It is not about the value of concession but how she asked it. She threatened on a lot of things that should earn her the VDL treatment but not only did that not happen she earned a official promise. Even though China made it clear weapon deal between two sovriegn nation is none of their god damn business.
Just what did she do that earned so much respect both in level of reception and diplomatic gurantee? I wish there are something we dont know that happened. If we took everything at surface level it would be a disaster.
As the saying goes, you need to see who the owner is before you can beat the dog.
VDL is America’s dog, so can be spanked at will.
360 is Germany’s dog on paper, it doesn’t matter that she betrays her owners and thinks herself America’s dog. The respects and dignity extended to her has nothing to do with what 360 as a moron might have said or done, but rather is done out of respect for the German government and people that she is supposed to represent.
Similarly, the clown show she put on spouting American talking points in China instead of looking after German interests is a slap on the face of her owners the Germans, not China.
China is far too mature and clever to resort to the kind of emotional diplomacy and policy making the western ‘democracies’ stupidly indulge in.
Similarly, look at what Macron and 360 did and walked away with and you start to see the game Beijing is playing.
Macron came and focused on French national interests (it is now clear why he brought VDL along, so she could spout American talking points and get the cold shoulder treatment but freeing Macron from having to make those points himself), and went home with actual economic gains for France.
360 came and spouted American talking points, and China even threw her a big juicy bone in the form of a statement about not providing arms to either side of the conflict. But that’s a bone for America to eat. Germany doesn’t benefit one bit from such a gift and there are no economic deals that 360 brought home with her for the German people.
The more the western MSM and 360 herself celebrates her bone for America, the more the German people should fume about their foreign secretary spending German political and diplomatic capital to advance American interests while leaving German interests ignored and forgotten.
In a way, this is also a test of the German government and people, to see if there is any national pride and self awareness left or if they are all just hollowed out brain dead American zombie slaves. If German continue to behave like an American appendage, don’t be surprised when China starts to treat it as such. That’s when the VDL treatment will start. But I think Germany still have a few more tries left before Beijing makes up its mind and start to respond accordingly with policy that has real, and far reaching consequences rather than merely through petty and meaningless PR shows.