The meeting of German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock with her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang was highly anticipated, after French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to China and his statements about Europe’s “strategic autonomy” vis-à-vis the United States vis-à-vis China. Europe should not to act as a “vassal” of the US he declaredcausing a wave of reactions, but also a number of analyzes internationally for the formation or even rearrangement of the international geopolitical scene in the shadow of the war in Ukraine and also under the fear of a new conflict between China and Taiwan.

However, returning to the German “terrain” and the complex Sino-German relations, the German Foreign Minister went to Beijing with two main requests, which she expressed to her Chinese counterpart:

First, he asked immediate military de-escalation in the Taiwan Strait, because, as she told her Chinese counterpart, a military conflict in the region would be a “terror scenario”, both for China and Taiwan and more broadly for the global economy. Second, Analena Burbok asked the Chinese leadership to intensify calls to Moscow to end, as an aggressor country, the war in Ukraine, effectively using its influence in the Kremlin.

However, it is the case of Analena Burbock, she has expressed many times openly strong criticism of Beijing, also asking for a stricter attitude from the German government. reminded how the EU and also the current German coalition government of Social Democrats-Greens-Liberals see China: “as a partner, competitor and systemic opponent”.

93 Social Democrats say “No” to an anti-Chinese strategy

At the same time, however, and while the Green Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still in China, the reaction inside Germany of the conservative wing of the Social Democrats is strong.

With a text of positions published in the magazine Der Spiegel, 93 Social Democratic MPs from the so-called “Seekheimer circle” – one of the three main, historical sub-groups within the Social Democratic party – call for a more coordinated and realistic policy against China, essentially directly criticizing the attitude of Analena Burbock as well as Vice Chancellor Robert Hambeck.

As they point out, at 250 billion euros a year, the volume of Sino-German trade is four times greater than that with Russia, before the Ukraine war began. “An abrupt end to trade relations with China would be an economic disaster” warn the Social Democratic MPs. “Therefore a coherent strategy towards China should not be an ‘anti-Chinese’ strategy” they point out in Spiegel.

Different trends in co-governance for China

However, the head of the European Affairs committee in the German parliament from the Greens, Anton Hofreiter, offered support for Burbock’s positions on China, recalling in an interview with the German radio station DLF that Germany should not repeat with China the mistakes it made with Russia.

It even calls for a single line to be observed by the coalition parties in terms of policy towards China, given that, as has been clear for some time, the Greens and Liberals are asking more of her independence politics and the economy from Beijing. Circles within the Social Democrats, however, like the chancellery, seem to follow a more moderate and detached attitude.