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Xi Jinping will land in Moscow on Monday – where he will meet the Russian President. Xi’s visit gives Vladimir Putin a bit of a leg-up again, just days after he received another signal of ostracism from the international community in the form of an arrest warrant from The Hague. The three-day Sino-Russian summit is being followed abroad with enormous interest.
However, the former head of the Munich Security Conference and renowned diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger does not expect too much from the meeting. Given the current state of US-Chinese relations, he sees no reason why Xi would deviate from his previous position in Moscow. “I therefore fear that we will unfortunately only get a replay of what Xi and Putin already celebrated in Beijing last February: their borderless partnership,” says Ischinger in an interview with Table.Media.
Nevertheless, Ischinger believes it would be a mistake for the West to simply dismiss Beijing’s paper on the Russia-Ukraine war. The leadership in Beijing is not neutral. It could certainly play a role in a potential peace process, Ischinger emphasizes.
German Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, recently sparked a debate about the Chinese mobile phone suppliers Huawei and ZTE. A Table.Media survey conducted by the research agency Civey now shows: a clear majority of German citizens would accept a lower network expansion speed in exchange for foregoing Huawei technology. The survey showed remarkable differences between voters of the Green Party and the Left Party.
How to deal with the Chinese communications equipment suppliers would theoretically also be an urgent element of the German government’s official China strategy. This strategy is still in the works in Berlin and there have already been position papers from various sides. Now the conservative CDU/CSU party has also put forward its ideas – or rather, its assessment of the current state of affairs. After all, the CDU/CSU paper entitled “Sovereignty from our own strength – key points for a new China policy” leaves much to be desired, analyzes Michael Radunski.
Amelie Richter
Interview
‘China’s claim to be a mediator is something we must respect’
This Monday, China’s President Xi Jinping will travel to Moscow. What can be expected from the meeting with Vladimir Putin?
I wish I could give an optimistic prognosis. But I don’t have it, even after repeated deliberation. Given the current desolate state of US-Chinese relations, I can hardly see any reason why Xi should budge even a single millimeter in Moscow. I therefore fear that we will unfortunately only get a replay of what Xi and Putin already celebrated in Beijing last February: their borderless partnership. But I would be happy if this forecast were too pessimistic.
That would indeed be disappointing, especially since China has recently come out of the woodwork with a position paper. However, Beijing’s twelve-point plan has met with skepticism in the West. With good reason?
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