“The Green Cold War” against China

Transatlantic parliamentary alliance launched against China – with substantial involvement of a German Green politician.

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Important article first published in June 2020

Politicians from the German Green Party are playing a leading role in a new transatlantic anti-China alliance of legislators. Anti-Chinese hardliners, Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, are considered the driving forces in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), [June 2020] currently involving members of twelve parliaments.

Officially, the organization seeks to forge a common western policy toward China. A concrete aim appears to be the implementation also in Europe of the US sanctions policy against Beijing. IPAC is mobilizing legislators, there where national governments are still rejecting the sanctions. In the wings of the Munich Security Conference, last February, Reinhard Bütikofer, a Green Party member of the EU parliament had already proposed the creation of such a legislator pressure group. He is now acting as IPAC co-chairman. The alliance, which is calling for the development of “security strategies” against China, has an Ex-CIA specialist on its advisory board.

IPAC

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) was launched [in June 2020] by legislators of eight parliaments. In the meantime, it includes politicians of twelve parliaments – eleven national [1] and the EU parliament. States, which recently have shown a particularly aggressive attitude toward China, are also involved: the USA, Australia and Japan. US Senators Marco Rubio (Republican) and Bob Menendez (Democrat), who, since some time, have distinguished themselves as anti-China hardliners, are playing a leading role in IPAC. Two politicians from the German Green Party, Margarete Bause, as member of the German Bundestag and Reinhard Bütikofer, as member of the EU parliament are among the Alliance’s Co-Chairs. Likewise, Michael Brand, Spokesperson for Human Rights in the CDU/CSU Bundestag group is also involved.

Typical Western Double Standards (I)

IPAC explicitly aims at promoting a “coherent response” to China’s rise.[2] The new alliance – comprising transatlantic states and close allies, Japan and Australia – is demanding that China abide by standards that western powers have repeatedly violated: The People’s Republic of China must be held to the “standards of the international legal order.”

There is no mention of the wars against Yugoslavia (1999), Iraq (2003) or Libya (2011), which western powers have waged in various constellations in violation of international law. IPAC founding member Bütikofer, for example, supported the war against Yugoslavia in 1999 as the political administrator of the then coalition governing Green Party. IPAC also declared that China be held to the standards of the rules-based order of the WTO. The Trump administration’s practices violating those rules are not mentioned. Beijing should also not be permitted to compromise the sovereignty of recipient countries for example through credits. IPAC does not mention the practice of the western dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposing draconian austerity programs against the will of credit recipients.

“At Last a Sanctions Mechanism”

It is particularly becoming apparent that the IPAC seeks to have Europe enforce the US sanctions policy. US Senators Rubio and Menendez are the main forces behind the introduction of the relevant US laws, which, using the excuse of seeking to take action against Beijing’s measures in Hong Kong and in Xinjiang, open the door to punitive actions against the People’s Republic of China. US President Donald Trump should soon be signing the Xinjiang bill into law [June 2020]. The bill pertaining to Hong Kong has already been in effect since last November. Bütikofer recently spoke in favor of “at last installing a concerted pan-EU global sanctions mechanism,” to eventually “be able to “impose sanctions for human rights violations on Chinese officials.”[3] IPAC has chosen this means of having influence through parliaments, where the US government has yet to be successful in forcing other governments through direct pressure to adopt its sanctions policy. One example is Great Britain, where, since some time, particularly pro-USA Tory backbenchers are adamantly insisting that their government’s decision to a limited Huawei participation in setting up the British 5G network be revised. IPAC now permits such practices to be expanded.

The ex-Colonial Governor and the Greens

In Germany, the Greens constitute the backbone of this policy. This could be observed recently, when the last British colonial governor of Hong Kong, the former EU External Relations Commissioner, Chris Patten, launched an appeal – based on China’s new security law for Hong Kong – calling for joint action to be taken by the western countries and their allies against the People’s Republic of China. This appeal also sought to mobilize the largest possible number of parliamentarians to adopt an aggressive confrontational policy toward Beijing – circumventing their national governments. It has already garnered the signatures of 853 politicians from Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan, most being legislators of national parliaments and the EU Parliament.

The former colonial governor’s appeal has received particularly strong support from the German Greens, whose names are listed alongside right-wing hardliners such as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.[4] The Green politician Bütikofer plays a leading role also in IPAC. In the wings of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), the head of the EU Parliament’s China delegation made a plea for forming a transatlantic China caucus, with the objective of bringing US Congressional representatives in close contact with members of the EU Parliament.[5] IPAC now gets various additional national parliaments onboard.

Typical Western Double Standards (II)

The, at first sight, astonishing, cooperation German Greens have with hardliners from the right-wing of the US Republicans, has a long tradition in the fight against China. For many years, German Greens, like US Republicans, have been supporting Tibetan circles linked to the Dalai Lama, who occasionally have resorted to violence in their opposition to Beijing – even demanding that Tibet secede from the People’s Republic of China.[6] Protesting Beijing’s measures in Xinjiang, US Republicans and German Greens are standing shoulder to shoulder – another example of typical western double standards: Whereas China’s fight against the Uighur jihad in Xinjiang (german-foreign-policy.com reported [7]) is being sharply attacked, massive crimes committed since September 11, 2001, during the West’s “War on Terror” – abduction and torture of terrorist suspects – are passed over in silence. Germany’s SPD/Greens coalition government at the time had been involved.[8] Bütikofer was then the political administrator of the Green Party.

Advisory Board Member with CIA Career

The composition of IPAC’s Advisory Board corresponds to its above-mentioned agenda. Among its members are activists from Hong Kong, including a British surgeon with experience in war and violent conflict zones,[9] as well as the Vice President of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress (WUC, german-foreign-policy.com reported [10]). IPAC Advisory Board member Robert L. Suettinger, on the other hand, was a long-time employee in the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence.[11]

“Security Strategies”

IPAC’s declared objectives do not ultimately indicate its long-term orientation. “Democracies,” the organization declares, must develop complementary “security strategies” to address “challenges” presented by the PRC.[12] This falls in line with considerations being made in transatlantic circles, to position NATO against China – also explicitly militarily. german-foreign-policy.com will soon report.

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Notes

[1] The national parliaments of Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Canada, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic and the USA.

[2] About. ipac.global.

[3] Christoph B. Schiltz: Augenblick der Wahrheit für die EU. welt.de 26.05.2020. See also Die Meister der doppelten Standards.

[4] See also Auf breiter Front gegen Beijing.

[5] China eint Amerikaner und Europäer. tagesspiegel.de 15.02.2020. See also Streit um die Chinapolitik.

[6] See also The Olympic Torch Relay Campaign and Operations against China.

[7] See also Setting the Sights on East Turkestan (I).

[8] See also 17 Years “War on Terror”.

[9] Team: Dr Darren Mann. ipac.global.

[10] See also Setting the Sights on East Turkestan (II) and The Chinese Opposition’s Foreign Hub.

[11] Team: Robert L. Suettinger. ipac.global.

[12] About. ipac.global.

Featured image is from German-foreign-policy.com


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