Kiel debates partnership with Qingdao

The new production halls for submarines of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems at the Kieler Foerde in October 2022: New target of Chinese espionage?

The German city of Kiel wants to form a city partnership with the Chinese port city of Qingdao. The security institute of the local university harbors great concerns, especially because of the presence of the German navy and a submarine shipyard in the city. After all, Qingdao also builds submarines and is an important naval site. It remains to be seen what impact the recent change of government to the Greens will have on the project.

As of last Thursday, the German city of Kiel has a new mayor: Bettina Aust from the Green Party, who won the local elections in May. This means that a project that has been controversial for months is now on her desk: The planned city partnership with the Chinese port city of Qingdao. Just two days before the local elections, Kiel’s council assembly had once again voted to continue talks with Qingdao, at that time still under the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parliamentary group had requested to suspend the talks, while other parties had at least set certain preconditions.

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