{"id":353170,"date":"2025-08-18T03:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T03:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353170\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T03:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T03:03:10","slug":"how-china-could-paralyze-germanys-defense-ramp-up-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353170\/","title":{"rendered":"How China could paralyze Germany\u2019s defense ramp-up \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The legal frameworks on either side of the Atlantic are starkly different. Washington treats them as strategic assets, with laws like the Defense Production Act allowing the government to fund domestic mining, steer supply chains and prioritize defense needs in emergencies. The U.S. maintains a national reserve through the Defense Logistics Agency \u2014 a federal safety net designed for wartime contingencies.\u00a0Despite that, it continues to need China.<\/p>\n

Brussels, by contrast, has taken a softer path: the Critical Raw Materials Act<\/a> establishes high-level targets and frameworks, but leaves actual implementation to voluntary coordination among member countries \u2014 with no central authority backing enforcement. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a state stockpile, unlike with gas or oil,\u201d said Kullik. \u201cThis kind of preventive, strategic preparedness \u2014 I just don\u2019t see it yet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers in Berlin say the EU\u2019s current approach simply doesn\u2019t go far enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vanessa Zobel of the conservative Christian Democrats, a member of the Bundestag\u2019s economic affairs committee, is critical of the EU\u2019s Critical Raw Materials Act<\/a>, calling it well-intentioned but ineffective. \u201cIt names the problem, but gets lost in bureaucracy,\u201d she said. Instead, she argues, national governments need to step in where Brussels hesitates \u2014 especially when it comes to defense.<\/p>\n

According to Zobel, Germany\u2019s raw materials dependency is a direct threat to national security. \u201cWithout secure supply chains, there can be no credible military deterrence,\u201d she said. \u201cMaking ourselves this dependent in security-critical areas is reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Friedrich Merz wants to turn Germany into Europe\u2019s leading military power. | Filip Singer\/EPA<\/p>\n

While she supports creating national stockpiles, Zobel sees that as only a short-term fix. \u201cA strategic reserve makes sense in times of crisis, but every stockpile is finite,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we want true resilience, we have to make structural changes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means reactivating Germany\u2019s own resources. \u201cWe\u2019ve been too complacent for too long,\u201d she added, pointing to unused lithium deposits and the political resistance to domestic mining. \u201cAnyone who wants a resilient defense industry must authorize mining sites, approve extraction, and prioritize funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The broader message is that Germany must stop relying on market forces and start thinking like a geopolitical actor. \u201cThe Zeitenwende has to show up in our thinking,\u201d she said, referring to former Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s pledge to fundamentally shift Germany\u2019s approach to security and defense after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. \u201cEverything is political. Everything is strategic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legal frameworks on either side of the Atlantic are starkly different. Washington treats them as strategic assets,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[23404,7668,1395,14787,10685,473,32,2595,7964,2000,8812,299,36,1945,1824,23762,2597,3933,2598,7337,7061,24082,8106,332,104,6648,2824,479,657,49,1116],"class_list":{"0":"post-353170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-ammunition","9":"tag-boris-pistorius","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-cold-war","12":"tag-critical-raw-materials","13":"tag-defense","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-drones","16":"tag-enforcement","17":"tag-eu","18":"tag-eu-china-relations","19":"tag-europe","20":"tag-france","21":"tag-friedrich-merz","22":"tag-germany","23":"tag-logistics","24":"tag-military","25":"tag-mining","26":"tag-missiles","27":"tag-olaf-scholz","28":"tag-procurement","29":"tag-radar","30":"tag-raw-materials","31":"tag-russia","32":"tag-spain","33":"tag-supply-chains","34":"tag-tanks","35":"tag-tariffs","36":"tag-ukraine","37":"tag-united-states","38":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115047550499619243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}