1y ago

China courts Germany's far-right populist AfD

www.dw.com China courts Germany's far-right populist AfD – DW – 08/11/2023

The far-right populist Alternative for Germany party rejects a values-based foreign policy, just as much as it rejects NATO and the US. That approach has attracted the attention of Beijing.

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Let's lay out the events:
AfD travels to China
AfD says they'll pursue a neutral foreign policy approach with China
AfD says their getting twenty percent of the vote has "sparked interest from China"
AfD says they'll keep lines of communication open with China
Headline: "China courts Germany's far right populist AfD"
- Probably a key piece of context is that they were invited
  
  There's no information about that, so presumably given the slant of the article it was an innocuous invitation.
  I have tried to find any other references but haven't.
  It is not unusual for members of parliament to be invited to other countries, so information needed would include:
  who specifically invited AfD
  was this invite open to other parliamentarians
  what was the nature of their 'invite'
  was this part of a broader diplomatic program (such as China's invites to EU representatives and diplomats to tour Xinjiang)
  China would deal with AfD just like they deal with left, right, far right and theocratic governments and absolute monarchies all over the world.
  
  That's all fair, but framing the sequence of events as entirely unilateral action by the AfD is just as slanted as the article, and we're better than that.
  
  It is almost entirely unilateral action by AfD though.
  A better article would make AfD look even more perverse by highlighting a key plant of Xi Jinping thought is "ecological civilisation", that China invests heavily in renewables and is building a $1 billion factory in Hungary (from memory) to gain more European green market share.
  It could also seek comment from Chinese officials, or even AfD (I didn't see that but might have missed it?)
  
  I mean... It's not like there's not a standing invitation for Germany's current government. Is building diplomatic ties not permissible if the party isn't currently in power?
  Better fucking tell the Republicans to get out of Canadian politics, then.

397 comments