(See) Marinefregatte in den Indo-Pazifik

[Quintus Fabius]

lime:

Erstaunlich wo du immer überall Leute kennst die genau deine Meinung teilen

2006 habe ich übrigens ungefähr zwei Monate in Harbin gelebt, aber aktuelle persönliche Kenntnisse kann ich nicht mehr vorweisen. Und die Gegend war und ist auch nicht gerade typisch für China insgesamt. Von daher mal etwas aus chinesischen Medien dazu:

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast...-six-month

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomac...ons-berlin

China’s surprise move to force Germany to clarify its intentions in sending a frigate to the South China Sea
has exposed rifts at the top level of Berlin’s decision making towards Beijing.

But in what has been described as a “classic German foreign policy fudge”, a friendly stop-off in Shanghai was added at the last minute to assuage the dovish chancellery, with Angela Merkel keen to avoid ruffling Beijing’s feathers in her last days in office.

China’s move to deny the request to dock in Shanghai on Tuesday until Germany offers a better explanation for the passage, however, has called Merkel’s bluff and may force the veteran leader to shed some of the strategic ambiguity that has come to define her China policy.

“Now Beijing is calling its bluff. The episode shows that Germany still has a lot to learn in terms of strategic culture. Under Merkel, it has too often couched its very real concerns about China in murky messages.”

“It’s a classic German, wishy-washy now you see it now you don’t story,” said Jonathan Eyal, director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank, who said the Shanghai stop was designed to “take the sting out of any suggestion that it is anti-Chinese”.

It appears to have backfired and now, after many years of stubbornly sitting on the fence, China may have forced Germany to pick a side, out in the open, according to Hans Kundnani, a senior fellow in Chatham House’s Europe Programme.

“The Shanghai port visit was a late addition to the deployment in order to appease doves in Berlin who worried it would be overly provocative towards China. But what it has done is obscure the message that Germany is sending with this mission,” said Noah Barkin, Berlin-based senior fellow in the German Marshall Fund’s Asia Programme.

“Now Beijing is calling its bluff. The episode shows that Germany still has a lot to learn in terms of strategic culture. Under Merkel, it has too often couched its very real concerns about China in murky messages.”

The episode is an example of how broader German policy towards China has operated for years. It has by far the largest trading relationship with China of any EU nation and is loath to do anything that may jeopardise this.

Germany has, reluctantly it is said, met the US part of the way, agreeing to strongly-worded critiques of Beijing at the G7 and Nato summits. It has agreed to send ships to the South China Sea, not because it is committed to patrolling the hotly disputed territory, but to keep allies happy, multiple experts said.

“It always seems to me that in the long term, this is exactly what’s going to happen. Germany, and the EU more broadly, wanted to have it both ways, and to triangulate a little. But both China and the US in the long term are going to push Europeans to choose sides,” he said.

It was Kundnani who revealed in May that a Shanghai stop had been added to the itinerary. Writing in a Chatham House paper, he said some German officials were worried about the timing, as it was scheduled to occur before the ship entered the South China Sea.

“It could actually convey the impression Germany has in effect asked China for permission, therefore strengthening rather than challenging Chinese claims over the South China Sea,” he said.

Like other analysts, however, Kundnani was surprised by China’s decision to publicly call Germany out.

“I’m quite surprised that the Chinese are pushing the Germans on this. In a way, if it’s ambiguous, that works for the Chinese, but they’ve almost tried to push the Germans into being clear.”

Francois Godemont, a China analyst at the Institut Montaigne in Paris, said Beijing‘s calculus “perfectly embodies China’s new approach to the EU: choose between cooperation, competition and rivalry. You are with us or against us. And [it] also shows that when a partner oscillates, China increases the pressure.”

Classic German wishy-washy gefällt mir.