German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday warned China to de-escalate tensions over Taiwan, warning that a war in the region would have disastrous consequences for the whole world.
The remarks by the German Green party heavyweight also reiterate a significant distancing of Berlin from contentious remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron that cast doubt over whether Europe would help the U.S. if Beijing invaded its smaller democratic neighbor.
“A military escalation in the Taiwan Strait, through which 50 percent of world trade flows every day, would be a horror scenario for the entire world,” Baerbock said at a joint press conference with her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang in Beijing.
“The shock wave of such a world economic crisis would also hit China and Germany as special trading nations. We are therefore watching the increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait with great concern,” the German foreign minister said.
“Conflicts can only be resolved peacefully. A unilateral and violent change in the status quo would not be acceptable to us as Europeans,” she added.
Baerbock’s remarks come amid rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait, where Chinese forces earlier this month carried out a three-day military drill — including a mock blockade of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin, however, told reporters at the press conference that “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan,” before adding: “Fellow citizens on both sides of the strait want national unity. That is our core interest,” according to the official translation provided.
Macron sparked fury last Sunday after saying in an interview with POLITICO that Europe should not be the United States’ “followers,” suggesting that Europe should not be snarled up it conflicts that are not its concern.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who had been due to travel to Beijing this week for talks but was forced to cancel his trip after testing positive for COVID-19, similarly called for restraint on the Taiwan issue.
“We must lower the tension; avoid verbal outbursts or provocations that can only fuel mistrust,” Borrell said late Thursday.
The EU’s position on Taiwan is “consistent and clear” and “has not changed,” he added, saying that the bloc “remain[ed] fundamentally committed to the EU’s One China Policy,” which recognizes the Chinese government as the “sole legal government of China,” while developing areas of cooperation with Taiwan.
Borrell and Baerbock both called on Beijing, which has sought to position itself as a middleman between Kyiv and Moscow over Russia’s war on Ukraine, to pursue its peacemaking efforts — under certain conditions.
“It is good that China has signalled its commitment to a solution, but I have to say frankly that I wonder why the Chinese position so far does not include a call on the aggressor Russia to stop the war,” Baerbock said Friday, while Borrell said it would be “helpful” in that regard if Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
During Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Beijing, Xi gave no hint on how he planned to use his influence to help end the conflict, saying that “all sides” had “reasonable security concerns” and that “peace talks should be resumed as soon as possible.”
China’s Qin also used Friday’s press conference to urge Germany not be too critical in its upcoming China strategy, which is planned for later this year and included a significant hardening of Berlin’s position vis-à-vis Beijing in a first leaked draft.
“We should avoid strategic misunderstandings or misjudgments. We are partners, not opponents,” Qin told reporters, according to the translation. “If you develop a China strategy, you should be guided by the very own interests of our two countries.”
Hans von der Burchard reported from Berlin, Nicolas Camut from Brussels.
