Baerbock’s inflexible position on universal values has been a headache for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But given Germany’s international stature and China’s deteriorated economy, the CCP had no choice but to swallow its pride.
Amid growing internal and external challenges, Beijing is anxious to repair relations with Western nations.
Baerbock visited Beijing from April 13 to 15 at the invitation of the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, the country’s second-highest diplomat. She was received by three top-level CCP officials, including Vice President Han Zheng, which was widely perceived as a groundbreaking arrangement.
Baerbock said that “unilaterally changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait—and, in particular, by force—would be, for us as Europeans, unacceptable.”
She called on all parties to “not escalate the tension.”
The CCP claims Taiwan as a Chinese province even though Taiwan is a de facto independent country with a military, democratically-elected government, and constitution. The CCP has never ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control.
However, Wang’s citation of “German reunification” and “peaceful unification” of Taiwan was widely regarded as a slip of the tongue error, contradicting the CCP’s public assertion that it might take Taiwan by force.
Hu Xizhen, former editor-in-chief of the Chinese state-owned Global Times, had sour words of praise for the German Foreign Minister’s principled stance.
“Baerbock’s performance in China was justified, as she expressed her disagreement with Taiwan, human rights, and Ukraine, although her language was non-threatening to Beijing,” Hu wrote on Chinese microblogging Weibo on April 16.
“China respects Germany, including our State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who went to Tianjin to accompany Baerbock visiting German companies and took the high-speed train with her to Beijing, fully playing host to her,” Hu added, setting aside his usual wolf warrior diplomacy-style comment.
Green Party Member
Baerbock, 42, has been a member of the Bundestag—German federal parliament—since 2013.In her first term, she served as a member of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy and the Committee on European Affairs.
On Jan. 27, 2018, she was elected as one of two equal chairpersons of the Green Party, along with Robert Haberke.
In 2021, Baerbock became the chancellor candidate of the Greens. Under her leadership, the Greens won 14.8 percent of the national vote in the 2021 election and 118 seats in the Bundestag, the best result in the party’s history.
After the election, the Greens entered a new coalition government with the FDP and the Social Democrats, and Baerbock became the country’s first female foreign minister.
During her visit to Poland in December 2021, Baerbock supported Warsaw’s efforts to prevent Belarusian migrants from entering the European Union.
However, she changed her stance on both after the Russian army was revealed to have killed Ukrainian civilians in April.
French-German Contrast: Soft vs. Tough
Baerbock’s visit contrasted French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to China, where he appeared to have pandered to Beijing.The French leader has sparked anger by calling on the European Union to reduce dependence on the United States and actively avoid taking a stance against China’s aggression toward self-ruled Taiwan.
His words were met with a tidal wave of criticism.
She emphasized that “conflicts may only be resolved peacefully” during her China visit.
Stance on China
Baerbock told the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung in December 2021 that the EU needs a shared “European China policy” where all 27 member states are united, rather than when Germany, the largest member state sets its own policy toward the Chinese communist regime, as it has done in the past.According to Baerbock, foreign policy and values are a combination of dialogue and assertiveness.
“The way Beijing’s leaders have treated tennis player Peng Shuai or the arrested Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan, there is a real need to take a good look at the Olympics,” she said, adding that journalism is not a crime and that Zhang should be released.
Peng Shuai is a Chinese tennis star who disappeared in November 2021 after accusing former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Zhang Zhan is a citizen journalist sentenced for reporting on the pandemic in China.