German Cabinet minister will make official visit to Taiwan next week for first time since 1997

Germany’s education and research minister is making an official visit to Taiwan next week, officials said Friday. It would be the highest-level visit by a German official to the island since 1997, which China claims as part of its territory.

The March 20-22 visit comes amid rising tensions between China and the West, including over Beijing’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last year, when then-Speaker of the US House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China reacted angrily.

Spokesman Martin Kleinmaas said the visit by Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, whose ministry also oversees science, would focus on cooperation in the areas of chip research and manufacturing, green hydrogen and battery production.

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Government spokesman Stefan Hebestreit said the visit did not signal any change of position when it comes to Germany’s policy on Taiwan, which cooperates with Taipei on a technical level without questioning the principle of “one China”. Supports the EU practice of doing.

German Science and Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is making an official visit to Taiwan next week, officials said on March 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, Poole, File)

“We are also in regular and close contact with China and the Chinese leadership,” he said. “The visit that the Minister of Education and Research is now making to Taiwan does not in any way question our stand.”

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The last cabinet-level German official to visit Taiwan 26 years ago was then Economy Minister Guenter Rexrode, a member of the same liberal Free Democratic Party as Stark-Watzinger. The party has been pushing a hard line toward Beijing on human rights and free speech.