Is Germany afraid of China?

The German air force has taken off for its first deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. It will take part in Australia’s biennial warfare exercise Pitch Black from Friday, side by side with other western nations as well as regional partners such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Berlin’s show of solidarity will be welcomed by Nato allies, but it will also draw pushback from China. It’s an opportunity for Germany to show that it can make a meaningful contribution to the deterrence of Chinese aggression in the Pacific. But in order to do so convincingly it will have to resist pressure from Beijing with more confidence than it has in the past.

Germany’s commitment looks promising. It is sending six Eurofighter Typhoons, four A400M transport aircraft, three A330 multirole tanker transport aircraft and around 250 personnel to Australia. That’s the Luftwaffe’s biggest deployment since the second world war. Germany is also keen to impress with speed and readiness.