According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Baerbock said Germany understood the “importance and sensitivity” of the Taiwan issue to China and would stick to the “one-China” policy.
Wang said China was willing to strengthen communication with Germany and to jointly address global challenges, including climate change, to advance the “healthy development” of bilateral relations.
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A day earlier, Baerbock took a tough stand on Taiwan during a joint press conference with her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, saying a “military escalation” in the Taiwan Strait would be a “horror scenario” for the whole world.
She said Germany remained committed to the “one-China” policy while also being concerned about the situation in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the option of seeking reunification by force.
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Baerbock was widely expected to use her China trip to reaffirm the European Union’s unity on its China policy after French President Emmanuel Macron suggested the bloc should not follow the United States or China but to have its own policy on Taiwan, prompting a backlash in the EU.
Addressing G7 foreign ministers via videolink in Japan on Sunday, Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, said the Taiwan issue would influence the relationship between China and Europe.
“Anything that happens in the Taiwan Strait will mean a lot to us,” Borrell said, stressing the need to engage China and keep communications open, according to Reuters.
Noah Barkin, an expert in EU-China relations at Rhodium Group, said that unlike Macron, Baerbock did not shy away from addressing contentious issues with Beijing in China.
“Baerbock was a necessary corrective to the perplexing diplomatic display by the French president,” he said.
Her trip comes as Germany is drafting a new China strategy to significantly reduce economic dependence on China as calls grow within the bloc to “de-risk”.
Referring to the German strategy, Qin said he hoped Germany could make the “correct political choice” and avoid “strategic misjudgement”.
“China and Germany are partners, not rivals. When formulating China-related strategic documents, Germany should proceed from the vital interests and well-being of the two countries and their peoples,” he said.
He said Germany should not worry about the “dependence” and “risks” when developing economic relations with China, and warned that “manually putting the brakes on normal economic and trade cooperation will be counterproductive”.
He also called for fairer and non-discriminatory treatment for Chinese investment in Germany as the EU ramps up measures in targeting China’s access to sensitive technologies, with a possible ban on Huawei and ZTE equipment in Germany’s 5G networks.
Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Renmin University who specialises in EU-China relations, said there was little consensus between Germany and China on major contentious issues, from Taiwan to the economy to Ukraine.
“Although strategic consultations between Germany and China have been resumed this year, it will still be very difficult for all the other routine [dialogue] mechanisms to resume, and for relations to improve,” he said.
