Ingo Gaedechens, a member of conservative opposition party CDU and parliament's budget committee, said the tank deal is a manoeuvre by Pistorius to bypass the budget stalemate.

He told Reuters the tank order was justified but that the deal raised questions regarding future funding of German forces, as did the latest purchase of two frigates for more than 3 billion euros and the announcement of an order of Eurofighter jets for some 3 billion euros.

"There's one thing that all three projects have in common: The government refuses to answer the question how these purchases are meant to be bankrolled," Gaedechens said.

"The many blank cheques being issued by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Defence Minister Boris Pistorius cause an ever-growing financial bow wave - and nobody in the ruling coalition has any idea how to come to grips with this financial chaos," he said.

Perell found the reporter who wrote the story did not see a transcript of the conversation between Dong and the diplomat and did not keep all of the notes that were used as part of the reporting process.

The ruling said the notes the reporter did keep, based on conversations with sources, do not contain any reference to Dong advising a Chinese diplomat to "delay" or "hold off" on releasing the Two Michaels.

The sources got their information through "some indeterminate degree of hearsay," the judge added.

The bulk of Israel’s weapons sales profits come from its air defense systems and components, which facilitate ongoing profits through exports during the ongoing war. One of the biggest weapons contracts signed in 2023 was for the Arrow 3 long-range air defense system, purchased by Germany for $4.3 billion.

Preserving the prestige of Israeli air defense systems is a clear objective for the Israeli government and military. This was evident in their attempts to undermine the role of U.S. air defense systems during Iran’s retaliatory attack against Israel in April, dubbed Operation True Promise. Despite reports indicating that the U.S. downed the majority of Iran’s missiles and drones, Israeli media focused on the apparent failure of American air defense systems.