German Foreign Minister and Green ideologist Annalena Baerbock left Beijing on Dec. 3 without a joint press conference, which was canceled by the Chinese side. Although, according to some media, she used more friendly tones in her three-hour talk with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang-Yi than she had in her statements on the eve of her visit, the latter did not go unnoticed in Beijing. “China is opposing our core European interests with its economic and weapons aid to Russia,” she had said in a written statement on Dec. 2.
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jan answered journalists asking for a comment on those statements that China firmly opposes baseless accusations and scapegoating. China Daily reminded reporters that Germany had dissociated from the anti-China EU tariffs on E-cars, and that Beijing wished that Berlin could show the same degree of political independence on the Ukraine issue. “Germany should work together with China and other peace-loving nations to help set the table for ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, discarding the you-are-either-on-the-table-or-the-menu preaching that is symptomatic of bloc confrontation and a zero-sum game,” China Daily wrote in an editorial.
Speaking at the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing on Dec. 4, Italian economist Michele Geraci said that “Baerbock’s trip here to Beijing was a disaster with her trying to impose a German red line on China: ‘You must not help Russia.’” Pointing to reflections of geopolitical tensions between G7 governments and their own citizens, Geraci noted on X that “the big U.S. managers (Musk, Tim Cook) come here alone, without Blinken, and the same goes for German managers, for whom Baerbock is a big liability.”
Geraci, a member of the CCG advisory board, is a featured speaker at the Dec. 7-8 conference of the Schiller Institute.
