According to the German Foreign Minister, this visit to China was originally the first after taking office, scheduled for October 26, and also intended to give the follow-up visit to Prime Minister Merts. The result, just the day before the departure, October 25, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs suddenly spoke, this trip had to be postponed. The official statement is that the Chinese side only confirmed a meeting arrangement, that is to meet with the Foreign Minister Wang Yi, other high-level and ministerial agenda is not clear. The German media, when looking at this scenario, directly with "no one wants to see him" as the title report, clarified this matter in the first time in the history of Germany visit China.
This matter has to start from the beginning. Not long after Wadfur took office, he began to plan diplomacy with China. On the eve of his visit to China, he spread rumors through the media that he would talk to China about rare earth and semiconductor export controls, the Taiwan Strait issue, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. His tone revealed the intention of putting pressure on it. Especially in the Taiwan Strait, he stressed that it is right for Germany to adhere to the one-China policy, but how to implement it depends on Germany itself, and added a sentence against using force to change the status quo. The accompanying delegation brought the head of the German Automobile Manufacturer Association and representatives of rare earth import companies. These people were holding documents in their hands and wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the supply chain of critical minerals. After all, the German economic circle relies heavily on rare earths. Very, China is the world's number one supplier.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry announced this decision bluntly at a regular press conference in Berlin on October 25th. She said that the itinerary will be postponed to later because China has not arranged enough talks at present. The implication is that nothing else has been settled except Wang Yi's scene. This is not only a mistake in schedule coordination, but more like China is expressing its position with actions. The German media "Focus" weekly later commented that this reflected that Germany's diplomatic strategy was a bit chaotic, and its attitude towards China was getting harder and harder recently. Wadfur's style was the same as that of his predecessor Baerbock. While acknowledging the importance of economic and trade cooperation, he exerted great pressure on values and geopolitics.
To talk about the root cause, we have to go back to October 24. At a regular press conference in Beijing, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China directly responded to Wadfour's remarks by name. The spokesman reiterated that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. The one-China principle is the only correct expression and there is no room for customization. In response to Wadfour's statement that only mentioned safeguarding the status quo but not opposing Taiwan independence, the spokesman pointed out that it was essentially condoning separatist activities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded quickly, accurately and fiercely, which was equivalent to blocking Germany's statement. The Taiwan Strait issue is a monolithic core interest in China's diplomacy and cannot be touched. China's consistent position is that there is no room for negotiation.
The speech was not the first time. In August this year, when he went to Japan to attend the meeting, in Tokyo openly said that China's actions in the Taiwan Sea, the East Sea, the South China Sea have been aggressive, has influenced Europe, and also encouraged to engage in a "eight-cooperation framework" against China. After that speech, the German domestic media discussed, saying this continued Belberg's preaching model. Belberg was in place, in the affairs of China always love to negotiate business, on the other hand lift, this time, Vadwell picked up, the number of routes has not changed. Germany as a major exporting country, the automobile and high-tech industry can not separate from the Chinese market, but diplomatically always want to occupy the ethical height, this contradiction is there, sooner or later
After the cancellation of the trip, the German economic community was unhappy. The guys in the delegation who accompanied the auto associations and rare-earth enterprises, had hoped to use this opportunity to face-to-face with the Chinese department to talk about supply stability. The German automotive industry demand for rare-earth is huge, used in electric car batteries and engines, China controls more than 90% of the world's processing capacity. If the supply chain shell, the German factory is blind. The fact turns out, this visit to China delayed, directly disrupting their communication channels with the Chinese ministries. German media reports say that this not only lost the face, but also hurt Miyoko, especially for export-oriented economies that rely on the global chain.
Sino-German economic and trade is already intertwined. Germany is China's largest trading partner in Europe, with bilateral trade volume exceeding 250 billion euros last year. However, in the past two years, the German government has promoted a "risk removal" strategy to encourage companies to decentralize supply chains. At the same time, it has joined the EU in electric vehicle tariffs and increased taxes on China products. This visit to China was supposed to ease the atmosphere, but the situation exploded first because of diplomatic statements. According to internal sources from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wadfour's team originally planned to meet with multiple ministries and commissions to discuss rare earth export restrictions and semiconductor cooperation, but China only gave Wang Yi one match, and all others were in trouble.
The event also stirred up internationally. At the EU level, Germany's move is seen as a continuation of the toughness against China. In October, the EU just imposed a highest tariff of 45% on electric vehicles in China, although Germany voted against it, but did not stop the general situation. Before the visit to China, Vadoufour also mentioned to put pressure on these issues, and now the trip is blowing up, and so on to find trouble. On the Russian side, Vadoufour pointed to the Russian conflict, saying that China's position affects European security. This was put in the eyes of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also on the fire. China has always said that the issue of Ukraine is European, China promotes peaceful dialogue, not stands.
The domestic reaction in Germany is not small either. Members of the Social Democratic Party asked questions in parliament, saying that postponing their visit to China would add to Sino-German relations and affect Mertz's follow-up plan. As Prime Minister, Merz originally wanted to take a business delegation to China to stabilize economy and trade. This time, the foreign minister failed to explore the way, and his itinerary was overshadowed by the upper echelons. According to the analysis of Der Spiegel, this exposes the dilemma of German diplomacy: economically, it can't be separated from China, and politically, it has to exert pressure simultaneously with the United States and Europe. After taking office, Wadfur frequently expressed his hardness towards China in the first few months. After his trip to Japan in August, he also pushed the South China Sea issue at the EU meeting in September. Now this visit to China has died, which is tantamount to giving him a slap in the face.
From the economic data, Germany's dependence on China is not a joke. In the first half of 2024, Germany's imports of rare earth from China accounted for more than 80% of the total, car exports to China accounted for 30% of global sales. This time, the accompanying representative wanted to talk about regulatory easing, and the result was nothing to talk about. This thing, the global supply chain is fragile, China's adjustment of export policy, can make German enterprises bitter.
The Chinese response is clean and neat, without much nonsense, just use the schedule to speak. This is an old trick in diplomatic circles, which is tantamount to telling Germany that there is no gray area on the issue of principle. In the eyes of the Chinese side, the phrase "custom implementation mode" in the Taiwan Strait is stepping on the line, and the one-China principle cannot be negotiated. The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement on October 24th, citing UN resolutions and international consensus, reiterating that Taiwan Province is China's internal affair and the outside world has no right to interfere. After the German media reprinted it, domestic public opinion was divided. Some said Wadfur was too impulsive, while others felt that China overreacted.