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of German society that has a clear interest in good German-Chinese relations and thus is susceptible to Chinese influence: the business community.
While this report has focused on distinguishing legitimate influence efforts from improper interference, it is important to acknowledge behavior that is unquestionably illegal. Most acts of espionage have not become public knowledge. Occasionally there are unconfirmed reports about cyber activities and Chinese IT hardware containing devices enabling espionage. In December 2017, German authorities revealed that Chinese agents had used faked LinkedIn identities or avatars of Germans engaged with China to contact people in the political and media spheres.
Politics
Angela Merkel, the present chancellor, has a decidedly cool attitude toward China, although she has established mechanisms to work closely with China over the years. Possibly because of her experience of being raised in communist East Germany, Merkel clearly sees the challenges presented by China to democracy and a liberal society. Indeed, there’s an argument to be made that with the retreat of the United States from human rights issues, Germany has taken up the mantle as the strongest critic of China’s human rights practices. It was Merkel’s government that won the release of Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Thus, it makes sense that the Chinese Communist Party has opted to plant a seed within the German business elite with the hope that in a post-Merkel Germany, China’s interests would be accommodated more than now,
Germany is also an indirect target of China’s efforts directed at the 16—1 group
in Central Europe and within the EU. Among the sixteen Central and Eastern European countries (eleven of them EU member states) gathered in the 16—1 group, the expectation of Chinese investment has led to laxer application of EU rules on procurement and in some cases to opposition to joint EU criticism of China (e.g., concerning the South China Sea, human rights, and the Belt and Road Initiative). Chinese “divide and rule” activities weaken the EU’s China policy and the EU’s cohesion in general and thus affect Germany negatively.”
There have been limited conspicuous efforts to target specific politicians for cultivation, with two notable exceptions: former chancellor Helmut Schmidt (now deceased) and former minister of economics Philipp Roessler. Influence activities directed toward political parties are negligible, apart from efforts to include them in events on the Belt and Road Initiative and the recent commemoration of forty years of the policy of Reform and Opening. There have been some attempts to establish relations with the new right-wing party “Alternative ftir Deutschland.”
Appendix 2
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