China courts frazzled Europe as Western alliance wavers
At Munich Security Conference, top Chinese envoy Wang Yi goes on charm offensive while US leaders berate Europe
Top officials from the United States and Europe spent a chaotic weekend trading barbs over values, Ukraine and democracy, with US Vice-President J.D. Vance clashing with a series of German leaders over his courting of the far-right ahead of next week’s federal election.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia. It’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within,” said Vance, who later met Alice Weidel, the leader of the Alternative for Germany, which has been branded “extremist” by German authorities, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
In the margins, Beijing was making hay.
In a diplomatic blitz, Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his conservative opponent Friedrich Merz, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, and counterparts from the European Union, Germany, Spain, and France. On each occasion, according to foreign ministry statements, he pitched China as a partner to Europe and a friend of the existing order.
