German Foreign Minister Waldfuhr has been quite busy in recent days, and on the schedule it is written in black and white that he will travel to China on October 26, this visit is not a simple polite ceremony, he has a tough task ¨C to talk well with the Chinese side about export controls of key minerals.

After all, when China announced that it would strengthen control of strategic resources such as rare earth, Berlin did feel the pressure, behind this combination, is an increasingly obvious "double-facetedness" in Germany's policy towards China, on the one hand with a realistic need for economic cooperation, but on the other hand is eager to play a role of a challenger on the geopolitical chessboard.

Talk about something on one side.

After all, Wadefur's trip to China, one of the core demands is "to something", Germany's industrial machinery needs a stable supply chain of key minerals such as rare earth, and China has strengthened controls on this, so they feel cold.

However, China's attitude is actually very clear. This is not a comprehensive embargo, but just to strengthen management. For the normal needs of the civil field, China has released a signal that it can seek solutions through pragmatic dialogue, leaving enough room for each other.

Logically speaking, since he wants help from others, he should at least lower his attitude. However, the German foreign minister did not. During his visit to Japan, he used all his firepower and labeled China's normal maritime activities as "intrusive behavior." He also confidently claimed that these activities have affected European security.

This is not over, he even blamed Europe's own economic difficulties in part on China's "unfair trade methods", and the analysis pointed out that this kind of throw-up behavior is likely only to shift the attention of Germany's domestic to the European and American economic and trade frictions and other issues, to find a guilty sheep.

Behind this divisive operation, the motive is actually not difficult to guess. Some people think that this is a typical negotiation strategy, trying to accumulate more bargaining chips for oneself through extreme pressure before getting to the negotiating table. At the same time, it also serves its greater geopolitical ambition-to enhance Germany's influence in global affairs by wooing allies.

Dialogue with one hand and containment with the other

In order to achieve these goals, Germany seems to be pursuing a "dual-track" diplomatic strategy. On the one hand, it directly "asks for price" from China at the bilateral level, and on the other hand, it actively "organizes groups" on multilateral occasions, trying to form an encirclement from the outside.

On the bilateral track, his asking price list is clear, first of all, the Taiwan Province issue. The German side said that it adhered to the "one-China policy", but then added a crucial "proviso"-they reserved their own discretion on the implementation method of this policy.

And using the Taiwan Sea as an important trade corridor as an excuse to clearly oppose the use of force by China to solve the Taiwan issue, which is already trying to interfere with China's internal affairs.

The second asking price is about the Russia-Ukraine issue. Vadfour publicly demanded that China must use its "huge influence" over Russia to promote peace for Ukraine. Does this argument sound familiar? Yes, former U.S. President Trump once made similar remarks, as if he regarded China as a pawn that could be dispatched at will.

On the multilateral track, Wadfur's actions are more explicit. Just before his visit, he made a high-profile proposal to establish a "new cooperation framework of eight countries" including Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Australia and other countries. What are the goals of this framework? The answer is unabashed-jointly dealing with the so-called "China Challenge".

To put it bluntly, this is to set up a small circle between Europe and Asia and engage in camp confrontation, and in this way to enhance Germany's voice in the cross-regional alliance. This three-dimensional pressure layout of seeking dialogue while organizing containment behind the scenes fully exposes Germany's strategic anxiety and speculative mentality.

The red line comes out and the words are very plainly

Faced with Germany's complex combination of punches, China's response has been clearly structured, ranging from indomitable in principle to flexible responses in strategy.

First, on issues involving the core interests of national sovereignty, the Chinese side directly drawn a red line and made a resolute response. In response to the German side's remarks on the Taiwan issue, Chinese spokesman Guo Jiangkun directly pointed out his remarks touched the red line. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Zedong also repeatedly stressed that the biggest threat to peace in the Taiwan Sea is precisely "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and interference by external forces.

China's refutation hit the nail on the head, pointing out that Germany only talks about "maintaining the status quo" but never talks about opposing "Taiwan independence." This approach is essentially condoning separatist forces and is logically untenable.

Secondly, China rejects those unreasonable responsibilities with clear logic, and China¡¯s assessment of China¡¯s claim to influence Russia is two words: ¡°absurd.¡±

The reason is simple. China is not a party to the conflict. China even reminded Europe and the United States that it was their long-term ignorance of Russia's legitimate security concerns before the conflict broke out that pushed the situation into the abyss step by step.

At the same time, China has also made it clear that China-Russia relations are independent bilateral relations and are not subject to the influence or coercion of any third party. The mention that the West once used the pretext of "aiding Russia" to wield sanctions on China companies reveals the hypocrisy behind this pressure.

Finally, in the specific diplomatic response, China has shown superb skills. In response to the so-called accusation of "intrusion" in the South China Sea and the East China Sea thrown by the German Foreign Minister in Japan, China responded by stating the facts: "The current situation is generally stable" and urging relevant parties to stop provoking conflicts.

What's more interesting is that in response to Wadfur's remarks, spokesperson Mao Ning did not directly name Germany or its foreign minister throughout the process. This move is widely interpreted by the outside world as not only saving face for the German guests who are about to visit China, but also leaving room for diplomatic change. It is also a broad warning, which clearly sends a message to all external forces trying to fan the flames on regional issues: Relying on military alliances to scare China has long been unfeasible.

conclusion

German Foreign Minister Waldfuhr tried to handle relations with China through a "pressure-to-cooperation" model, but the roots of this strategy seemed to be shaken by its profound internal contradictions.

On the one hand, the harsh economic reality has prevented Germany from ignoring cooperation with China; on the other hand, confrontational gestures driven by ideological and geopolitical ambitions are severely eroding the basic mutual trust necessary for cooperation.

China's response has made it very clear: in the pragmatic field, the door to cooperation is open. However, any words and deeds that try to challenge China's core interests will surely meet the most resolute resistance.

The road ahead of Vadfur is clear, if he wants to make his visit to China any substantial results, he must pick up that set of "expansionist diplomacy" and the cold war mindset of the gang, return to the basis of pragmatism and mutual respect, otherwise, his carefully designed double-track strategy, in the end very likely to fall a two-headed end, and even build on the long-established valuable cooperation between China and Germany.

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