For Burbock, this visit to China is his first in his current position. But that’s just one of the reasons why the German minister’s trip has drawn increased attention. Burbock, like his Green Party comrades, doesn’t have the friendliest stance toward Beijing and has in the past made rather harsh remarks about Chinese politics and German-Chinese relations. Last fall, the German Foreign Office became the main developer of the new German strategy towards China, and the very first draft of this document elicited a very negative reaction from the Chinese authorities. The new strategy, according to media leaks, defines China primarily as a competitor and systemic rival of Germany and the EU, proposes to increase the importance of human rights in German-Chinese relations and to expand Berlin’s relations with Taiwan. Granted, later, according to the same media leaks, many of the wordings in the document have been significantly softened, but it has yet to be officially released and continues to be under development.
Furthermore, Burbock’s visit will clearly take place in the context of Macron’s recent declarations – that the Europeans should not be led by the Americans and drawn into a possible conflict over Taiwan, but should instead increase their “autonomy strategic” in order to take the position of the “third poles” is somewhere in the middle between Washington and Beijing. Macron’s speech provoked a stormy and mostly negative reaction in the West, which has yet to subside. And now German media are wondering whether Burbock in Beijing is publicly distancing himself from the French president’s remarks or not.
Officially, the German government has not commented on Macron’s statements, eluding reporters’ questions with phrases that such comments were beyond its purview. But among politicians in Berlin, this subject is now the subject of a rather heated debate. Many people agree that the European Union should have its own position and be stronger in its own interests. But at the same time, Macron’s ideas for greater European independence from the United States and his equidistant stance between Beijing and Washington have not met with much understanding.
Among leading German politicians, the opinion of the French president was fully supported, perhaps, only by the leader of the SPD faction, Rolf Mützenich, known for his pacifism. According to him, the European Union must not act as an “appendage” of the United States in the Pacific region and everything must be done to prevent the EU from being drawn into a conflict with China. But in doing so, Mützenich drew criticism from representatives of Germany’s other two ruling parties. “Europe cannot and will not stay away from the Taiwan question. We must finally shed our naivety towards China and, together with the alliance of democracies, defend the rules-based international order “, said in particular the spokesman for Foreign Affairs political faction of the FDP in the Bundestag Ulrich Lechte. In turn, the leader of the Greens, Omid Nuripur, pointed out to Mutzenich that he was making a mistake by opposing European sovereignty and transatlantic friendship.
Johann Wadeful, deputy leader of the opposition CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag, accompanying Burbock on a trip, said the foreign minister should state Germany’s position on China clearly. But he himself seems to doubt that this will actually happen, because there is no consensus within the German government on this subject. “The chancellor and the foreign minister now have different scores in front of them,” Wadeful said in an interview with the ARD television channel. In fact, these differences between the chancellor and the head of the foreign ministry were partly reflected in the differences between the representatives of the ruling parties.
Burbock herself, before flying to Tianjin, made a rather ambiguous statement. According to the German minister, Germany is not interested in an economic break with China and wants to “properly balance” its future relationship with it – as a major trading partner and global player. But whether China will be a systemic partner, competitor or rival of Germany depends, as Burbock pointed out, only on Beijing itself. At the same time, she announced her intention to express during her visit the common position of the EU that a unilateral change of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is unacceptable. Given the possibility of a “terrifying” scenario, as the head of the German Foreign Ministry put it, of military escalation in the Strait, Germany should systematically analyze the risks of unilateral dependence on of China and reduce them. At the same time, Burbock has not forgotten about human rights, as well as the links with civil society in China – unlike the one-sided dependency, she would like to develop instead, if possible.
“I want to better understand the journey of China’s new leadership, including considering the contradictions between political control and economic openness,” Burbock said of the purpose of his visit. But this trip can hardly be expected to significantly change the opinion of the head of the German Foreign Ministry. Unlike Macron, and even Scholz, she apparently already has a long-standing position on the prospects for relations with China for Germany, the EU and the West in general. In addition, from Beijing, Burbock will travel first to South Korea and then to Japan to discuss relations with China already in the circle of G7 colleagues. And the assessments expressed at this meeting will apparently mean more to Burbock than what he is told in Beijing.
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