Chinese leader Xi Jinping had one overriding message for his visiting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron this week: Don’t let Europe get sucked into playing America’s game.
Beijing is eager to avoid the EU falling further under U.S. influence, at a time when the White House is pursuing a more assertive policy to counter China’s geopolitical and military strength.
Russia’s yearlong war against Ukraine has strengthened the alliance between Europe and the U.S., shaken up global trade, reinvigorated NATO and forced governments to look at what else could suddenly go wrong in world affairs. That’s not welcome in Beijing, which still views Washington as its strategic nemesis.
This week, China’s counter-offensive stepped up a gear, turning on the charm. Xi welcomed Macron into the grandest of settings at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, along with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. This was in sharp contrast to China’s current efforts to keep senior American officials at arm’s length, especially since U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called off a trip to Beijing during the spy balloon drama earlier this year.
Both American and Chinese officials know Europe’s policy toward Beijing is far from settled. That’s an opportunity, and a risk for both sides. In recent months, U.S. officials have warned of China’s willingness to send weapons to Russia and talked up the dangers of allowing Chinese tech companies unfettered access to European markets, with some success.
TikTok, which is ultimately Chinese owned, has been banned from government and administrative phones in a number of locations in Europe, including in the EU institutions in Brussels. American pressure also led the Dutch to put new export controls on sales of advanced semiconductor equipment to China.
Yet even the hawkish von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, has dismissed the notion of decoupling Europe from China’s economy altogether. From Beijing’s perspective, this is yet another significant difference from the hostile commercial environment being promoted by the U.S.
Just this week, 36 Chinese and French businesses signed new deals in front of Macron and Xi, in what Chinese state media said was a sign of “the not declining confidence in the Chinese market of European businesses.” While hardly a statement brimming with confidence, it could have been worse.
For the last couple of years European leaders have grown more skeptical of China’s trajectory, voicing dismay at Beijing’s way of handling the coronavirus pandemic, the treatment of protesters in Hong Kong and Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims, as well as China’s sanctions on European politicians and military threats against Taiwan.
Then, Xi and Vladimir Putin hailed a “no limits” partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. While the West rolled out tough sanctions on Moscow, China became the last major economy still interested in maintaining — and expanding — trade ties with Russia. That shocked many Western officials and provoked a fierce debate in Europe over how to punish Beijing and how far to pull out of Chinese commerce.
Beijing saw Macron as the natural partner to help avoid a nosedive in EU-China relations, especially since Angela Merkel — its previous favorite — was no longer German chancellor.
Macron’s willingness to engage with anyone — including his much-criticized contacts with Putin ahead of his war on Ukraine — made him especially appealing as Beijing sought to drive a wedge between European and American strategies on China.
Xi Jinping sees Macron as the natural to Angela Merkel, his previous partner in the West who helped avoid a nosedive in EU-China relations | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Not taking sides
“I’m very glad we share many identical or similar views on Sino-French, Sino-EU, international and regional issues,” Xi told Macron over tea on Friday, in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.
Strategic autonomy, a French foreign policy focus, is a favorite for China, which sees the notion as proof of Europe’s distance from the U.S. For his part, Macron told Xi a day earlier that France promotes “European strategic autonomy,” doesn’t like “bloc confrontation” and believes in doing its own thing. “France does not pick sides,” he said.
The French position is challenged by some in Europe who see it as an urgent task to take a tougher approach toward Beijing.
“Macron could have easily avoided the dismal picture of European and transatlantic disunity,” said Thorsten Benner, director of the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute. “Nobody forced Macron to show up with a huge business delegation, repeating disproven illusions of reciprocity and deluding himself about working his personal magic on Xi to get the Chinese leader to turn against Putin.”
Holger Hestermeyer, a professor of EU law at King’s College London, said Beijing will struggle to split the transatlantic alliance.
“If China wants to succeed with building a new world order, separating the EU from the U.S. — even a little bit — would be a prized goal — and mind you, probably an elusive one,” Hestermeyer said. “Right now the EU is strengthening its defenses specifically because China tried to play divide and conquer with the EU in the past.”
Xi’s focus on America was unmistakable when he veered into a topic that was a long way from Europe’s top priority, during his three-way meeting with Macron and von der Leyen. A week earlier the Biden administration had held its second Summit for Democracy, in which Russia and China were portrayed as the main threats.
“Spreading the so-called ‘democracy versus authoritarianism’ [narrative],” Xi told his European guests on Thursday, “would only bring division and confrontation to the world.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Hi, China Watchers. Today we look at the fraught politics of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s U.S. visits, do a deep dive into TikTok’s tangled web of government lobbying and check in on President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy. And with President Tsai in New York City today, we point her in the direction of Brooklyn’s unofficial culinary diplomatic outpost for the self-governing island and profile a book that renders a street-level exploration of its woefully underreported “out-of-bounds artistic creativity.”
Let’s get to it. — Phelim
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will arrive in New York today | Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
WELCOME TO AMERICA, PRESIDENT TSAI. PARDON OUR BICKERING
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen lands in New York today for the first of two layover visits in the U.S. as she travels to and from Latin America. She’ll be in New York for one day Thursday to receive a leadership award from a conservative think tank and will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles on April 5.
Tsai’s presence in the U.S. puts the administration of President Joe Biden in a bind. Biden needs to roll out a warm but unofficial diplomatic welcome mat to Taiwan’s leader without unduly infuriating the Chinese government which interprets any U.S.-Taiwan contacts as an affront to Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the self-governing island.
Beijing is already signaling that Tsai’s presence in the U.S. will further damage already frosty U.S.-China ties. Tsai’s visit “could lead to another serious, serious, serious confrontation in the China-U.S. relationship,” the chargés d’affaires in the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., Xu Xueyuan, told reporters on Wednesday. “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” Xu warned.
Biden’s thornier dilemma is balancing the demand of GOP China hawks wanting deeper and more official military, economic and diplomatic links to Taiwan — starting with engagement with Tsai — to discourage Beijing from considering a military invasion of the island.
Read my full story here.
POLITICO illustration by Jade Cuevas
HOW TIKTOK BUILT A ‘TEAM OF AVENGERS’ TO FIGHT FOR ITS LIFE
TikTok finds itself under siege in the U.S. and in Europe. Congressional calls for a TikTok ban are picking up steam. Influencers have descended on Washington as part of a last-ditch effort to save the company, paid for by TikTok. And the company’s CEO met bipartisan denunciations before a Congressional committee last week.
TikTok’s battle for survival has become a vivid study in how a wealthy, foreign-owned corporation can use its financial might to build an impressive-looking network of influence. It also provides some insight into the limitations of what lobbying can do to protect a company at the center of a geopolitical firestorm. Beyond closed doors, an army of operatives have been preparing for this moment. Former members of Congress — including a former member of Democratic House leadership — helped the CEO get meetings on the Hill ahead of the hearing. Former aides to Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi helped prepare him.
SKDK, a firm that worked for the Biden campaign, has been assisting with policy communications. But the preparations for TikTok’s fight date back years, to at least 2018. With more than two dozen sources, we paint a picture of how TikTok amassed a network of operatives that connect the company to power centers across the world.
POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs, Clothilde Goujard and Daniel Lippman have the full story here.
BEIJING SNEERS AT BIDEN’S DEMOCRACY SUMMIT
Today marks the conclusion of President Biden’s three-day Summit for Democracy.
Biden said the gathering — to which he invited the leaders of 120 countries — was a testament to his vision of democracies “getting stronger, not weaker.”
Biden put his money where his mouth is by announcing that his administration will channel — if Congress cooperates — $9.5 billion over the next three years to fund “efforts to advance democracy across the world.” And he’s creating a Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Governance operating out of USAID to allocate that cash.
Beijing is unimpressed. The U.S. insists that “only American and Western democracy is good and right, which is in itself at odds with the spirit of democracy,” the Chinese embassy’s Xu told reporters on Wednesday. That made Biden’s summit “much more about group politics than democracy,” Xu said.
Xu may be half-right. “The problem with the summit is it’s an issue of ‘who’s in, who’s out’ — who gets chosen and who doesn’t and that’s an unfortunate way it’s been organized,” said Derek Mitchell, former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar and the president of the National Democratic Institute. But Beijing’s criticism “shows China’s vulnerability and insecurity on the issues of real democracy,” Mitchell said.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Zelenskyy to Xi Jinping: Come to Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday invited Xi Jinping to Ukraine, for what would be the first direct communication between the two leaders since the beginning of Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine. “We are ready to see [Xi] here,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with the Associated Press on a train to Kyiv, adding, “I want to speak with him.” POLITICO’s Nicolas Camut has the full story here.
TRANSLATING WASHINGTON
— DOJ: SURVEILLANCE NEEDED TO ‘FIGHT’ CHINA: Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department’s surveillance authority — known as Section 702 — as an essential weapon against Chinese espionage. “This is what we need in order to fight the Chinese — we’re getting information about their cyber attacks, about their efforts to export our military information … [and] about their efforts to control dissidents who have fled China and now are in the United States,” Garland told a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday.
— SULLIVAN, WANG YI TALK BILATERAL RELATIONS: National security adviser Jake Sullivan called China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, last Friday, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment and the Chinese embassy said in a statement that it had “no information” regarding the reported call. But if accurate it suggests that the Biden administration is on a diplomatic outreach spree given that deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan, Rick Waters, made a low-key visit toHong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing from March 18-26 (a State Department spokesperson confirmed the details). The visit was devoted to “internal discussions with the U.S. embassy and consulates in China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday.
— RICHARD GERE DEFENDS TIBET IN D.C.: The actor Richard Gere lent some star power to a congressional hearing on Tuesday with sharply-worded criticism of China’s policies in Tibet. CCP control of Tibet has been “characterized by cruelty, collective violence and extreme persecution,” Gere told a hearing of the Congressional Executive Commission on China. The committee timed the hearing — whose panelists included Uzra Zeya, the State Department’s special coordinator for Tibetan issues, and head of the Tibetan government in exile, Sikyong Penpa Tsering — to coincide with the 64th anniversary of the CCP’s overthrow of the Dalai Lama-led Tibetan government. Gere has asserted that China-leery Hollywood studio executives placed him on a blacklist due to his blamed his advocacy for Tibet over the past three decades
— TAIWAN REP SLAMS HONDURAS’ DIPLOMATIC DEFECTION: Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday — and Beijing confirmed on Sunday — that the government of Honduras had broken diplomatic relations with the self-governing island in favor of Beijing ties. Honduras’ decision followed Taiwan’s refusal to provide $2.45 billion in aid to the Central American country, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told reporters. Honduras’s new ties with Beijing will render “nothing but empty promises and malign influence,” Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the U.S., Bi-khim Hsiao, tweeted on Saturday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning shot back by accusing Taiwan’s government of “dollar diplomacy.”
TRANSLATING EUROPE
EU’S HARD-HITTING SPEECH TO CHINA: Europe needs to be “bolder” on China, which has become “more repressive at home and more assertive abroad,” according to the president of the European Commission.
Von der Leyen, who will be visiting China next week together with French President Emmanuel Macron, warned Beijing not to side with Moscow in bringing compromised peace to Ukraine, saying: “How China continues to interact with Putin’s war will be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward.”
She implied, for the first time, that the EU could terminate pursuing a landmark trade deal with China, which was clinched in 2020 but subsequently stalled by the European Parliament when its members were sanctioned by Beijing authorities. “We need to reassess CAI [agreement] in light of our wider China strategy,” she said. Read our full story here.
ANTI-COERCION: EU negotiators have reached a major breakthrough in new rules that will allow the bloc to retaliate when foreign governments (read: China) try to use economic blackmail against one of its members (read: Lithuania). In the early hours of Tuesday, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU struck a deal on the anti-coercion instrument, after 11 hours of negotiations.
The instrument is “not a teeth-less tiger; it’s a tiger with teeth. It’s not a water pistol, it’s a gun,” said Bernd Lange, the lead lawmaker on the file. “Sometimes, it’s necessary to put a gun on the table, even knowing it is not used day by day.” Camille Gijs has the full story here.
LONDON SEALS DEAL: Britain will today be welcomed into an Indo-Pacific trade bloc called CPTPP (the successor to the one from which the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out), as ministers from the soon-to-be 12-nation trade pact meet in a virtual ceremony across multiple time zones, Graham Lanktree reports.
Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party of the U.K., which is hoping to return to power after next year’s general elections, will pursue legal routes toward declaring China’s crackdown on Uyghur Muslims a “genocide,” according to the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy. Here’s the report by Eleni Courea.
HOT FROM THE CHINA WATCHERSPHERE
Apple CEO Tim Cook gladhands with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on Monday | China’s Ministry of Commerce
— APPLE CEO GETS ‘OPENING UP’ EARFUL: Apple CEO Tim Cook got a whack of Chinese government sweet talk about the country’s rosy investment climate in Beijing on Monday.
China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told Cook that China has “steadfastly pushed forward a high level of opening up … and is willing to provide a good environment and services for foreign-funded enterprises, including Apple,” said a statement posted on the ministry’s website on Monday. That rhetoric echoed pledges that the Chinese government has been making for more than two decades — with questionable follow-through. Cook is one of a gaggle of U.S. senior corporate executives who have converged on Beijing this week for the 2023 China Development Forum to try to revive in-person business ties effectively suspended for three years due to China’s now-defunct zero-Covid policy.
TRANSLATING CHINA
The Taiwanese General Store in Brooklyn has become an East coast outpost of Taiwanese culinary, cultural and political identity | Lanna Apisukh
— BROOKLYN’S TAIWAN CULINARY CULTURE OUTPOST: Don’t be surprised if visiting Taiwan President Tsai’s motorcade makes a detour to Brooklyn during her layover in New York today. The likely destination: The Yun Hai (雲海 — “sea of clouds”) Taiwanese General Store. Since the online specialty store opened its brick and mortar location in 2022 it has become an East coast outpost of Taiwanese culinary, cultural and political identity. It led an initiative to support Taiwanese farmers during a 2021 Chinese import ban on Taiwanese pineapples and has become the Lunar New Year snacks supplier of choice for Taiwan’s unofficial diplomatic outpost in the Big Apple. China Watcher spoke to Lillian Lin, who co-owns Yun Hai with Lisa Cheng Smith, about the tasty intersection of Taiwanese food and politics.
The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What was the idea behind Yun Hai?
There are still a lot of people who don’t know what Taiwan is and confuse it with all sorts of other places. Including Thailand. Through the lens of food we’re shedding light on Taiwan’s history and bringing an awareness of Taiwan as a distinct place versus just some other random place they might have heard of in Asia.
We’re trying to share specific foods and dishes from Taiwan that have a holistic story about the people that are making it. It’s inevitable that when we talk about the history of where it all comes from, it acknowledges Taiwan as something that has its own identity. And that in itself should not be political, but unfortunately it is. We explain the history of Taiwanese foods and why it is Taiwanese and how you can’t find this stuff in China anymore.
What do Americans need to know about Taiwan?
All the politics make people question whether Taiwan is a country or not. But there’s a president, there’s a telephone country code, there’s a Taiwan website domain. It’s really a country, but that’s shrouded in the politics. And people are surprised when I tell them how progressive Taiwan is. Taiwan has gay marriage and press freedom that a lot of people don’t usually associate with Asia. And Taiwan is the only Mandarin-speaking democracy out there. So it’s a place where you can access Chinese history in a very open way and that’s of huge value.
How did Yun Hai get involved in the Chinapineapple export dispute?
When Taiwan’s pineapples got banned by China, there was a huge “freedom pineapple” movement where everybody in Taiwan was trying to eat as many pineapples as possible to help offset that canceled trade. In the U.S., there was a lot of interest in helping with that, but there wasn’t really an easy way to do that. So we thought — why don’t we try doing dried fruits instead? The goal was to create a new export channel for Taiwanese farmers so that they can diversify their export options and not solely rely on China. So we did a Kickstarter, raised about $110,000, bought 14 tons of fruit and now we’ve reordered from the farmers three times and are growing the quantity every time.
HEADLINES
WNYC:Rep. Jamaal Bowman Says Republicans Are Scapegoating TikTok. Agree?
Associated Press:Amid strained US ties, China finds unlikely friend in Utah
New York Times: How China Keeps Putting Off Its ‘Lehman Moment’
HEADS UP
— CHINA’S BOAO FORUM FLAGS ‘UNCERTAIN WORLD’: The annual Boao Forum for Asia opens today in Hainan’s Boao city and its organizers are channeling the global zeitgeist by making “an uncertain world” its central theme. The four-day event — Beijing’s attempt at a regional Davos — will host world leaders including Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
ONE BOOK, THREE QUESTIONS
Formosa Moon | Tobie Openshaw
The Book: Formosa Moon.
The Authors: Joshua Samuel Brown is a former journalist and author of more than a dozen Lonely Planet guides. Stephanie Huffman is an artist who earned her masters in Asian studies from Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
What is the most important takeaway from your book?
That cross-strait tension doesn’t define Taiwan. Despite the precariousness of its geopolitical situation, Taiwan’s zeitgeist isn’t one of anxiety and endless preparation for a conflict that’s been called various stages of “imminent” since 1949. Taiwan’s story is infinitely more complex and nuanced than the boilerplate — and historically dubious at best — “breakaway island” narrative that’s been dutifully copy-pasted into nearly every article published about Taiwan over the last 30 years.
What was the most surprising thing you learned while researching and writing this book?
The out-of-bounds artistic creativity of the Taiwanese. We encountered dozens of strange, wonderful and highly improbable venues seemingly willed into existence by folks with the energy, enthusiasm — and capital — to bring their dreams to life. From an inland hotel boasting an indoor scuba diving tank to a tourist village based entirely on the concept of cats, from the nearly endless array of colorful temples and food streets in every conceivable configuration to dozens of absolutely bonkersannual festivals that oversaturate the senses in every way.
What insights does your book offer about Taiwan that can’t be found in travel guides?
Travel guides generally stick to where to go, how to get there and what things should cost. There’s a bit of pragmatic logistics in the book — old habits die hard because I spent 10 years writing guidebooks for Lonely Planet. But we focused more on the 人情味 (rén qíng wèi: human warmth, friendliness) we experienced. By taking a more experiential travelogue approach, we hope to inspire readers to visit Taiwan, make their own discoveries and come to their own conclusions about the nation.
Got a book to recommend? Tell me about it at [email protected].
MANY THANKS TO: Heidi Vogt, Christian Oliver, Matt Kaminski, Jamil Anderlini, Stuart Lau, Hailey Fuchs, Clothilde Goujard, Daniel Lippman, Nicolas Camut, Josh Gerstein, Camille Gijs, Graham Lanktree, Eleni Courea, and digital producers Tara Gnewikow and Jeanette Minns.Do you have tips? Chinese-language stories we might have missed? Would you like to contribute to China Watcher or comment on this week’s items? Email us at [email protected].
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
China and Taiwan have been locked in a battle for diplomatic recognition since they split amid civil war in 1949, with Beijing spending billions to win recognition for its “one China” policy.
China claims Taiwan is part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, and refuses most contacts with countries that maintain formal ties with the island democracy. It threatens retaliation against countries merely for increasing contacts.
The Honduran Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Twitter that its government recognizes “only one China in the world” and that Beijing “is the only legitimate government that represents all of China.”
It added that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, and as of today, the Honduran government has informed Taiwan of the severance of diplomatic relations, pledging not to have any official relationship or contact with Taiwan.”
Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told a news conference Sunday that Taiwan had ended its relations with Honduras to “safeguard its sovereignty and dignity.”
Wu said that Honduran President Xiomara Castro and her team always had a “fantasy” about China and had raised the issue of switching ties before the presidential election in Honduras in 2021. Relations between Taiwan and Honduras were once stable, he said, but China had not stopped luring Honduras.
Honduras had asked Taiwan for billions of dollars of aid and compared its proposals with China’s, Wu said. About two weeks ago, the Honduran government sought $2.45 billion from Taiwan to build a hospital and a dam, and to write off debts, he added.
“The Castro government dismissed our nation’s longstanding assistance and relations and carried out talks to form diplomatic ties with China. Our government feels pained and regretful,” he said.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said her government would not “engage in a meaningless contest of dollar diplomacy with China.”
“Over these past few years, China has persistently used various means to suppress Taiwan’s international participation, escalate military intrusion, and disrupt peace and stability in the region,” she said in a recorded video.
Analysts have warned over the implications of the newly formed ties between China and Honduras. Political analyst Graco Pérez in Honduras said Beijing’s narrative would highlight the benefits, including investment and job creation, “but that is all going to be illusory.”
Pérez noted that some other countries have established such relations, but “it didn’t turn out to be what had been offered.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
BERLIN — Germany’s Christian Democrats, the country’s largest opposition group, are planning to shift away from the pragmatic stance toward China that characterized Angela Merkel’s 16 years as chancellor, claiming that maintaining peace through trade has failed.
It’s a remarkable course change for the conservative party that pursued a strategy of rapprochement and economic interdependence toward China and Russia during Merkel’s decade and a half in power. The volte-face has been spurred by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance — both economically and politically — in the Asian region and beyond.
According to a draft position paper seen by POLITICO, the conservatives say the idea of keeping peace through economic cooperation “has failed with regard to Russia, but increasingly also China.” The 22-page paper, which is to be adopted by the center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) parliamentary group in the Bundestag around Easter, outlines key points for a new China policy.
In a world order that is changing after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz last year announced a Zeitenwende, or major turning point, in German security policy. Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, in particular, have stressed the necessity of a comprehensive China strategy, an idea already mentioned in the coalition agreement to form Scholz’s government. Their ministries have elaborated two different drafts, but a comprehensive strategy is not yet in sight.
“We realize at this point in time, with some surprise, which is why we prepared and presented this paper, that the German government is significantly behind schedule on key foreign and security policy documents,” said CDU foreign policy lawmaker Johann Wadephul.
The foreword to the position paper states that “the rise of communist China is the central, epochal challenge of the 21st century for all states seeking to preserve, strengthen, and sustain the rules-based international order.” The CDU/CSU parliamentary group is open to working out a “national consensus” with Scholz’s government. That consensus, the group says, must be embedded in the national security strategy and in a European China strategy.
The relationship with China is described in the same triad fashion that wasformulated by the European Commission in 2019 and is in the coalition agreement of the current German government. Under this strategy,the Asian country is seen as a partner, economic competitor and systemic rival.
But the CDU/CSU group’s paper says policy should move away from a Beijing-friendly, pragmatic stance toward China, especially on trade. “We should not close our eyes to the fact that China has shifted the balance on its own initiative and clearly pushed the core of the relationship toward systemic rivalry,” the text states.
Such an emphasis from the conservative group is remarkable given its long-held preference for economic cooperation and political rapprochement toward both China and Russia under Merkel. Before leaving office, for example, Merkel pushed a major EU-China investment deal over the line, though it was later essentially frozen by the European Parliament due to Beijing’s sanctions against MEPs.
“I say to this also self-critically [that] this means for the CDU/CSU a certain new approach in China policy after a 16-year government period,” Wadephul said.
The paper calls for a “Zeitenwende in China policy,” too, concluding that Germany should respond “with the ability and its own strength to compete” wherever China seeks and forces competition; should build up its resilience and defensive capability and form as well as expand alliances and partnerships with interest and value partners; and demonstrate a willingness to partner where it is openly, transparently and reliably embraced by China.
The CDU/CSU papercalls for a European China strategy and a “European China Council” with EU neighbors for better cooperation. A central point is also strengthening reciprocity and European as well as German sovereignty.
“Decoupling from China is neither realistic nor desirable from a German and European perspective,” according to the text.
To better monitor dependencies, the paper proposes an expert commission in the Bundestag that would present an annual “China check” on dependencies in trade, technology, raw materials and foreign trade, with the overall aim of developing a “de-risking” strategy.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Beijing: The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair. It is time for the US to stop walking on the edge, stop using the salami tactics, stop pushing the envelope, and stop sowing confusion and trying to mislead the world on Taiwan, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
If the US refuses to change course and goes down that wrong path, there will be real consequences and it will come at real costs to the US, Spokesperson Mao Ning made the comment in response to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent ‘erroneous’ remarks on Taiwan.
“Secretary Blinken’s remarks are absolutely irresponsible and absurd. China firmly opposes that,” Mao said, adding that it seems that some history lessons are in order for the top US diplomat on the Taiwan question, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. The one-China principle is a universally recognised basic norm in international relations and the important political prerequisite and foundation for China’s diplomatic relations with countries in the world,” the Spokesperson stressed.
In 1972, the US stated in the Shanghai Communique that “The US acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The US government does not challenge that position,” Mao said.
In 1978, the US stated in the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the US and China that “The US recognises the Government of theRepublic of China as the sole legal government of China. The US government acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China,” he added.
She also mentioned in 1982, the US stated in the August 17 Communique that “the US recognised the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China, and it acknowledged the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. The US government…reiterates that it has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity, or interfering in China’s internal affairs, or pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’.”
“For some time, the US made those political commitments to China on the Taiwan question, which are written down in black and white,” the Spokesperson said.
The US has been deliberately ignoring and twisting the history and sending the wrong message on the Taiwan question. The US has significantly relaxed its restraint on official interactions and reinforced military contact with Taiwan and touted “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.” It has even been revealed by the media that the US government has a plan for “the destruction of Taiwan,” Mao said.
“We cannot help but ask what exactly is the US trying to achieve?”
The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair. It is at the very core of China’s core interests. It is the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in this relationship. China will never allow any external force to interfere in our internal affairs, Mao added.
“We have a clear message for the US: It is time to stop — stop walking on the edge, stop using the salami tactics, stop pushing the envelope, and stop sowing confusion and trying to mislead the world on Taiwan,” she said.
Britain and the rest of the G7 should urgently agree a tough package of sanctions to impose on China if it escalates military tensions with Taiwan, Liz Truss will argue, as she uses her first public overseas speech to pile pressure on Rishi Sunak.
Speaking in Tokyo on Friday, the former prime minister will urge her successor to be more hawkish in standing up to Beijing, warning coordinated action is needed to block “the rise of a totalitarian China” given “the free world is in danger”.
Truss is expected to raise concerns about the threat to Taiwan’s independence, saying the self-governed island should have its diplomatic status upgraded by being accepted into international organisations.
Other calls to action Truss will make as part of a six-point plan being presented to a conference in Tokyo include the creation of “an economic Nato” and regular audits by democratic countries to reduce dependence on China across critical industries.
Her speech is a further attempt to rebuild her political reputation, after resigning in October and becoming the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister.
However, it will also be viewed as an attempt to put pressure on Sunak to ensure a promised update to the government’s defence and security plan, known as the integrated review, and a stronger stance on China.
Truss herself ordered the review be updated only 18 months after the strategy – meant to look ahead to the next decade – was published, with suggestions China would be reclassified as a “threat” instead of a “systemic challenge”.
During the summer Conservative leadership contest, the then foreign secretary and her allies sought to present her as more hawkish in standing up to Beijing and less enticed by closer economic ties, given concerns about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the erosion of democracy in Hong Kong and military tensions with Taiwan.
Sunak has backed away from escalating a diplomatic row with China, but stressed in November that the so-called “golden era” of relations was over.
Defence and foreign affairs officials in Whitehall believe that China is closely watching the west’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and acknowledge that deep economic sanctions were in part designed to deter other potential aggressors.
But Russia’s economy is substantially smaller, and any sanctions against China would carry potentially much greater consequences for the global economy.
The Guardian revealed earlier this week that government officials were strategising a series of scenarios about the economic fallout if China invaded Taiwan – both due to the disruption to supply chains of items like microchips and the impact of sanctions.
China’s government claims Taiwan as a province, and its authoritarian premier, Xi Jinping, is set on what he terms “reunification”.
Truss herself will admit that having “rolled out the red carpet” for Xi on his state visit in 2015, when she was a cabinet minister, was a mistake. In her speech to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China symposium, she is will say: “I should know – I attended a banquet in his honour. Looking back, I think this sent the wrong message.”
Taiwan is a “beacon of freedom” and “flourishing democracy, with a thriving free press and an independent judiciary”, Truss will stress, adding that the UK should “learn from the past” and “ensure that Taiwan is able to defend itself”.
Some Conservatives still want Sunak to take a more lenient approach to China. Philip Hammond, a Tory peer and former chancellor under Theresa May, wrote an article for China Daily suggesting the UK and China should “return to business as usual”.
He acknowledged “the background noise to that relationship over the last three years has been challenging”, but said political differences should “not become an impediment” to boosting trade ties.
“Quite honestly, if we only trade with people with whom we have no political differences, we can close half our ports tomorrow,” Hammond added.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
MUNICH — Cut through the haze of hoary proclamations emanating from the main stage of the Munich Security Conference about Western solidarity and common purpose this weekend, and one can’t help but notice more than a hint of foreboding just beneath the surface.
Even as Western leaders congratulate themselves for their generosity toward Ukraine, the country’s armed forces are running low on ammunition, equipment and even men. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who opened the conference from Kyiv on Friday, urged the free world to send more help — and fast. “We need speed,” he said.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris turned the heat up on Russia on another front, accusing the country of “crimes against humanity.” “Let us all agree. On behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown: justice must be served,” she said.
In other words, Russian leaders could be looking at Nuremberg 2.0. That’s bound to make a few people in Moscow nervous, especially those old enough to remember what happened to Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milošević and his entourage.
The outlook in Asia is no less fraught. Taiwan remains on edge, as the country tries to guess China’s next move. Here too, the news from Munich wasn’t reassuring.
“What is happening in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did nothing to contradict that narrative. “Let me assure the audience that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory,” Wang told the conference when asked about Beijing’s designs on the self-governed island. Taiwan “has never been a country and it will never be a country in the future.”
For some attendees, the vibe in the crowded Bayerischer Hof hotel where the gathering takes place carried echoes of 1938. That year, the Bavarian capital hosted a conference that resulted in the infamous Munich Agreement, in which European powers ceded the Sudetenland to Germany in a misguided effort they believed could preserve peace.
“We all know that there is a storm brewing outside, but here inside the Bayerischer Hof all seems normal,” wrote Andrew Michta, dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the Germany-based Marshall Center. “It all seems so routine, and yet it all changes suddenly when a Ukrainian parliamentarian pointedly tells the audience we are failing to act fast enough.”
The only people smiling at this year’s security conference are the defense contractors. Arms sales are booming by all accounts.
Even Germany, which in recent years perfected the art of explaining away its failure to meet its NATO defense spending commitment, promised to reverse course. Indeed, German officials appeared to be trying to outdo one another to prove just how hawkish they’ve become.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to “permanently” meet NATO’s defense spending goal for individual members of two percent of GDP.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to “permanently” meet NATO’s defense spending goal for individual members | Johannes Simon/Getty Images
Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, a Social Democrat like Scholz, called for even more, saying that “it will not be possible to fulfill the tasks that lie ahead of us with barely two percent.”
Keep in mind that at the beginning of last year, leading Social Democrats were still calling on the U.S. to remove all of its nuclear warheads from German soil.
In other words, if even the Germans have woken up to the perils of the world’s current geopolitical state, this could well be the moment to really start worrying.
CORRECTION: Jens Stoltenberg’s reference to Asia has been updated.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
MUNICH — Wake up, Europe. We must face the China challenge.
That was NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s message on Saturday for the global security elite gathered at the Munich Security Conference.
The military alliance chief directly linked Russia’s war in Ukraine to China, hinting at concerns about Beijing launching a war on Taiwan, the self-governed island Beijing still claims.
“What is happening in Europe today,” he cautioned, “could happen in east Asia tomorrow.”
Moscow, Stoltenberg underscored, “wants a different Europe” while Beijing “is watching closely to see the price Russia pays — or the reward it receives for its aggression.”
“Even if the war ends tomorrow,” he added, “our security environment is changed for the long term.”
Stoltenberg’s remarks come against the backdrop of a broader conversation among Western allies about how to approach China as it makes revanchist military threats toward Taiwan and pumps up its own industries with government help.
While countries like the U.S. have pushed allies to keep a closer eye on Beijing and distance themselves from China’s economy, others have expressed caution about turning China into such an unequivocal enemy.
The NATO chief warned that Western allies must act united on both the military and economic fronts.
“The war in Ukraine has made clear the danger of over-reliance on authoritarian regimes,” he noted.
“We should not make the same mistake with China and other authoritarian regimes,” he said, calling on the West to eschew its dependence on China for the raw materials powering society. He also warned against exporting key technologies to the country.
And while focusing on external adversaries, Stoltenberg also implored NATO allies to avoid internal squabbling.
“We must not create new barriers between free and open economies,” he said.
“The most important lesson from the war in Ukraine,” he added, “is that North America and Europe must stand together.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
MUNICH — China is trying to drive a fresh wedge between Europe and the United States as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine trudges past its one-year mark.
Such was the motif of China’s newly promoted foreign policy chief Wang Yi when he broke the news at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that President Xi Jinping would soon present a “peace proposal” to resolve what Beijing calls a conflict — not a war — between Moscow and Kyiv. And he pointedly urged his European audience to get on board and shun the Americans.
In a major speech, Wang appealed specifically to the European leaders gathered in the room.
“We need to think calmly, especially our friends in Europe, about what efforts should be made to stop the warfare; what framework should there be to bring lasting peace to Europe; what role should Europe play to manifest its strategic autonomy,” said Wang, who will continue his Europe tour with a stop in Moscow.
In contrast, Wang launched a vociferous attack on “weak” Washington’s “near-hysterical” reaction to Chinese balloons over U.S. airspace, portraying the country as warmongering.
“Some forces might not want to see peace talks to materialize,” he said, widely interpreted as a reference to the U.S. “They don’t care about the life and death of Ukrainians, [nor] the harms on Europe. They might have strategic goals larger than Ukraine itself. This warfare must not continue.”
Yet at the conference, Europe showed no signs of distancing itself from the U.S. nor pulling back on military support for Ukraine. The once-hesitant German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Europe to give Ukraine even more modern tanks. And French President Emmanuel Macron shot down the idea of immediate peace talks with the Kremlin.
And, predictably, there was widespread skepticism that China’s idea of “peace” will match that of Europe.
“China has not been able to condemn the invasion,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a group of reporters. Beijing’s peace plan, he added, “is quite vague.” Peace, the NATO chief emphasized, is only possible if Russia respects Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Europe watches with caution
Wang’s overtures illustrate the delicate dance China has been trying to pull off since the war began.
Keen to ensure Russia is not weakened in the long run, Beijing has offered Vladimir Putin much-needed diplomatic support, while steering clear of any direct military assistance that would attract Western sanctions against its economic and trade relations with the world.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Wang while in Munich | Johannes Simon/Getty Images
“We will put forward China’s position on the political settlement on the Ukraine crisis, and stay firm on the side of peace and dialogue,” Wang said. “We do not add fuel to the fire, and we are against reaping benefit from this crisis.”
According to Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who met Wang earlier this week, Xi will make his “peace proposal” on the first anniversary of the war, which is Friday.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Wang while in Munich. He said he hoped to have a “frank” conversation with the Beijing envoy.
“We believe that compliance with the principle of territorial integrity is China’s fundamental interest in the international arena,” Kuleba told journalists in Munich. “And that commitment to the observance and protection of this principle is a driving force for China, greater than other arguments offered by Ukraine, the United States, or any other country.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is also expected to meet Wang later on Saturday.
Many in Munich were wary of the upcoming Chinese plan.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed China’s effort to use its influence to foster peace but told reporters she had “talked intensively” with Wang during a bilateral meeting on Friday about “what a just peace means: not rewarding the attacker, the aggressor, but standing up for international law and for those who have been attacked.”
“A just peace,” she added, “presupposes that the party that has violated territorial integrity — meaning Russia — withdraws its troops from the occupied country.”
One reason for Europe’s concerns is the Chinese peace plan could undermine an effort at the United Nations to rally support for a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which will be on the U.N.’s General Assembly agenda next week, according to three European officials and diplomats.
Taiwan issue stokes up US-China tension
If China was keen to talk about peace in Ukraine, it’s more reluctant to do so in a case closer to home.
When Wolfgang Ischinger, the veteran German diplomat behind the conference, asked Wang if he could reassure the audience Beijing was not planning an imminent military escalation against Taiwan, the Chinese envoy was non-committal.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said “what is happening in Europe today could happen in east Asia tomorrow” | Johannes Simon/Getty Images
“Let me assure the audience that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. It has never been a country and it will never be a country in the future,” Wang said.
The worry over Taiwan resonated in a speech from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who said “what is happening in Europe today could happen in east Asia tomorrow.” Reminding the audience of the painful experience of relying on Russia’s energy supply, he said: “We should not make the same mistakes with China and other authoritarian regimes.”
But China’s most forceful attack was reserved for the U.S. Calling its decision to shoot down Chinese and other balloons “absurd” and “near-hysterical,” Wang said: “It does not show the U.S. is strong; on the contrary, it shows it is weak.
Wang also amplified the message in other bilateral meetings, including one with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “U.S. bias and ignorance against China has reached a ridiculous level,” he said. “The U.S. … has to stop this kind of absurd nonsense out of domestic political needs.”
It remains unclear if Wang will hold a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken while in Germany, as has been discussed.
Hans von der Burchard and Lili Bayer reported from Munich, and Stuart Lau reported from Brussels.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
