Linken leader Jan van Aken has urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) to persuade China to join peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. Speaking to the T‑Online portal, van Aken said, “If Xi Jinping calls, Putin would come” and added that the special relationship between China and Russia is an asset for achieving a settlement in Ukraine, not a liability; he claims Merz needs to grasp this point.
Merz is set to begin his first visit to China this Tuesday. Van Aken welcomed the trip but called it overdue. According to him, the aim must be to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible. While China is unlikely to abandon Russia, it has signaled a willingness to act as a mediator. Therefore, van Aken argues, the chancellor should take a step toward China.
The politician also warned against a shift in tone when dealing with Beijing. He criticised Merz for blasting China before the trip-labeling China’s systematic exploitation of other countries’ dependencies and its global ambitions. Although China’s policies, particularly on human rights, are subject to criticism, van Aken maintains that if German politicians confront China only with demands and reproaches, the prospects for a less violent world erode. “We urgently need to work with China” he said.
To show that China deserves a place in world politics, van Aken urges Merz to support reforms such as those aimed at the International Monetary Fund. He further argued that bodies like the IMF and the UN Security Council are dominated by Western interests and are ill‑suited to solving global problems. “We must chart new routes, because the West has also systematically exploited dependencies-only Europe has benefited so far” van Aken concluded, noting that discussions over Greenland have already ended this way.