Conflict in the Indo-Pacific: German technology in Chinese warships

Dispute over islands, near-collisions between Chinese and US warships – the conflict in the Indo-Pacific is becoming more acute. Research by report Munich and “Welt am Sonntag” show the role German technology plays.

A significant proportion of the Chinese navy’s warships are powered by engines that German manufacturers have developed or even built. It’s about MTU in Friedrichshafen and a French branch of the VW subsidiary MAN. Detailed information on deliveries from MTU to China can be found in the publicly accessible database of the Stockholm peace research institute Sipri. According to this, MTU was a regular supplier of state-of-the-art Luyang III destroyers until at least 2020, via license production in China.

MAN and MTU insure against report Munich and the “Welt am Sonntag” for always adhering to the respective export control rules. After equipping Song-class submarines, deliveries for Chinese submarines were “finally stopped”, according to MTU headquarters in Friedrichshafen. You have never “entered into contracts with the Chinese Ministry of Defense or the armed forces” yourself. Apparently, partners or licensees concluded these contracts. And the type of engine that Sipri says is built into the Luyang III destroyers does not require a license for export. These are so-called dual-use goods – i.e. engines that can also be used for civil applications.

Exports in the “gray area”

It is disputed among experts whether the Chinese military may not even be required to obtain a permit in the case of knowledgeable deliveries. “There is a gray area,” says Siemon Wezeman from Sipri.

Also this year, the Chinese Navy is putting further Luyang III destroyers into service, most recently the “Kaifeng” in July 2021 on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party. The ships of this class are armed with surface-to-air missiles and cruise missiles.

These deals are also explosive because China had aggressively defended certain territorial claims in recent years. The People’s Republic, for example, occupies islands in the South China Sea. In 2016, a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected China’s claims there, including those on Subi Reef and Fiery Cross Reef. Most recently, in July 2021, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer also called on her Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe to accept the award from The Hague.

Use in connection with disputed islands

According to the US, China is said to have even installed launch systems for cruise missiles on both islands. Report Munich and “Welt am Sonntag” evaluated satellite photos from Google Earth. They show Chinese warships presumably equipped with MAN and MTU engines on these two controversial islands in the South China Sea.

Pictures from January 23, 2018 show a ship about 150 meters long at Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Archipelago that has the characteristics of the Luyang I class. According to Sipri, this type is equipped with MTU engines. On three different days in 2018, a ship about 90 meters long can be seen on the Subi Reef, also in the Spratlys. It has several features of the Jiangdao-type frigates. According to Sipri, by 2020, 70 ships of this type in France will have built PA6 engines. Machines with this name were originally developed by the French MAN subsidiary SEMT Pielstick.

Deliveries to the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard

MAN and MTU even spoke publicly about their dealings with Beijing’s military at times. After the establishment of a joint venture in China in 2010, for example, the head of Tognum – under this name MTU operated at the time – mentioned deliveries of “ship engines for the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard”. The French MAN subsidiary SEMT Pielstick announced in 2002 on its own website, which can still be found on archive pages today, the delivery of PA6 engines manufactured under license in China for a new generation of Chinese frigates.

Most recently, the Foreign Office headed by Heiko Maas issued a warning a year ago of the “strongly increasing armament dynamics” in the Indo-Pacific. Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer had the frigate “Bayern” sent to the sea area off China’s coast in August, also as a signal to China.

Incomplete export control rules?

MTU and MAN can nonetheless claim that their deliveries are permissible. The EU imposed an arms embargo on China after the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. However, its binding effect is limited.

“Because the EU arms embargo for China was not formally adopted in accordance with the European treaties, certain exports of marine engines can also be permitted for the Chinese Navy,” says the Cologne lawyer and export expert Sebastian Roßner: “If you want to change that, the EU has to either change the dual-use regulation or formally impose an arms embargo. “

The Federal Ministry of Economics, which is responsible for arms exports, also refers to this legal situation. For this reason, it is not even possible to impose a permit requirement for certain goods. As early as 2017, however, “a more extensive inspection of engines for submarines” was initiated.

Greenpeace expert calls for stricter rules

The German control system is currently clearly geared towards export, says Greenpeace disarmament expert Alexander Lurz, except when it is explicitly about war weapons. Lurz calls on a future federal government to reverse this logic: “The export of everything that is used to produce weapons and wage wars must first be forbidden,” demands the Greenpeace expert. “If a foreign arms company buys essential components for a weapons system in Germany, this is an arms export and must be treated as such,” said Lurz. He sees the comprehensive control of arms exports as an urgent task for the new federal government.