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It's great that our busy foreign minister is taking the time to meet Hong Kong's student leader Joshua Wong and now announces that he wants to do it again and again. Great that the federal press conference is not too fine to invite Wong to make it heard in Berlin. Now we all can boast, federal government and capital press in the back to have defended our democratic beliefs against the evil mandarin in Beijing.
But honestly, does any experienced diplomat, some seasoned journalist, really believe in this profoundly German theater? Does she or he not see the dangers? Do you play with the future of young people in Hong Kong? Do you believe in promoting the goodwill of the sometimes merciless Beijing rulers?
Already the time of Wong reception in Berlin reveals the foreign policy instinctlessness of those involved. Only a few days ago, Beijing finally withdrew the controversial Hong Kong Expulsion Act, which triggered Hong Kong student and mass protests. When did a Communist Party government in Beijing ever retreat on an open world stage before demonstrations? There is no historical example, therefore praised Chancellor Angela Merkel during their China trip a few days ago nor rightly the Beijing Einlenken. But why, only three days later with the meeting with Wong in Berlin deliberately pour oil into the fire again? Did the Chancellor and Foreign Minister believe that they could play in distributed roles with Beijing? Or worse, did not they have an agreement? That would reveal everything about the overly transparent domestic political motives of an unprofessional German foreign policy, which is highly moral.
Berlin can not help
Serious foreign policy does not come without a realistic assessment of balance of power. Insofar as it would have been something else, US President Donald Trump would have received Wong in his unpredictable manner. If it were, Trump could send aircraft carriers to Hong Kong and evacuate thousands. He could help. Berlin can not do that, certainly not without an alliance with Washington. So the German government should not give the Hong Kong students any false hopes. But that's exactly what she did with Wong's performance in Berlin. Everyone demonstrating in Hong Kong knows that even their heroes Ai Weiwei and Liu Xia, China's worldwide admired dissidents, found refuge in Germany, now perhaps Wong too. Why not yourself?
Such illusions are also fueled by Western media. My heart sank when Wong was recently interviewed in the ZDF morning magazine. Of course, Wong wants that because he believes in his cause. But the Chinese secret service is watching. Is he going to arrest Wong's family next? Thirty years ago I interviewed the Beijing students after the bloody suppression of their uprising in Tiananmen Square, ten years later I talked to torture victims of the persecuted Falun Gong sect in dark hiding places in Northern China, ten years later with the rebellious monks in the monasteries Tibet. Each time you had to protect the troubled, sympathetic regime critics from yourself, renounce photos, name no names, blur their own tracks. Once a private shot of me with monks whom I happened to encounter on the street, came to the Internet. That was not good.
A dialogue with Beijing is the only way out for Hong Kong
Our profession needs to be careful that Hong Kong does not do any extra, unwanted damage today. Wong's appearance before the Federal Press Conference, however, was an invitation to his mostly very young colleagues to do the same, maybe soon in a neighboring European country. The young Hong Kong probably suspect nothing of the possible consequences.
It is true that the West has already handed over Hong Kong to China. Only 28 years left, not half a human life, and the transfer agreement between Great Britain and China provides for the dissolution of the old crown colony in the People's Republic. This distinguishes Hong Kong from Taiwan, which, with the help of the USA, is upgrading itself against a conceivable Chinese intervention. The Taiwanese actually have reason to believe that the West is not just making empty promises to them. But in Hong Kong these days, there is only one way out: the dialogue with Beijing. He still seems possible after the withdrawal of the extradition law. Instead of endangering him as the German foreign minister now, Berlin should do everything to promote it.