Now the excitement about French President Emmanuel Macron is great, also in Germany, also in the traffic light government, as well as in the opposition. Many are now pointing the finger at Macron, calling him, like CDU foreign policy officer Norbert Röttgen, “abandoned by all good spirits”.
You might know that if you point a finger at one, four point back to you. So here are the four fingers pointing to Germany’s mistakes.
What is Germany actually doing to defend free Taiwan?
First of all: That’s what Macron said after a six-hour meeting with his Chinese colleague Xi Jinping: Europe must not become the vassal of the USA, the Taiwan conflict is far away from Europe, that needs strategic sovereignty. And France’s leadership.
Now the excitement is great – and dangerous. US senators such as Florida’s Republican Marco Rubio are already threatening that if Europe does not want to support the United States in the event of a conflict with China over Taiwan, the Americans will no longer have to help Europe defend democratic Ukraine. And now to the four fingers that point back from criticism of Macron to Germany and the Europeans themselves:
The first: Europe has its own interest in Taiwan remaining democratic. Writes about the FDP economic politician Michael Teurer on FOCUS online. This is undoubtedly true and has two reasons: Germany defends democracies because we are one ourselves. And: China is the world’s largest semiconductor producer, without which nothing works in Germany.
But what is Germany actually doing to defend free Taiwan? In truth: nothing. Although Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen can tour the USA, she would not be welcome in Germany. Because Germany officially supports Beijing’s Taiwan policy. Of course, the German government isn’t applauding the aggressive Chinese military maneuvers that are currently threatening Taiwan’s independence, but it’s also not getting in the way of mainland China.
Because of Annalena Baerbock’s foreign policy values
On the contrary: Berlin is firmly committed to Beijing’s one-China policy. Olaf Scholz thinks no differently than Angela Merkel, Gerhard Schröder and Helmut Kohl. In the relationship between Germany and the Chinese Republic, democracy and dictatorship or not: Red China first. What is shed now are crocodile tears.
Not because of Annalena Baerbock’s foreign policy values: She is finding her master in China. Quite simply because mainland China is too big and too important for Germany’s economy. Even under this “progressive coalition”, which supposedly wants to improve the world, what has always applied is: profit first, values second. The Federal Republic’s reason of state is not Taiwan’s democracy, but Germany’s prosperity.
Contrary to what Beijing claims, Taiwan is not a breakaway republic. The island, to which the nationalists around Chiang Kai-shek fled Mao’s communists after their defeat in the Chinese civil war, was never part of the People’s Republic of China. Just as China was never a “people’s republic”, but always was and is a brutal dictatorship that despises individual rights.
The German one-China policy is the biggest contradiction to Baerbock’s value-based foreign policy
The Red Chinese hate the Republic of China for the same reason that Putin’s Russia hates Ukraine: the country is showing that Chinese democracy is possible. More importantly, it shows how a country can go from dictatorship to democracy without bloodshed. Because under the Taiwanese Kuomintang government, Taiwan was not a democracy, initially the “white terror” ruled there as a variant of the “red terror” of the communists. But Taiwan has been a democracy for 30 years.
In any case, for mainland China’s sole ruler it was a single, rocky nightmare. The German one-China policy is therefore the greatest contradiction to Baerbock’s value-based foreign policy.
The second finger that Macron points to German failings: the Frenchman insists on Europe’s “strategic sovereignty”. And indeed, Europe has every reason to become more independent from the US, China and Russia alike. Only: There is no plan for Europe’s sovereignty.
Macron fills a gap that the traffic light government is answering in Three Monkeys fashion
The old continent is far from being a world power – or even capable of developing into one. Europe is not sovereign, not economical and above all not militarily. There is no European army, and Europe certainly does not have nuclear weapons with which to deter Russia. Here Macron has an important point – and it is believable:
The French President has repeatedly initiated a debate about extending the protective shield provided by French nuclear missiles to other countries. Reaction from Berlin: None. The traffic light parties do not want to discuss their own nuclear protection umbrella for Germany and Europe. But then they shouldn’t complain that France’s president is doing that. He only fills a gap that the traffic light government answers in the Three Monkeys manner: see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing.
We come to the third finger, which points back from the accused Macron to the Germans. If you complain that Macron fell for the PR policies of Beijing’s Xi, then you should already have your own ideas on how to deal with Beijing from Berlin. So far, however, one has been waiting in vain for a China strategy from the federal government. It is actually difficult, especially:
When the Green foreign minister insists on value politics and the social democratic Chancellor thinks the business of German companies is more important. Incidentally, companies, all of which are co-determined – the unions should clearly stand on the side of the social democrats, if only because of the security of German jobs.
Macron’s policies are not as surprising as his critics in Germany are now suggesting
Finally, the fourth finger, which points back from the criticized Macron to the Germans themselves: apart from warning words, Germany has so far come up with little to reduce its economic dependence on China. A Huawei ban does not exist in Germany, unlike in fact in the USA and Great Britain.
That’s not all: Even Germany’s top security authority, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), uses Huawei technology, despite all political warnings. This embarrassing case also shows that China is simply too big for a “decoupling”, for a technological isolation of Germany.
Macron’s policies are not as surprising as his critics in Germany are now suggesting. It follows good old Gaullist school. Just as post-war President Charles de Gaulle advocated France’s seesaw policy between the USA and Russia, his successor Macron advocates France’s seesaw policy between the USA and the new superpower China. Traditions are difficult to abolish.
