BERLIN (Reuters) – Europe must not turn a blind eye to the tensions between China and Taiwan because a military escalation in the region would be a “worst-case scenario” for the global economy, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday.
Speaking during a visit to China, Baerbock struck a different tone to French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned the European Union last week not to get “caught up in crises that are not ours” with regard to Taiwan.
“Germany and the European Union are economically vulnerable, which means that we cannot be indifferent to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” Baerbock said – in an audio file provided by her ministry – during a stopover in the Chinese port of Tianjin.
Macron’s comments drew a backlash in the United States and Europe as they were widely perceived as taking a weak line on Taiwan and a gift to what analysts called Beijing’s goal of dismantling transatlantic unity.
As a result, the stakes of Baerbock’s inaugural China trip have risen, with many EU members hoping Germany will use this opportunity to set out a clear and united EU line on China.
“Fifty percent of global trade passes through the Taiwan Strait, 70% of semiconductors pass through the Taiwan Strait, so the free passage is in our economic interest as well,” Baerbock underscored.
“A military escalation in the Taiwan Strait … would be a worst-case scenario globally and affect us as one of the biggest industrial nations in particular,” she added of Germany, the EU’s largest economy.
Tianjin was Baerbock’s first stop on a China trip expected to focus on damage control in the wake of Macron’s remarks, which suggested a rift in the EU’s approach to the rising superpower.
Even without Macron’s comments the visit would have been delicate for Baerbock, who has been more hawkish on China than German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and is drafting a China policy aimed at reducing German dependence on trade with Beijing.
Baerbock is due to meet her counterpart Qin Gang and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi during her two-day trip.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, editing by Friederike Heine and Mark Heinrich)
