Visit to State Minister Tobias Lindner at the Foreign Ministry on December 16, 2024

  1. participants:

    2. Jürgen Kurz
    Thomas Pensel
    Dr. Peter König
    Frederic Bruch
    Corinna Kastl-Breitner
    Eckard Wiendl

  2. Questions to Tobias Lindner

    3. In preparation for the interview, you, Tobias, had expressed the wish that we should submit questions. We collected a large number of questions and, given the tight time frame, decided to limit ourselves to the following four questions.l;nken.

    • During our visit to China, we learned from the GIZ that the rule of law dialogue (or another dialogue related to legal norms, etc.?) was no longer being continued, although it had been very successful and there were good opportunities to introduce our rule of law norms in China.
      Why is that and when will it be resumed?
    • Why is there no focus on closer cooperation in the field of renewable energies, for example in development aid projects, in order to achieve the transformation in Africa or Latin America more quickly?
    • To what extent does the Federal Government or the Foreign Office have definitive, up-to-date knowledge about human rights violations, for example among the Uighurs?
      Has the situation there not changed in recent years?
    • What is the EU's own position on adhering to the one-China policy, which differs from the one-China principle of the People's Republic of China?

    In addition to the above questions, we would like to continue the discussion along the lines of the following thesis paper on Green China policy.

  3. Theses on Green China Policy

    4. With the US election in 2024 and the collapse of the traffic light coalition, it is now time to rethink German and Green China policy. The world will be reorganized with the election of US President Trump. In view of an "America First" policy that also excludes the EU, it is important to enter into climate policy, rule of law and economic cooperation all over the world. This also explicitly applies to China.

    Why is that so?

    • Germany can no longer do any significant climate protection without solar, battery, e-mobility, raw material and circular economy technologies from China.

    • China is the only nation in the world that has mastered the necessary and crucial climate protection technologies on an industrial scale and is continuing to scale them up massively. The rest of the world no longer plays a significant role.

    • With the election of Trump and the appointment of a fracking gas manager as Environment Minister, it is finally clear that the Trump USA is no longer a partner in climate protection!

    • The current policy is putting the relationship with China that has been successfully built up over many years at risk in the long term. There is a danger that China will turn to other partners even more than before. BRI, BRICS, RCEP and SCO, whose members include countries with questionably legitimate regimes that violate human rights, show that China does not need Germany in the long term. But in order to achieve successful, affordable climate protection, Germany needs China in the coming years.

    • Germany will go down the path of technological and industrial decline if it does not achieve strong participation with China's clean technologies. To achieve this, we need mutually open markets, research cooperation and a partnership-based relationship.

    • Of course, there are political measures in China that do not correspond to our ideas of a parliamentary democracy. However, the knowledge of China that B90/GREENS has is based on descriptions and assumptions by actors who fundamentally reject a socialist system and oppose China's rise. In doing so, however, they create a distorted picture of the reality in China. Unfortunately, the Green Party has failed to take a closer look at other perspectives on China in recent years. This should be corrected!

    • With a policy of confrontation, Germany's influence on the rule of law and human rights in China is also diminishing. Without a power base, which until now was only Germany's economic dominance, there is no longer any effective influence. But it is precisely this economic strength of Germany that is rapidly diminishing with the fast-growing green technologies in China.

    • It is therefore time for a reorientation of the Green Party's China policy. Cooperation is necessary simply because of the challenge of global climate protection. In terms of peace policy, cooperation with China is essential to isolate the Russian aggressive policy under Putin. Germany and the EU can only achieve this through joint economic strengthening, strengthening research cooperation and a large-scale dialogue with many human encounters, not through sanctions, trade tariffs and mutual blame. The future China policy of Alliance 90/The Greens should also be based on these principles.