German far right shows an unlikely affinity for Communist China
- China has embraced the relationship with the Alternative for Germany party, which sent a high-ranking delegation to Beijing and Shanghai in June
- The party, which has defended Beijing’s actions in the Taiwan Strait and its human rights record, has been accused of homophobia, racism and neo-Nazism
Germany’s “most China-friendly party” wants its government to stop meddling in Beijing’s “internal affairs” on human rights.
It demands that Berlin’s ruling coalition stop “fuelling provocation” in the Taiwan Strait. It panned the new German China strategy as “an attempt to impose green-woke ideology and US geopolitical interests”. It wants closer ties with China instead of the “virtue signalling” of de-risking.
It is also Germany’s fastest-growing political party, and its identity might be surprising.
Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far right party, is currently polling at 21 per cent nationally, just five points behind the Christian Democratic Union, the party of Angela Merkel, and three points ahead of the Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Founded in 2013 in opposition to EU bailouts of the likes of Greece and Portugal, its popularity has been bolstered through hardline anti-immigrant and anti-green positions, at a time when Germany languishes in recession and struggles to tamp down persistent inflation.
