German Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger will visit Taiwan soon.

(Associated Press)

[Central News Agency] German Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger (Bettina Stark-Watzinger) is about to visit Taiwan, reflecting Germany's recent heightened vigilance over China's expansion of influence through the Confucius Institute, and seeking to strengthen cooperation with democratic partner Taiwan in various fields .

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research stated that Stark-Wattersinger is expected to visit Taiwan on the 21st and 22nd, and will meet with Wu Zhengzhong, chairman of the National Science Council, Pan Wenzhong, Minister of Education, and Tang Feng, a number of ministers.

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According to the German news agency (DPA), officials pointed out that the purpose of Stark-Wattsinger's trip is to strengthen academic, research and educational cooperation with Taiwan. In an increasingly competitive environment, this visit is very attractive to Germany. It is an important step to start research and development cooperation with international partners of the company.

The report quoted a statement from the German Ministry of Education and Research stating that Taiwan is a reliable and trustworthy partner, taking education, R&D and digital policy as examples. "Germany and Taiwan share common values ​​and also defend peace, freedom and human rights."

In addition, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out at a press conference on the 17th that Taiwan is a democratic country and an important trade and investment partner of Germany.

Chinese language teaching is another focus of the German Minister of Education and Research's visit to Taiwan. Germany plans to cooperate with Taiwan in Chinese language research and capabilities to "build independent research capabilities in China."

In recent years, Germany has begun to face up to the risks of cooperating with authoritarian countries and regards China as a systemic competitor. Therefore, it intends to strengthen cooperation with Taiwan in areas such as research and development and Chinese language teaching.

In an interview with Handelsblatt in June last year, Stark-Wattsinger said that in China today, everything serves the CCP. If she were a university president in Germany, she would not agree to the establishment of a Confucius Institute because the funds come from Beijing will be used politically by the CCP, "I oppose China having direct influence on our teaching and research."

In response to the joint research of German and Chinese scholars on dual-use technology and artificial intelligence, Stark-Wattsinger said that if military use and being used by the government to monitor people cannot be ruled out, German scholars must draw a clear line with China.

She emphasized that in the institutional competition between democracy and dictatorship, as long as it may help China gain an advantage, scholars should keep a distance from China.