GERMANY PERSPECTIVE

Berlin covers Cheng Li-wun's China visit with the lens of a country that learned the hard way the price of economic dependence on an authoritarian partner. Deutsche Welle produces a 673-word article — among the pool's most substantial — framing the visit as 'rare' and contextualizing it within the KMT-DPP political opposition in Taiwan. Germany, which restructured its China policy after the Ukraine war shock and the realization of the Russian gas trap, projects its own experience onto the Taiwan situation. The implicit parallel is clear: as Germany awoke too late to its Russian gas dependence, Taiwan could awaken too late to Chinese political penetration through the KMT.