2023-09-18 17:36:25
The German ambassador in Beijing was summoned last night by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the German government announced on Monday (09/18/2023). The Chinese government thus protests the statements of the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbockwho in an interview with the American channel Fox News last Thursday described the Chinese president, Xi Jinpingfrom “dictator”.
Asked regarding the war in Ukraine, Baerbock said in the interview that “if Putin won this war, what signal would it be to other dictators in the world, like Xi, like the Chinese president?” She added: “Therefore, Ukraine has to win this war. Freedom and democracy have to win.” China today described Baerbock’s statements during her visit to the United States as “open political provocation.”
“These comments are too absurd and constitute a serious attack on China’s political dignity, as well as an open political provocation,” Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference. A spokesman for Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, questioned on Monday in Berlin, considered that the way China is governed through a “one-party” system, does not agree with “our democratic ideas”.
China is Germany’s first trading partner, but already this summer the German government announced its first strategy document towards China that called for reducing German dependence on the Chinese economy, but without becoming “uncoupled”. The Chinese Foreign Minister then described this new political orientation as “counterproductive.”
lgc (afp/dpa)
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