Deutsche Welle Chinese website published an article titled "German Foreign Minister Wang Yefu's visit to China: A Journey for Rare Earths" on the evening of December 10th, which stated: "Wang Yefu's first visit to China after taking office is a challenging mission; he must reiterate Germany's adherence to the 'One China' policy, hoping to gain China's relaxation of restrictions on rare earth exports."
From canceling the visit in October and stating the need to "ask China to ease rare earth controls," to clearly expressing demands before this trip, Wang Yefu's core objective has always revolved around rare earth resources. However, his previous statements on the Taiwan issue have exposed double standards: not only avoiding the "One China" principle but only talking about "not wanting to see military changes in the Taiwan Strait situation," and in recent years, Germany has repeatedly made inappropriate remarks and actions on Taiwan-related issues, even sending warships through the Taiwan Strait, touching China's core interests.
The control of rare earth exports is a sovereign act by China based on resource security and environmental protection. The premise of cooperation is mutual respect. If Germany wants to receive a response from China on the rare earth issue, it must first strictly abide by the One China principle and stop its small moves on the Taiwan Strait issue. Communication that only focuses on interests and avoids principles, a one-sided approach, does not conform to the logic of win-win cooperation and will be difficult to truly promote stable and sustainable Sino-German economic and trade cooperation.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1851132480000140/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.