With their cynical approach to the People's Republic of China 🇨🇳 the four chancellors Schmidt (1974-82), Kohl (1982-98), Schröder (1998-2005) and Merkel (2005-21) have done Germany 🇩🇪 a disservice. There is much to be learned from their leadership failures. A short thread 🧵 /1
Chancellor Helmut Kohl is best known for his role in Germany's re-unification. Yet he also helped normalising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. In 1995 he was the "first Western leader to visit a Chinese military base" /2 nytimes.com/1995/11/09/wor…
Kohl's visit to the People's Liberation Army 196 Infantry Division outside Tianjin was highly symbolic. It was a clear signal to the Chinese Communist Party that the atrocities of 1989 were no longer an obstacle to western business engagement with China /3 scmp.com/article/138269…
Under Kohl German China policy was increasingly driven by mercantilist considerations. Kohl helped to "[convince] a generation of German political and business elites that China held the key to Germany’s long-term prosperity." /4 politico.eu/article/german…
Kohl's successor Chancellor Gerhard Schröder went further. He relegated human rights concerns to a toothless 'dialogue'. In 2005 he lobbied to lift the European arms embargo, which he saw as an obstacle to deepening Germany's commercial ties with China /5 dw.com/en/schr%C3%B6d…
Schröder admired former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Despite retiring from front-line politics in the early 1980s, Schmidt exercised very problematic intellectual leadership in the early 2000s. Time and again Schmidt argued against China's democratisation /6 spiegel.de/politik/deutsc…
Schmidt argued that "in China all the prerequisites for a democracy were missing, there were no democratic traditions in Chinese history (author's translation)". He exaggerated the importance of Confucianism in Chinese political thought and practice /7 handelsblatt.com/meinung/kommen…
The German journalist Erling has portrayed Helmut Schmidt as part of the 'sceptic generation': Schmidt had grown up in the Third Reich; he was disillusioned, displayed a cynical attitude; rejected political visions and advocated pragmatism /8 welt.de/politik/auslan…
Erling critiqued Schmidt as an "authoritarian character dressed in the cloak of the sceptic. And therefore an admirer of all authoritarians in this world as long as they have power; and a despiser of anti-authoritarian democracy (author's translation)" /9
During a talk in 2012 "the former chancellor expressed his doubts about the export of Western democracy to the People's Republic". Gu Xuewu disagreed and told Schmidt that "a free system was always a better option than the naked exercise of power" /10 dw.com/en/magnet-chin…
Sieren has argued that "Germans should think hard about how to address [Schmidt's] legacy". Yet Schmidt's view of China was very problematic. He portrayed it in culturally essentialist terms. He also frequently gave the CCP the benefit of the doubt /11 dw.com/en/sierens-chi…
Following Schröder's election defeat in 2005 Angela Merkel began her long reign as chancellor. U-turn after u-turn revealed her lack of leadership. First she was in favour of nuclear energy, only to change her mind after Fukushima /12 dw.com/en/opinion-ang…
Merkel initially was critical of China and even met the Dalai Lama in 2007. Yet her biggest legacy will be the ill-considered Comprehensive Agreement on Investment #CAI. Merkel prioritised the bottom line of German conglomerates over any other concerns /13 spiegel.de/international/…
Under Merkel German China policy was effectively outsourced to the private sector. This opened the flood gates to corporate propaganda. In their blind pursuit of short-term profits economic elites distorted the German public discourse about China /14
Let me conclude with a brief summary. When the four chancellors exercised leadership they either normalised the CCP (Kohl), made the case against China's democratisation (Schmidt), or prioritised commerce over other enlightened values and interests (Schröder and Merkel) /15
There is now a lot to unlearn. Myths about the importance of China's market and misunderstandings about China's political system need to be busted. Academics and think tankers should help to inform a more critical public debate about China. Germany needs a reality check /16
The SPD foreign affairs spokesperson Schmid is right when arguing that “[we] need a real foreign policy for China — not just a business-oriented policy (...) We need to decouple our foreign policy from the commercial interests of big business” /End ft.com/content/0de447…
If you found the thread 🧵 about the four German chancellors’ cynical approach to China thought provoking please consider this thread from September 14, 2020. Here I write about the pitfalls of Germany’s single-minded pursuit of foreign trade promotion (Außenwirtschaftsförderung)
Are we seeing the dawn of Communist Chinese Imperialism? Christopher Ford sees echoes of European imperialism in the Chinese Communist Party's Global South strategy. Join me to find out more /1 newparadigmsforum.com/call-it-by-its…
First, a few words about the author. Christopher Ford served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (2018-21). He has also written three books on China. He can be seen as a pracademic, a practicing academic /2 newparadigmsforum.com/about
I learned about Christopher Ford's excellent scholarship when doing research for my new book 'Germany and China'. I was keen to learn more about China's strategic culture. I found his theoretical and practical insights utterly convincing and compelling /3 nbr.org/publication/be…
Scholz will einen "großen Krieg" mit Russland verhindern. Und auf unfaire Handelspraktiken Chinas dürfe die EU nicht so reagieren "dass wir uns selbst schädigen". Jeweils kommt die gleiche defätistische Denk- und Redefigur zu Einsatz: bloß keine Eskalation. Ein kurzer 🧵 /1
Der Raketenangriff nach dem Telefonat mit Putin zeigt: Russland eskaliert, während Scholz und Plötner immer noch glauben, man könne durch gutes Zureden ein radikal-revisionistisches Regime dazu bringen, den völkerrechtswidrigen Angriffskrieg zu beenden /2 theguardian.com/world/2024/nov…
Bei unfairen Handelspraktiken Chinas sieht es nicht besser aus. Anstatt die Automobil-Lobbyisten in Berlin zu ignorieren kuscht @Bundeskanzler Scholz was Schutzzölle auf E-Autos angeht vor Peking. Auch hier lautet das Motto: bloß keine Eskalation /3 wiwo.de/politik/europa…
Frank-Walter Steinmeier sollte sich an Willy Brandt ein Vorbild nehmen. Brandt hatte 1990 im Gespräch mit Studenten in Paris die Größe, einen zentralen Irrtum in seiner Ostpolitik einzugestehen. Ein kurzer 🧵 /1
Für sein Buch "Polen und Deutsche" (Suhrkamp, 2011) sprach Hofmann mit dem ehemaligen polnischen Außenminister Geremek. Dabei ging es unter anderem auch um das angespannte Verhältnis zwischen deutschen Sozialdemokraten und der polnischen Oppositionsbewegung Solidarność /2
Geremek erzählt Hofmann eine wichtige Anekdote. Hofmann schreibt in seinem Buch: "Im Jahr 1990 traf er mit Willy Brandt und Alexander Dubček in Paris zusammen ... »Ein schönes Treffen, für uns drei sehr interessant«, erinnert sich Geremek mit einem Lächeln auf den Lippen." /2
Do you think that China can be a reliable partner in the fight against climate change? Then think again /1
It is true that the Chinese leadership has formulated ambitious climate targets. In 2020, Xi Jinping declared the goal of making the People's Republic climate-neutral by 2060 /2bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
But the reality is different: Coal remains the undisputed central source of energy, and China is consistently undermining the goal of climate neutrality by rapidly expanding coal-fired power plants, at home and abroad /3 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Steinmeiers Wutausbruch nach Martins Kritik zeigt, warum wir bei der Entwicklung einer neuen deutschen strategischen Kultur nicht vorankommen. Wenn sich die besten Ideen durchsetzen sollen, brauchen wir robuste öffentliche Debatten. Doch Widerspruch ist leider nicht erwünscht /1
Steinmeier war unter Merkel zwei Mal Aussenminister, 2005-2009 und 2013-2017. Sein Konzept "Annäherung durch Verflechtung" war ein wenig durchdachtes Imitat von Bahrs Ostpolitik "Wandel durch Annäherung". Steinmeiers außenpolitische Doktrin wurde sukzessive zu einem Dogma /2
Wie ich in meinem Buch "Germany and China" (Bloomsbury, 2024) dargelegt habe, zielte die Steinmeier-Doktrin nicht auf Liberalisierung autokratischer Länder ab, sondern ermöglichte billige Gasimporte aus Russland, stärkte den Handel mit China und normalisierte damit Diktaturen /3
35 years after Germany's peaceful revolution of 1989, the renowned author Marko Martin has publicly criticised President #Steinmeier. His excellent critique was long overdue. But it is not enough. Once a new government is formed Steinmeier should resign /1
First the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then the mass murder by Hamas terrorists in Israel: following the 'Zeitenwende' of 24 February 2022 our world is coming apart at the seams. The misguided foreign policy of the incumbent German President has contributed to this outcome /2
Steinmeier was foreign minister twice under Merkel, 2005-2009 and 2013-2017. He was the author of the "rapprochement through interweaving" approach, a poor imitation of Bahr's Ostpolitik "Change through rapprochement". It morphed into a highly dogmatic foreign policy doctrine /3