this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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[–] ElHexo@hexbear.net 121 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Let's lay out the events:

  • AfD travels to China
  • AfD says they'll pursue a neutral foreign policy approach with China
  • AfD says their getting twenty percent of the vote has "sparked interest from China"
  • AfD says they'll keep lines of communication open with China

Headline: "China courts Germany's far right populist AfD"

[–] TBooneChickens@hexbear.net 35 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Probably a key piece of context is that they were invited

[–] ElHexo@hexbear.net 53 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There's no information about that, so presumably given the slant of the article it was an innocuous invitation.

I have tried to find any other references but haven't.

It is not unusual for members of parliament to be invited to other countries, so information needed would include:

  • who specifically invited AfD
  • was this invite open to other parliamentarians
  • what was the nature of their 'invite'
  • was this part of a broader diplomatic program (such as China's invites to EU representatives and diplomats to tour Xinjiang)

China would deal with AfD just like they deal with left, right, far right and theocratic governments and absolute monarchies all over the world.

[–] TBooneChickens@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's all fair, but framing the sequence of events as entirely unilateral action by the AfD is just as slanted as the article, and we're better than that.

[–] ElHexo@hexbear.net 39 points 1 year ago

It is almost entirely unilateral action by AfD though.

A better article would make AfD look even more perverse by highlighting a key plant of Xi Jinping thought is "ecological civilisation", that China invests heavily in renewables and is building a $1 billion factory in Hungary (from memory) to gain more European green market share.

It could also seek comment from Chinese officials, or even AfD (I didn't see that but might have missed it?)

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