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For the Chinese foreign minister, there was not much to gain from this trip, it was clear from the start. Even a face-saving title in Germany is not safe. Wang Yi has been on a European tour since Tuesday, five countries in seven days. Today, Monday, Berlin was on the show. The trip is important for Beijing, after all, it is the first for the Chinese diplomatic chief since February. But in all previous stages, critics of China did their best to qualify it as representing a state of injustice.
China’s relationship with the West has dramatically deteriorated since the crown pandemic began. The memory that Chinese officials initially covered up the outbreak has now faded in China, but even more vivid abroad. The leaked documents increasingly document the crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang. Hong Kong’s submission to the Beijing government has sparked outrage in the West and threats against Taiwan have sparked nervousness. Then there is the controversy over Chinese network equipment provider Huawei.
“This point in time not only marks the low point in relations between China and the United States, but also between China and the rest of the international community,” said Wu Qiang, who lost his position as a political lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Beijing because of its criticism of the government. . “The situation is so dire that even damage control is quite a high standard,” says Shi Yinhong, a professor of politics at Renmin University in Beijing. Foreign Minister Wang wants to prevent “Europe from slipping completely into the American camp.”
New cold war
In an approaching new Cold War, as many observers predict, it is of great importance to both China and the United States how Europeans position themselves. Washington wants to take them to his side. It would be a success for Beijing to avoid a united front in the West.
The Trump administration recently made a few points: In July and August, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toured Europe twice. In London, he congratulated Boris Johnson on the UK’s decision to exclude Huawei from the 5G network. In the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, he signed a joint anti-Huawei statement. With Prague, Pompeo visited a capital that recently ended its twinning with Beijing in favor of one with Taipei, Taiwan.
“There is not much difference between Europe and the United States,” said politics professor Shi. “Unfortunately, all highly developed European countries take almost the same positions, that is, those of the foreign policy hawks.”
In view of this climate, all parties had initially tried to allow Wang’s European trip to unfold quietly. In some European capitals, scheduled dates could only be found out on request, while Chinese state media reluctantly reported. But activists and parliamentarians in Europe did not even think to keep quiet.
Nobel Peace Prize to the Hong Kong protest movement?
Wang first landed in Italy, the only G7 country to join China’s Silk Road initiative. If Wang expected a quiet reception there, he was disappointed: shortly before his visit, activist Nathan Law, who had fled Hong Kong, appeared in Rome to commemorate the fate of his city. It received the support of 17 members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international alliance of members critical of China. Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio was quick to warn that Hong Kong’s autonomy was not an option.
In the Netherlands, the parliamentary foreign affairs committee invited Wang to discuss the human rights situation in his country, a provocative act that the Chinese rejected. In Norway, MP Trine Skei Grande led a rally critical of China. At a press conference in Oslo, Wang was faced with the uncomfortable assumption that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize could go to the Hong Kong protest movement.
In Paris, the presidential office announced that Emmanuel Macron had told Wang that he was “very concerned” about the situation of the Uighurs and in Hong Kong. Even the EU Foreign Affairs representative, Josep Borrell, spoke out: not only did he describe China as a “new empire”, but also demanded that the EU “correct” its economic balance with the People’s Republic before it is ” too late”.
As the last stop on his journey, Wang now arrives in Germany, in the immediate aftermath of the weekend of unrest in Berlin, which may have seemed strange to the Chinese. The German Crown’s rules are soft compared to China’s and demonstrations critical to the government are banned anyway. Just in time for Wang’s visit, it became clear once again how fundamentally different the political systems of China and Europe are.
Beijing’s most important partner in Europe
Berlin Beijing is considered the most important partner in Europe. China doesn’t trade as much with any other EU country. Until now, the federal government has left the question of whether Huawei is allowed to participate in the German 5G network. The Beijing federal government is also seen as comparatively conciliatory on other sensitive issues. Assume that Wang expects a conciliatory end to this tangled journey in its final stage.
But the federal government is also under increasing pressure to take a tougher line. Three members of the Bundestag belonging to IPAC have called on Chancellor Heiko Maas to end the German restraint. And civil rights activist Nathan Law asked in a letter to Maas that Germany should redefine the EU’s relations with China during her presidency and ultimately implement a “values-based trade policy.”
