““Chinese authorities coveted a powerful and accurate 120mm cannon produced by the huge German conglomerate Rheinmetall. Mertins acquired the plans of the cannon and provided them to NORINCO.67 Such are the morals of the arms dealer: developed and nurtured by German Intelligence as the arms dealer of choice for shadowy transactions, Mertins was willing, only a decade later, to undermine the military capacity of his fatherland so as to support communist China.””