Xi ist in Bezug auf wichtige EU-Lieferungen genauso riskant wie Putin, warnt der Nato-Admiral

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Chinese president Xi Jinping is as dangerous a partner as Russia in terms of critical EU supplies, a senior Nato commander has warned.

“We thought we had a deal with [Russian gas supplier] Gazprom, but we actually had a deal with [Russian president Vladimir] Putin,” said Dutch admiral Rob Bauer at the Berlin Security Conference in Germany on Wednesday (20 November).

“Same goes for Chinese-owned infrastructure and goods: we actually have a deal with Xi,” he added.

Putin used gas cut-offs to wage economic warfare against unfriendly EU states in the run-up to his full Ukraine invasion in 2022.

And Xi was in a position to do the same with EU tech and pharmaceutical supply chains, warned Bauer, who is head of Nato’s military committee, which brings together national armed forces’ chiefs.

Some “60 percent of all rare earth materials are produced in China and 90 percent is processed in China,” Bauer said, speaking of minerals used in making microchips and batteries.

Some “90 percent of the chemical ingredients for sedatives, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and low blood pressure medicines come from China,” he added.

“We are naïve if we think the Communist Party will never use that power,” Bauer said.

“Business leaders in Europe and America need to realise that the commercial decisions they make, have strategic consequences for the security of their nation,” he said.

“Businesses need to be prepared for a war-time scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly,” he added.

Talk of EU “de-risking” from China has been around since at least the Covid pandemic, but Bauer spoke amid heightened tension in Europe, with reports that a Chinese vessel sailing from Russia under a Russian captain was in the vicinity where communications cables between Nato and EU states Finland, Germany, Lithuania, and Sweden were severed on Sunday and Monday.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday: “We also attach great importance to the protection of seabed infrastructure … we are actively promoting the construction and protection of submarine cables and other global information infrastructures”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason”.

Xi last met Putin at a BRICs summit in Russia on 22 October, where he pledged his “deep …friendship”.

The EU has also accused China of helping Russia to construct military drones for use in Ukraine, which China denies.

“On the Ukraine crisis, China upholds an objective and just position and has actively promoted peace talks, which stands in sharp contrast with certain countries who apply double standards and keep adding fuel to the fire on the Ukraine crisis,” the Chinese foreign ministry also said on Tuesday.

China’s mention of “fuel” alluded to a US and UK decision to let Ukraine fire their long-range missiles into Russia this week.

The move comes amid Russian gains on the battlefield and doubts over future US aid to Ukraine under incoming president Donald Trump.

“Under the laws of armed conflict, Ukraine is entitled to strike any militarily significant target — it just needs to avoid targeting of civilians. There is nothing in international law concerning the range of weapons-use,” Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, told EUobserver.

“Reversing a bad US policy [former targeting restrictions] is good news. Even in changing a bad policy, however, it is a mistake to make such a change public, as it gives Russia advance notice of potential Ukrainian strikes,” he said.

“This unnecessary restriction on Ukraine’s self-defence should simply have been removed — full-stop,” he said.

Bauer, the Nato admiral, didn’t mention the Baltic Sea cable cuts or undersea infrastructure security on Wednesday.

But he noted: “One of the most commonly asked questions I get is: when will the Russians attack us? And my answer is that to a certain degree that depends on us”.

“Deterrence is the 7-feet tall bouncer in front of the nightclub that makes you think twice about going in. So if we make sure we are 7-feet tall, we’re in a much better position,” he said.

Nor does he mention the railway attacks in Paris before the Olympics, Russia is poking nato on home turf.