Germany Reiterates not to Export Submarine Technology to Taiwan

German economic department spokeswoman stressed on June 22 in Berlin that Germany will neither export submarine to Taiwan, nor transfer via a third party submarine building technology to it.

The spokeswoman is responding to a related report by the German weekly Spiegel.

Spiegel's report said that a couple of months ago, after American One Equity Partners acquired Germany's largest ship-building company HDW's 75 percent shares, the design, technique and equipment of Germany-made U31-type submarine might be exported to Taiwan by way of the USA, thus circumventing Germany's ban of exporting military technology to "in-crisis" countries or regions.

The spokeswoman claimed the report a complete nonsense.

She said that in accordance with relevant regulations of German government, Germany not only prohibited submarine sale to Taiwan, but also would not even transfer in any detour the blueprint of its submarine design to Taiwan.

She reiterated that German government adheres to "One China" policy, which remains unchanged.

German Chancellor Schroeder also said on June 3 in Berlin that the German government recognizes that the government of the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government of China. Germany forbids any sale of submarine to Taiwan.

( June 25, 2002)