“Instead of taking responsibility for peace and security in the world as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is opposing our core European interests with its economic and weapons aid to Russia,” German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said in an emailed statement before departing Berlin airport on Sunday for her two-day visit to Beijing.
Vladimir “Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine is a direct threat to our peace. I will also speak in Beijing about the fact that we cannot simply ignore this in our relations with China.”
The European Union is proposing to sanction several Chinese firms that it claims helped Russian companies develop attack drones that were deployed against Ukraine. Baerbock will meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing to address this issue, her spokesman said. Germany’s top diplomat will also discuss the humanitarian situation in China, as well as EU tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles that were introduced in October.
Nobody takes Baerbock seriously internationally. Everyone knows that Germany is just doing whatever the US says and after the next elections in February she probably won’t be in office past March or April.
What has that to do with Baerbock not being taken seriously? China knows the person to talk with now is Trump. They know Germany just does whatever the US says under the current administration. The closest to a “European leader” we have now is Macron, which is frankly pathetic, but Germany has removed itself from the diplomatic scene. This will prove detrimental to the EU, to Germany and also to Ukraine, as a self sovereign European position would be needed to counterbalance Trump. But Germany won’t be the source of it.
Finally it is quite ironic that Germany tries to criticize China over supplying weapons to Russia, while Germany proudly proclaims its continued weapons supply to Israel. China will just ask Baerbock, why Germany isn’t minding their own business, supplying suspected war criminals with weapons.
If Germanys claims and particular Baerbocks claims of a value led foreign policy rooted in international law wouldn’t be a steaming stinking pile of hypocrisy, maybe they could get their voices heard a tiny bit. This way however they will be ignored at best, but probably ridiculed instead. Ukraine suffers under this, becoming another victim of German hypocrisy.
I find it a bit weird how you (implicitly) pin blame primarily on Baerbock. Clearly, she is not the most forceful diplomat there is. However, imo that’s not generally for lack of good ideas (and yes, I find value-based/feminist foreign policy a great idea), rather she’s (a) probably lacking in machismo and (b) been undermined by cabinet colleagues, primarily Scholz who would always wait for US support before doing anything in Ukraine, by Lindner who’s been cutting budgets whenever/wherever possible, and even by her party colleague Habeck who negotiated the Qatar gas deal.
“Germany has left the diplomatic scene” – well no, it hasn’t but it hasn’t had a government able to speak in unison for at least a year now. “Germany bends to the will of whatever US government there is” – I am much less sure of that being true when a less respectful/respectable person assumes presidency; clearly, everyone will have to make do regardless.
China Is Studying Russia’s Sanctions Evasion to Prepare for Taiwan Conflict – (Archived link)
China has been supporting Russia’s economy since the start of the Ukraine war by buying its oil while supplying it with everything from microelectronics to washing machines.
Meanwhile, Beijing has been getting its own strategic benefit: a real-world case study in how to circumvent Western sanctions.
An interagency group, set up by China in the months following the full-scale invasion, has studied the impact of sanctions and produced reports regularly for the country’s leadership, according to people familiar with the matter. The goal is to draw lessons about how to mitigate them, particularly in case a conflict over Taiwan prompts the U.S. and its allies to impose similar penalties on China, the people said.
As part of the effort, Chinese officials periodically visit Moscow to meet with the Russian Central Bank, the Finance Ministry and other agencies involved in countering sanctions, the people said.
The Chinese study effort, which hasn’t previously been reported, is emblematic of the new age of economic warfare unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where the lines between economic policy and geopolitical strategy are increasingly blurred. That trend is only likely to be amplified by Donald Trump’s second presidential term, where he plans to turbocharge the use of tariffs as a tool for negotiation and coercion.
Seems a bit off to study something in order to draw lessons that is highly influenced by the own behaviour.
Sure, if there were a second China that would fill the role China is currently playing in easing the effect of the sanctions, they should be alright. But who should that be?
