A authorities spokesperson says the go to will concentrate on semiconductors and never the island’s sovereignty.
Germany’s training minister is scheduled to make an official journey to Taiwan early subsequent week, the highest-level go to by a German official since 1997 to an island that China claims as a part of its territory.
Bettina Stark-Watzinger’s go to will intention to enhance cooperation between Berlin and Taipei on semiconductors, a ministry spokesperson mentioned on Friday, including that the difficulty of Taiwan’s sovereignty won’t be the main focus of the journey.
Stark-Watzinger will go to from Monday to Wednesday as tensions rise between China and the West, together with over Beijing’s stance on Russia’s struggle in Ukraine. China reacted angrily when then-US Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan final yr.
China views democratically ruled Taiwan as its personal territory and has elevated army, political and financial stress to claim these claims.
German authorities spokesman Steffen Hebestreit mentioned the go to didn’t point out any change in place in terms of Berlin’s coverage on Taiwan, which helps the European Union’s follow of cooperating with Taipei on the technical stage.
“We’re additionally in common and shut contact with China and the Chinese language management,” he mentioned. “The go to that the minister for training and analysis is making to Taiwan now would not name into query our stance in any means.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated earlier than a deliberate journey to Japan on Saturday that he stands by Beijing’s so-called “one China” coverage, which asserts that there’s just one sovereign state with the title China. Berlin nonetheless maintains decrease stage contacts with Taiwan.
A supply with direct data of subsequent week’s go to advised the Reuters information company that Stark-Watzinger wouldn’t see President Tsai Ing-wen upon the directions of the German authorities to keep away from irritating China.
The supply careworn the journey was a working go to to debate areas below Stark-Watzinger’s portfolio and never instantly about sending a message of help from Germany to Taiwan.
The final cabinet-level German official to go to Taiwan 26 years in the past was then-Financial system Minister Guenter Rexrodt, a member of the identical libertarian Free Democratic Occasion as Stark-Watzinger. It has been pushing for a harder line towards Beijing on human rights and free speech.
A go to to Taiwan in January by a delegation of high-ranking lawmakers from the Free Democrats, the smallest social gathering in Scholz’s three-party coalition, led to protests from Beijing.
China has stepped up its army actions round Taiwan lately, together with virtually day by day air pressure incursions into the island’s air protection identification zone.
