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FDP defense expert: "We have to realize that China is behaving more and more aggressively"

2023-01-13T17:09:32.345Z


FDP defense expert: "We have to realize that China is behaving more and more aggressively" Created: 01/13/2023, 17:48 By: Sven Hauberg No weapons for Taiwan, but less dependence on Beijing: Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann calls for a realignment of German China policy. Munich/Berlin – German politicians are currently shaking hands in Taipei: For the third time in just three months, a German Bund


FDP defense expert: "We have to realize that China is behaving more and more aggressively"

Created: 01/13/2023, 17:48

By: Sven Hauberg

No weapons for Taiwan, but less dependence on Beijing: Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann calls for a realignment of German China policy.

Munich/Berlin – German politicians are currently shaking hands in Taipei: For the third time in just three months, a German Bundestag delegation was in Taiwan this week to pledge its support to the country threatened by China.

The group of FDP MPs was led by Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairwoman of the German Bundestag's defense committee.

In an interview with

IPPEN.MEDIA's Münchner Merkur

, Strack-Zimmermann explains why she refuses to supply arms to Taiwan and why the German economy is responsible.

Ms. Strack-Zimmermann, during your visit to Taiwan you promised the country the support of the Federal Republic.

However, you refuse deliveries of weapons.

How does that fit together?

The question of supplying arms doesn't even arise, if only because the government in Taipei didn't approach us with a corresponding request.

In addition, the country has other partners in the world.

If we outsource the issue of arms deliveries to Taiwan to other countries, aren't we absolving ourselves of responsibility?

In addition to economic and humanitarian aid, we are currently also supplying large quantities of weapons and various technical materials to Ukraine.

Taiwan does not have these expectations of us.

Rather, the government in Taipei sees in us the economic strength of Europe.

The Taiwanese government therefore wants us to question our economic relations with China.

China and Taiwan: That's what the conflict is about

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"We must not naively surrender our infrastructure to China's influence"

However, German companies are still investing diligently in China, with BASF recently announcing investments of ten billion euros...

Trade with China should not be cut off.

It's about finding the right balance, reducing our dependency on China and not naively surrendering our infrastructure to Chinese influence.

We have to realize that China is behaving more and more aggressively.

Xi Jinping has repeatedly threatened not to shy away from attacking Taiwan militarily.

We should take threats of this kind very seriously, at least since Russia's attack on Ukraine.

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The entire region in the Indo-Pacific is feeling the effects of China's aggressive claims to hegemony: The country now not only has the largest war fleet in the world, but has also ignored the ownership structures of other countries.

For example, China claims the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, which belong to the Philippines, and uses them as a military base.

This is also condemned by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

I think it's crazy that a company like BASF is still spending ten billion euros to build and operate a production plant in China that produces plastic compounds.

Other German companies are also continuing to invest in China.

Volkswagen generates 40 percent of its profits through the company's involvement in the Chinese market alone.

A lot of German know-how will be copied in China in order to flood our market with Chinese e-cars at significantly lower prices in the future.

I hope that German companies will question this sales market and the long-term consequences.

We're going to have a lively discussion.

Do you trust companies to do this?

Or is there no need for more pressure from the state?

A company is of course responsible for ensuring that business is going well, that money is earned and jobs are secured.

Today, more than ever, a company must also assume social responsibility.

Doing business without noticing what is happening geostrategically in the world is no longer possible today.

You have to be careful not to feed those who want to eat us in the end.

The FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann is chairwoman of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag.

© Kay Nietfeld/dpa

“China should be watching closely at the moment that Russia is not even taking Ukraine so easily”

Do you think that if we become a little more economically independent, it will be enough of a deterrent for China?

Is that enough?

First of all, it is a very important signal and makes it clear that we are also monitoring the situation on the other side of the globe.

Hopefully China knows that military threats towards Taiwan are unacceptable to us and that they will face sanctions if they attack Taiwan.

The large Chinese market is not only interesting for the West, China also needs our German know-how.

China is likely to be watching closely right now that Russia isn't even just about to take Ukraine as it thought it was a year ago, but is rather breaking its teeth and recording huge losses in men and material.

China will calculate pragmatically how expensive a military operation against Taiwan could be and what consequences they would then have to live with for a long time.

But when dealing with China, isn't there a need for a concrete timetable that one sticks to if certain red lines are crossed?

We finally need a China strategy.

It's bizarre: Germany has been trading with China for decades, investing unbelievable sums there, but on the other hand China is trying to influence us with its companies - and yet we have no strategy whatsoever for dealing with this country.

It is always acted from the gut.

You can't make a consistent policy like that.

That's why it's good that the traffic light is having a China strategy developed.

About IPPEN.MEDIA

The IPPEN.MEDIA network is one of the largest online publishers in Germany.

At the locations in Berlin, Hamburg/Bremen, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart and Vienna, journalists from our central editorial office research and publish for more than 50 news offers.

These include brands such as Münchner Merkur, Frankfurter Rundschau and BuzzFeed Germany.

Our news, interviews, analyzes and comments reach more than 5 million people in Germany every day.

"Hong Kong is the negative blueprint for what could threaten Taiwan"

The then Federal Defense Minister Peter Struck said in 2002 that German security was also being defended in the Hindu Kush.

How is it today – is our security also being defended in the Pacific?

Our values ​​– freedom, democracy, human rights – must be defended worldwide more than ever.

The People's Republic of China regards the Taiwan Straits as sovereign waters.

So the strait separating China and Taiwan….

This strait is one of the busiest waterways in the world.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it is an international body of water.

If the Chinese blocked the Taiwan Strait, it would have dramatic effects on world trade and thus also on the German economy.

That is why our safety is also affected there.

Just like us, the people of Taiwan know what is at stake: the battle of the systems autocracy versus democracy.

Taiwan was one of the first companies to deliver medical supplies to Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, and the Taiwanese donated a lot of money.

That's really remarkable.

When dealing with the Taiwan conflict, doesn't it also include not only condemning China's threatening gestures, but also warning Taiwan against formally declaring itself independent of China?

President Tsai Ing-wen is striving for independence and would thus give Beijing an excuse for an attack.

It's not our job to say that.

We respect the one China policy - but with two different systems.

We see today that this promise, which also applied to Hong Kong after the handover of the only British crown colony to China, has not been kept by China.

Hong Kong is the negative blueprint for what could threaten Taiwan.

That mustn't happen.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-01-13

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