Her first trip abroad brought new German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) to Paris yesterday, where she met her French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian. She charged China with “human rights violations” and left no doubt that she favors sanctions against the Chinese, including against the Winter Olympics which will take place in Beijing in February 2022. But, she went on, she and Le Drian want to have a common EU position on that. She brought up the issue again when she arrived for talks in Brussels in the late afternoon.
On the case of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who is reported to have alleged being sexually assaulted by a former vice-premier, although she denies that she had made such a charge, Baerbock proclaimed: “When a woman raises such a reproach, it needs to be heard in an international context. We need to pursue the case and get a common answer.”
