling from China

At the press conference, Prime Minister Scholz stressed that the national security strategy is not limited to defense, but includes the overall cooperation of multiple relevant departments to ensure national security. In addition to military protection, he cited development cooperation, protecting networks from attacks and supply chain resilience.

Green Foreign Minister Berberk stressed that Germany’s security challenges permeate all aspects of life, such as medicine, the Internet, space and water cleanliness. Security strategies must be implemented by society as a whole, including municipalities, hospitals and companies.

In order to better counter disinformation and other forms of foreign influence in the future, the German government is seeking measures to improve the Constitutional Protection Agency, the federal intelligence service, and the military counterintelligence service, as well as to strengthen the analytical capabilities of the intelligence service to improve its operational capabilities against hybrid threats.

The strategy document also encourages companies to stockpile key commodities and expand strategic reserves. The new strategy calls for reducing the supply chain’s dependence on key raw materials.

The Bundeswehr should also be strengthened. As early as next year, the German government plans to meet NATO’s defense spending target of 2 percent of gross national product.

When it comes to China, Chancellor Scholz stressed that the route of the Traffic light government is not to decouple from China, but to reduce the risk of heavy dependence on raw materials. “We don’t want to decouple, we want to de-risk,” he said. China will continue to grow economically and should do so. At the same time, one must raise the issue of security, with the aim of maintaining a balance. Prime Minister Scholz once again mentioned that China made it clear that Russia should not use nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine.

In dealing with poorer countries, the German government wants to align its development policy more closely with its strategic objectives. According to the strategy paper, “a robust development policy makes an indispensable contribution to Germany’s integrated safety and industrial safety policy, while promoting sustainable development in partner countries.” Together with its partners, the German Government will promote the development of alternative, human rights and sustainable strategic sources of raw material supply. Where governments undermine security and the rule of law, the German government wants to focus more on cooperation at the non-governmental and local levels, while working to strengthen partner governments that value democratic principles.

Zimmermann, chairman of the Bundestag’s defense committee, believes the national security strategy needs to be improved. The Liberal Democratic Party politician complained that there were no provisions on the Security Council in the document. Speaking on German television 2, she said that even highly relevant decisions in the future would have to be reviewed to see if they were related to security. She announced that she would continue to push for the establishment of such a council.

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But Prime Minister Scholz said that, on balance, he did not feel that the creation of a Security Council would bring greater value. Because Germany already has a Federal Security Council, it can make appropriate decisions.

Ischinger, former head of the Munich Security Conference, welcomed the basic idea of the national security strategy, saying that the basic idea is correct, but the implementation is difficult. He suggested giving the existing Federal Security Council more authority and staff.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the paragraph on China will be based on the EU’s three key decisions set in 2019, namely that China is a partner on important issues such as climate protection, an economic competitor, but above all a systemic competitor. This last point will be more evident in the future. The German national security strategy document does not elaborate on the operational details of China’s policy. The German government is working on a China strategy. The strategy will be published in the coming months.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung also pointed out that the long-awaited national security strategy is also a birthday present for Chancellor Scholz. Because Wednesday is Chancellor Scholz’s 65th birthday.

N-TV saw that in his national security strategy, Chancellor Scholz expressed the relationship with China, that is, not to decouple, but to de-risk and reduce dependence on raw materials. This is already a common refrain in the EU and other partner countries.