Omid Nouripour, the Deputy President of the Bundestag and a Green Party foreign‑policy spokesman, accused China of actively supporting the war in Ukraine and of artificially limiting the supply of rare‑earth elements.
He told the German broadcaster “Welt” on Tuesday that China does more than merely refuse to condemn the conflict; it actively backs the Russian Federation through heavy exports and other forms of assistance. Nouripour pointed out that Russia is receiving systems that it uses in the war-goods that he calls “dual‑use” meaning they can serve both civilian and military purposes. According to Nouripour, China insists those items are purely civilian, yet it labels certain raw materials that Germany needs as dual‑use, thereby constricting the global market and strengthening its own position.
Nouripour urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz to raise both China’s involvement and human‑rights concerns during his upcoming visit to the People’s Republic of China. He added that it is “good in principle that the Chancellor goes there” but stresses that the issues must be addressed.
Drawing a comparison with Germany’s pre‑war energy dependence on Russia, Nouripour described both China and Russia as dictatorships that exploit such dependencies strategically. “We must do everything to dismantle these dependencies” he said, noting the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a reminder of the fatal consequences of dependence. “We faced this with energy and Russia, now it is with rare earths and China. We must reduce these dependencies because those regimes use them against us”.
