Siemens itself did not want to know anything about the repurchase of its software to Chinese military universities.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The technology group Siemens has ended its controversial cooperation with the Chinese armaments company Transemic. All transactions with this company are blocked, a Siemens spokesman told the Handelsblatt.
The US authorities put Transemic on their sanctions list on June 12. Transemic has “demonstrable ties to questionable activities, including the development of hypersonic weapons, the design and manufacture of air-to-air missiles,” the US Department of Commerce said in a statement.
As the Handelsblatt reported in April, the Chinese company Transemic and other business partners of Siemens in China had sold simulation software from the German industrial group to research institutions related to the Chinese military in recent years.
The so-called “Seven Sons of Defense” are central to the country’s rearmament. The Siemens software sold to the institutes can be used, among other things, to optimize military vehicles and aircraft.
The transfer of the Siemens software is also explosive in view of the fact that China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping has been expanding and modernizing the Chinese military for years and is becoming increasingly aggressive internationally.
Siemens does not want to know about resale to military universities
On its website, Siemens gives numerous examples of the use of the software in the armaments sector. For example, they are used by the Swedish military and the British arms manufacturer BAE Systems.
The USA imposed sanctions on the “Seven Sons of Defense” some time ago, but have so far ignored Transemic. Siemens itself did not want to end the connection to Transemic after the Handelsblatt and the Washington Post reported on the resale of its software to military universities.
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Accordingly, in 2020 Transemic sold the Siemens software to the Beijing Institute of Technology, which is on the American blacklist. The university is a leading center for military research in China, according to Australian think tank ASPI. The university itself states that it represents the national top level in the fields of “precision strikes, efficient destruction and mobile surprise defense”.
According to their own statements, the Munich company had no knowledge of the resale of their software to the military universities. The documents for the sales process are publicly accessible.
Against the background of the media reports, Siemens had already scaled back its business with Transemic. Now it’s finally over.
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