The US indictment of Chinese military officers for commercial cyber espionage has struck a chord in German industry, where there is disquiet over the theft of intellectual property.
Germany is China’s biggest trading partner in the EU, with German exports to China – chiefly cars, car parts and machinery – worth €67bn last year. Ties are set to grow stronger; China opened its first European chamber of commerce in Berlin this year and will be the partner country at the CeBIT technology trade fair in Hanover next year.
But there are many in German industry who believe they have reason to fear China’s information-gathering prowess. The country’s domestic security agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, has warned German companies that China is devoting “immense manpower” to hunting for commercially useful information.