China canceled the invitation to the German Finance Minister

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner will not go to Beijing, as his Chinese counterpart Liu Kun, with whom he was to meet on Wednesday, canceled the meeting at the last minute.

This is reported by Euractiv.

According to the German Ministry of Finance, Liu Kun unexpectedly canceled the meeting scheduled for May 10 just two days before it was to begin.

"The Chinese Ministry of Finance asked over the weekend to postpone the talks between the two ministers scheduled for May 10 for scheduling reasons," the German ministry said, adding that the Chinese side did not provide any further explanation.

Both Lindner and his party, the liberal Free Democrats, have a rather distant relationship with China and have called on Germany and the European Union to be careful in dealing with the "systemic rival".

Recently, Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger, also from this party, became the first member of the German government to visit Taiwan. This visit prompted the Chinese Embassy in Germany to express "considerable dissatisfaction."

"Whether the cancellation of the visit is related to the position of the Free Democrats that Germany should be more decisive in its relations with Beijing is a matter of speculation," the Ministry of Finance said.

The planned meeting between Lindner and Kuhn was intended to prepare both countries for upcoming government consultations. According to the German ministry, it will now be postponed to a later date, which has not yet been announced.

Author - Olena Madiak, 09/05/2023