German
Bundestag, September 9, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/172, pp. 21584-21585.
Herr
President. Ladies and gentlemen.
The
re-ascent of China is distinguishable from the end of the 1970s. It is a
historical normality and actually should surprise no one. The bases for it are
at hand. With hard work and intelligent economic reforms, the Chinese have made
their country one of the leading nations. With us during this time, there has
been the march of the 68ers through the institutions – with the result that
ever more resources, detached from the facts, have been squandered on ideological
projects.
Marianne Schieder (SPD): It gets
ever worse!
While
the Chinese meantime build worldwide 5G networks, we oblige our Mittelstand to write job descriptions
for diverse genders and shut down modern, high-efficiency power plants. That is
the decadence of the 68ers which lies like a blight upon our country and which
is now increasingly being confronted by reality.
Two
suggestions as to how we should deal with the re-ascent of China:
First.
Let us resist those who wish to force us into a new Cold War. 50 years of good
relations bind us to today’s China. Unlike many European states and the U.S.A.
since the fall of the Berlin Wall, China has conducted no wars.
Michael Brand (CDU/CSU-Fulda): And
they have a leader!
Much
more, by means of a constructive economic policy, it has contributed to the
improvement of the lives of most Chinese and yet also to that of people in
Europe and other parts of the world. Prior to Corona, each year more than 100
million Chinese tourists have come to Europe and returned to China. They would
not have done that if life there was as bad as is always presented by you.
Marianne Schieder (SPD): Dear
Heaven! Herr, wirf Hirn vom Himmel!
Also,
in regards Russia, we should stand up to the powers which continually steer towards
a confrontation. There exists the real danger of a hardening of the artificial
split in the European continent whereby the western portion is reconstructed as
an American bridgehead and the eastern is drawn into the Chinese sphere of
influence as a junior partner.
Vice-president Thomas Oppermann: Herr Hartwig, do
you allow an interim question from the FDP?
No.
We must again revive the idea of a European community of sovereign states with
the inclusion of Russia.
Second.
Let us be upright. The Uigurs are a group of people who make up less than 1
percent of the Chinese population and whose Islamic lifestyle stands in stark
contrast to the further progress of the Chinese modernization.
Steffi Lemke (Greens): So they can
be stuck in the camps, or what?
Since
the 90s, this has lead to increasing tensions with the Han Chinese. The Chinese
are now forcing the integration of the Uigurs into the Chinese modernity,
whereby they compel them to learn the Chinese language and go through training
which makes possible employment in a modern industrial society.
Criticism
of this would plainly be more credible if the majority of this parliament did
not each year prolong the military mission by which the Afghans, in direct
vicinity of the Uigurs, shall be integrated into the western modernity. You thereby
assert the same arguments as the Chinese Communist Party. You tell the people
and the soldiers that it is about training and development, schools for girls and
digging wells, as well as the fight against terrorism. Thousands of western soldiers,
among them soldiers of the Bundeswehr, have already lost their lives in
Afghanistan. The number of dead Afghans has long since exceeded one hundred
thousand.
Stefan Müller (CDU/CSU): Has the
Chinese embassy written your speech?
The
Americans alone have expended almost a trillion dollars there.
You
wrinkle your nose at the Chinese social model. Yet your dealings with other
social models, ladies and gentlemen, are not only bloodier and more expensive,
they are also less successful.
Andrej Hunko (Linke): What was that
then?
[trans:
tem]
