Enlarge imagePhoto: Britta Pedersen / dpa
SPIEGEL's investigation into former Air Force soldiers who train fighter jet pilots in China is making waves. At a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Pistorius rather undiplomatically throbbed the end of the training.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has called on China to immediately end the training of fighter jet pilots by former Bundeswehr soldiers. During a conversation with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, he made it unmistakably clear that it was unacceptable for Berlin for former Air Force pilots to pass on their knowledge to Chinese pilots.
"I have made it clear that I expect this practice to end immediately, regardless of us," Pistorius said on Saturday in Singapore. He also made it clear to Li Shangfu "that he would certainly not be amused if I tried it myself."
Pistorius had met Li Shangfu on Saturday on the sidelines of the security conference for talks. Instead of the planned 30 minutes, the two ministers sat together for more than an hour. Pistorius described the meeting as a "very open" conversation in which the differences of opinion between Berlin and Beijing were expressed very clearly.
However, the Chinese Defense Minister had "reacted very cautiously" to the demand regarding the German instructors. It was not disputed that the Chinese Air Force had hired former Bundeswehr pilots as trainers, but Li Shangfu had "relativized" the importance of the German instructors.
After intensive research, DER SPIEGEL and ZDF reported on Friday that a handful of former Air Force soldiers are training fighter jet pilots in China. According to their own investigations, the security authorities and intelligence services consider it very likely that the pilots in China could have betrayed military expertise, passed on secret deployment tactics of the Bundeswehr and NATO, and even practiced attack scenarios that would be helpful for a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
"It's time for this naivety and German naivety to come to an end"
After their retirement, the pilots were recruited by seemingly unsuspicious companies in South Africa and New Zealand and then placed in China. For their work in China, they are said to collect six-figure annual salaries.
The research had already led to some harsh reactions in Berlin yesterday. "It's time for this naivety and German naivety to come to an end," Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), chairman of the defense committee, told SPIEGEL. "The fact that former Air Force soldiers train fighter jet pilots after their service in China is an absurdity, we cannot accept that," said Strack-Zimmermann.
The defense expert called for a rapid tightening of the Bundeswehr rules for former soldiers. Accordingly, it must be ensured that former soldiers are only allowed to work as military instructors in NATO countries and with strategic partners.
The meeting of high-profile security politicians from the Indo-Pacific region is dominated by the conflict between the USA and China. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned China in sharp terms against military action against Taiwan. "A conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be devastating," Austin said. Such an escalation would have an impact on the global economy "in ways we cannot imagine."
China, however, accused the US of "false accusations". A spokesman for the Chinese delegation, however, accused Washington of wanting to continue the American policy of domination.