German lawmaker joins talks with Taiwan’s president, criticises Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ‘unilateral’ China policy
- An eight-member European delegation from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China travelled to Taipei to discuss deeper economic and political ties with Taiwan
- A European MP from Germany’s Green Party, a partner in Scholz’s coalition government, says China policy can’t be ‘unilaterally defined by the chancellor’
As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz embarked on his first visit to Beijing with a high-level corporate entourage, German lawmakers called for stronger trade and political engagement with Taiwan after meeting with the President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on Thursday.
Describing Scholz’s trip as one of the “most controversially debated in the last 50 years”, Reinhard Buetikofer, a member of European Parliament from Germany’s Green Party, a partner in the Scholz three-way coalition government, said the country’s China policy could not be “unilaterally defined by the chancellor”.
“I think we could have avoided this if the chancellor had followed the outline that we laid down together. One year ago, we said that Germany’s China policy must be strongly integrated with the US-China policy,” he added, stressing that the “coalition contract” also supports Taiwan’s democracy against “China’s aggression” and its “meaningful participation in international organisations”.
His remarks came after an eight-member European delegation from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China met with Tsai about deepening economic and political ties with Taiwan.
The delegation also included German MP Gyde Jensen from the Free Democratic Party, an alliance partner in the Scholz government.
Established in 2020, IPAC has a membership of more than 200 lawmakers from five continents. The group convened in Washington in September to adopt a communique, encouraging parliamentarians to visit Taiwan and push their respective governments to reduce economic dependence on mainland China.
Buetikofer, who is co-chair of IPAC, said Scholz’s trip to Beijing would drag Germany in the opposite direction, “particularly for its timing” as many people are “afraid that the chancellor might not do or say what should be done and said”.
