Her­bert Schweiger: SS vet­eran and sup­porter of South Tyrol Independence

COMMENT: Over the years, we have cov­ered the Hapsburg/Thyssen UNPO and its cham­pi­oning of eth­nic minori­ties as a vehi­cle for break­ing up large nations into smaller, more pli­able states. Using the human suf­fer­ing and social dis­lo­ca­tion brought about by its “aus­ter­ity” pro­gram to frag­ment large nations, Ger­many is actively sup­port­ing the seces­sion of Cat­alo­nia from Spain and, in coop­er­a­tion its Aus­trian part­ner, the South Tyrol from Italy.

The Aus­trian drive for the inde­pen­dence of South Tyrol is dri­ven by the “Free­dom Party,” for­merly headed by Jorg Haider. That party was founded after the Sec­ond World War to allow Third Reich vet­er­ans to par­tic­i­pate in Aus­trian politics.

Man­i­fest­ing what, for lack of a bet­ter term, might be called “eth­nic impe­ri­al­ism,” Ger­many is using far-right, neo-Nazi ele­ments as foot sol­diers to assist the ver­triebene groups in pro­mot­ing the seces­sion of German-speaking minori­ties in Poland and other parts of East­ern Europe.

Tar­get­ing China, Ger­many con­tin­ues its equiv­o­cal sup­port for indi­vid­u­als and eth­nic groups seek­ing to frag­ment that nation.  As we have seen in past dis­cus­sion, the United States is also tar­geted for Balka­niza­tion and subversion. 

When we first pre­sented our view that the U.S. was tar­geted for frag­men­ta­tion, the response was deri­sive and alto­gether unkind. With a num­ber of states float­ing seces­sion­ist peti­tions and with right-wing politi­cos advo­cat­ing the frag­men­ta­tion of the Union in the wake of the 2012 elec­tions, those crit­ics might help them­selves to gen­er­ous slice of hum­ble pie.

If the eco­nomic sit­u­a­tion here wors­ens sig­nif­i­cantly and the cen­trifu­gal polit­i­cal forces gain eco­nomic and/or para­mil­i­tary strength, the seces­sion­ist move­ment may well grow.

This topic is com­plex and we have pre­sented  it at length in the past. Listeners/readers who wish to sup­ple­ment their under­stand­ing should exam­ine the past broad­casts and posts on the sub­ject. Of par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance is the Hapsburg/Thyssen connection–a direct trib­u­tary lead­ing to the Under­ground Reich.

Past broad­casts ana­lyz­ing this topic include: FTR #‘s 550, 615,  616, 627, 635 & 636, 652, 668, 676.

Be sure to keep abreast of the impor­tant infor­ma­tion feed­ing along the bot­tom of the front page of this web­site, fea­tur­ing Ger­man For­eign Pol­icy, Ger­many Watch and The Global Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Daily Report. 

“Cri­sis Prof­i­teers”; german-foreign-policy.com; 11/27/2012.

EXCERPT: Despite his recent elec­toral set­back, the secessionist-minded prime min­is­ter of Cat­alo­nia is keep­ing Europe’s debate on the Berlin-supported seces­sion­ist move­ments alive. In Cat­alo­nia, whose inten­sive efforts to secede from Spain has recently been sup­ported by Ger­many, mainly those forces, which had been even more adamant in the strug­gle for Catalonia’s seces­sion, have ben­e­fit­ted from the prime minister’s unex­pected set­back. At the same time, seces­sion­ist forces in other Euro­pean nations have received a boost — for exam­ple in the German-speaking regions of Italy, where bud­get cuts, imposed by the Ger­man aus­ter­ity dic­tate for com­bat­ing the cri­sis, have esca­lated the con­flict between South Tyrol and Rome. The prin­ci­pal par­ties in South Tyrol have now gained Aus­tria as its “pro­tec­tive power,” thereby remov­ing the con­flict from Italy’s hands. Efforts to con­vince Vienna to grant Aus­trian pass­ports to German-speaking North Ital­ians, along­side clearly seces­sion­ist demands are being inten­si­fied. Ini­tial tar­get dates for seces­sion are already being pronounced.

Major­ity in Favor of Secession

A con­tin­u­a­tion of the debate over Catalonia’s seces­sion from Spain seems appar­ent in the after­math of the recent regional elec­tions. Even though the party of Prime Min­is­ter Artur Mas — with its pre­cise sched­ule for seces­sion — has won the elec­tions, albeit while suf­fer­ing a loss of votes — some observers attribute this loss to its strin­gent aus­ter­ity course, to com­bat the Euro cri­sis. Accord­ingly, the lost votes did not go to his con­ser­v­a­tive anti-secessionist oppo­nent of the Par­tido Pop­u­lar, but rather to the left-wing Esquerra Repub­li­cana de Catalunya, (Repub­li­can Left of Cat­alo­nia) which is strug­gling even more adamantly for seces­sion from Spain. The next regional par­lia­ment, there­fore, will have a clear seces­sion­ist major­ity. Ger­many has recently been sup­port­ing Catalonia’s seces­sion­ist efforts, which are ori­ented on the notion that Cat­alo­nia — the rich­est region of the coun­try — would not have entered the cri­sis, if it would not have to share its wealth, via the cen­tral government’s redis­tri­b­u­tion with Spain’s poorer areas. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[1])

“Pro­tec­tive Power” Austria

While Cata­lan sep­a­ratism is grab­bing atten­tion through­out Europe, South Tyrolean seces­sion­ist efforts are also mak­ing big­ger waves. Once more, the Ger­man aus­ter­ity dic­tate to counter the Euro cri­sis is the direct cause. Rome is obliged to exe­cute dras­tic bud­get cuts, as demanded by Berlin, which effect the finan­cial mar­gin of maneu­ver for the Bolzano Alto Adige (“South Tyrol”) province. The can­cel­la­tion of resources ear­marked for South Tyrol has pro­voked protests. The ques­tion of whether Aus­tria can inter­vene in Rome on behalf of South Tyrol, is again being raised in this con­text. Aus­tria pre­sumes the “pro­tec­tive power” func­tion for the German-speaking pop­u­la­tion of North­ern Italy. “We are speak­ing here about Ital­ian domes­tic prob­lems, there is no need for Vienna’s competence,“[2] admon­ished Ital­ian Prime Min­is­ter, Mario Monti, in late Octo­ber. His obser­va­tion har­vested vehe­ment protest in South Tyrol and Aus­tria. “On the ques­tion of South Tyrol” thun­dered Austria’s for­mer National Coun­cil Pres­i­dent, Andreas Khol (ÖVP), Monti must “be urgently given tutoring.“[3] In Bolzano, the rul­ing South Tyrolean People’s Party (SVP) has announced it would inter­vene both in Rome and Vienna — Austria’s func­tion as “pro­tec­tive power” is not an issue. It has even been sug­gested that North Ital­ian pub­lic squares be named after Aus­tria — as “clear evi­dence of the ties.“[4]

Ambas­sador Summoned

This month Vienna reacted. First, the Aus­trian gov­ern­ment sum­moned Italy’s ambas­sador to the for­eign min­istry to protest Monti’s state­ment. Last Fri­day, the National Coun­cil gave an audi­ence to a del­e­ga­tion from the South Tyrolean par­lia­ment in Vienna, which com­plained “about the pres­sure” exerted “from the Ital­ian cen­tral gov­ern­ment” on South Tyrol. An SVP par­lia­men­tar­ian com­plained that “in its aus­ter­ity reg­u­la­tions,” the Ital­ian gov­ern­ment “was ignor­ing the auton­omy statutes” and infring­ing on “South Tyrolean com­pe­tence.” It is fur­ther­more intend­ing “to reform Italy’s con­sti­tu­tion to make it even more cen­tral­ist.” To which the pres­i­dent of Austria’s National Coun­cil replied that Vienna, under no cir­cum­stances, would alter its pre­vail­ing polit­i­cal stand­point. It will “main­tain its pro­tec­tive func­tion for South Tyrol.“[5]

Aus­tri­ans Abroad

A par­lia­men­tar­ian from the “South Tyrolean Free­dom” party, which cam­paigns for the seces­sion of this North Ital­ian province under the motto “South Tyrol is not Italy!” was also par­tic­i­pat­ing in last Friday’s meet­ing in Vienna and reported on “the aspi­ra­tion of many South Tyroleans” to “attain Aus­trian cit­i­zen­ship.” “This would facil­i­tate Austria’s exer­cis­ing its pro­tec­tive func­tion for South Tyrol, because Aus­tria would then be pro­tect­ing not only a minor­ity in the neigh­bor­ing coun­try, but its own cit­i­zens.” Accord­ing to a report, an Aus­trian state sec­re­tary explic­itly replied, empha­siz­ing that “grant­ing South Tyroleans Aus­trian cit­i­zen­ship would lead to no bilat­eral prob­lems,” because “Italy has made no objec­tions” — “and has granted cit­i­zen­ship to Ital­ians liv­ing abroad.“[6] This refers to descen­dents of the so-called Ital­ians abroad, liv­ing in regions of Slove­nia or Croa­tia, which had once been Ital­ian ter­ri­tory, a prac­tice, also applied by the Fed­eral Repub­lic of Ger­many to “Ger­mans Abroad.” In fact, the nego­ti­a­tions on grant­ing Aus­trian cit­i­zen­ship to the German-speaking pop­u­la­tion of South Tyrol are mak­ing head­way. The prin­ci­ple hur­dles seem to have been mastered.

Free State South Tyrol

Whereas Bolzano’s rul­ing South Tyrolean People’s Party (SVP) con­tin­ues to abstain from openly call­ing for seces­sion from Italy, and right-wing extrem­ist forces, such as the South Tyrolean Free­dom party, have had their eye on being annexed by Aus­tria for a long time, the North Ital­ian “the Lib­er­als,” the sis­ter party of Austria’s Free­dom Party (FPÖ), is now call­ing for found­ing a “Free State South Tyrol.” Accord­ing to their plans, prepa­ra­tions for a “ref­er­en­dum on whether South Tyrol should take recourse to its right of self-determination,” should be initiated. . . .

“Evi­dence of Ger­man Pres­ence”; german-foreign-policy.com; 11/23/2012.

EXCERPT: German right-wing extrem­ists are polit­i­cally exploit­ing gov­ern­ment funded cul­tural events for the German-speaking minor­ity in Poland. Accord­ing to reports, mem­bers of the “Sile­sian Youth” recently estab­lished con­tacts in neigh­bor­ing Poland dur­ing this year’s “Cul­tural Fes­ti­val of the Ger­man Minor­ity” in Wro­claw. The “Sile­sian Youth” have been clas­si­fied as right-wing extrem­ist. Sev­eral of its lead­ing mem­bers had been active mem­bers in cur­rently banned neo-Nazi orga­ni­za­tions. Another asso­ci­a­tion of Ger­man right-wing extrem­ists also called for par­tic­i­pa­tion at the fes­ti­val. Ear­lier, “Sile­sian Youth” activists marched in a demon­stra­tion in Katow­ice demand­ing “auton­omy for Upper Sile­sia.” The Saxon regional sec­tion claims to be secretly tak­ing care of for­mer Ger­man ceme­ter­ies (“Evi­dence of Ger­man Pres­ence in Sile­sia”) as well as sys­tem­at­i­cally expand­ing its rela­tions to the German-speaking minor­ity — in coop­er­a­tion with a “relief orga­ni­za­tion” under the direc­tion of a for­mer activist of the neo-Nazi NPD.

Ger­man Culture

Activists of the “Sile­sian Youth” par­tic­i­pated in this year’s “Cul­tural Fes­ti­val of the Ger­man Minor­ity” held Sep­tem­ber 29, in Wro­claw, and accord­ing to reports, used the oppor­tu­nity to estab­lish new con­tacts to Poland’s German-speaking minor­ity. The fes­ti­val has been tak­ing place every third year since 2003, draw­ing sev­eral thou­sands of mem­bers of the German-speaking minor­ity. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Ger­man reset­tled groups, who have close sen­ti­men­tal ties — as “Heimatver­triebene” (expellees from the home­land) to the “Heimatverbliebene” (those who remained in the home­land) also reg­u­larly, attend the fes­ti­val. Accord­ing to the event’s orga­nizer, the objec­tive of the cul­tural fes­ti­val is to put “the cul­tural riches of the Ger­man minor­ity” on pub­lic display.[1] In addi­tion, it pro­motes future cohe­sion within the minor­ity and rein­forces an ori­en­ta­tion on Ger­many, whose Gen­eral Con­sul in Opole con­tributed finan­cially. The Ger­man national anthem was sung at the event. The report points out that the Ger­man ambas­sador attended the fes­ti­val “up to the end,” — “a great honor,” says the organizer.[2] Also in atten­dance was a right-wing group that had split off from the Ger­man League of Expellees (BdV), whose leader has been con­victed of rel­a­tiviz­ing the Shoah.[3] A cer­tain “Own­ers Asso­ci­a­tion — East,” which seeks to have Pol­ish prop­erty taken over by Ger­man “expellees” was also beat­ing the drums for peo­ple to attend. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[4])

Neo-Nazi Con­tacts

The Sile­sian Youth was founded in 1983 as the offi­cial youth orga­ni­za­tion of the “Home­land Asso­ci­a­tion Sile­sia.” Through adver­tiz­ing for younger mem­bers, the home­land asso­ci­a­tion sought to reju­ve­nate its aging orga­ni­za­tion, attract­ing a new gen­er­a­tion of mem­bers, born long after reset­tle­ment. Over the past decade, the Sile­sian Youth has clearly made a right-wing devel­op­ment, even though some regional chap­ters have not fol­lowed. For exam­ple, the Bavar­ian regional chap­ter broke with the national orga­ni­za­tion in April 2008, declar­ing that in the lat­ter, “extrem­ist forces” were in action and “were chal­leng­ing, to a cer­tain extent, the Ger­man Constitution.“[5] The Sile­sian Youth in Sax­ony and Thuringia are still the main activists. The Ger­man gov­ern­ment offi­cially accuses them of main­tain­ing “links to the neo-Nazi milieu includ­ing to the NPD.” As of May 2011, “lead­ing offi­ci­at­ing func­tionar­ies” had also been active “in the neo-Nazi ‘Heimat­treuen Deutschen Jugend’ (‘Homeland-Faithful Ger­man Youth’).” The Ger­man gov­ern­ment boasts pos­sess­ing “con­crete evi­dence” “that — ema­nat­ing from the Thuringia Sile­sian Youth regional orga­ni­za­tion — right-wing extrem­ists also exert influ­ence on the Sile­sian Youth National Organization.“[6] Inde­pen­dent research has con­firmed con­tacts to neo-Nazis.

“Break with Warsaw!”

Activists of the Sile­sian Youth, who, for years, had lim­ited them­selves to “East Trips” as tourists to Poland, have now begun to engage in pol­i­tics on Pol­ish ter­ri­tory. The Sile­sian Youth from Sax­ony claim that they not only par­tic­i­pated in the “Cul­tural Fes­ti­val of the German-speaking Minor­ity,” but also in a demon­stra­tion July 14, 2012 in Katow­ice, where sev­eral thou­sands demanded “auton­omy for Upper Sile­sia.” The orga­niz­ers are not Poles of the German-speaking minor­ity, but rather activists of a move­ment that inter­prets the Polish-“Silesian” regional dialect to be evi­dence of a “Sile­sian” minor­ity and there­fore demands they be granted spe­cial rights — even includ­ing polit­i­cal auton­omy. There are also German-speaking nation­al­ists in this move­ment. The move­ment is said to be “un-Polish well orga­nized” and is in con­stant growth, praises the Sile­sian Youth from Sax­ony. At the July 14 clos­ing rally, mes­sages of greet­ings from Ger­many and from sep­a­ratists in Cat­alo­nia and Flan­ders were read. “Numer­ous con­sul­ta­tions” had taken place and “many new friends” were made, accord­ing to the organization’s web­page. “All the best, at ‘Break with War­saw,’ See you again next year, promised.“[7]

In the Cold of East Germany

Accord­ing to the Sile­sian Youth from Sax­ony, they con­tinue to be active in Poland, car­ing for “evi­dence of Ger­man pres­ence in Sile­sia” — “even if this only means the ceme­ter­ies.” They report, for exam­ple, hav­ing vis­ited and pro­vi­sion­ally repaired the ruins of a protes­tant ceme­tery of Ger­man graves “not far beyond the Neisse.” “The infi­nite dam­age caused there by the pride of the Pol­ish nation (...)” could not be com­pletely “erad­i­cated” on such short notice, but mit­i­gated — with, for exam­ple, the restora­tion of a memo­r­ial to Ger­man sol­diers killed in action.[8] Sile­sian Youth from Sax­ony also report on their var­i­ous vis­its to mem­bers of the German-speaking minor­ity, which they intend to inten­sify. In the “cold of East Ger­many” they made “Christ­mas dona­tions” to some of the German-speaking Pol­ish women, explic­itly promis­ing to “return more often” in the future.[9] In a self-portrait, the Sile­sian Youth from Sax­ony answer an objec­tion from right-wing extrem­ists — refer­ring to regions of Poland — that “East Ger­many is in any case lost.” They declare that “lost and dead is only that which is forgotten.“[10]

“Ger­mans Help Ger­mans First”

Accord­ing to their own account, the Sile­sian Youth from Sax­ony explain that thanks to Klaus Hoff­mann, head of the “Fre­und­schafts– und Hil­f­swerks Ost” (“Friend­ship and Relief Ser­vice East”) their “Christ­mas dona­tions” were made pos­si­ble. Hoff­mann — a for­mer activist of the neo-Nazi NPD and “Gauführer” (dis­trict leader) of Lower Saxony’s “Viking youth” (banned in 1994) — and his orga­ni­za­tion of 80 mem­bers, founded in 1991, reg­u­larly deliver “relief sup­plies” to the German-speaking minor­ity in Poland. . . .

” ‘Smash China’ (II) “; german-foreign-policy.com; 10/16/2012.

EXCERPT: Applauded by the Ger­man Pres­i­dent and offi­cials of the Ger­man gov­ern­ment, the lau­re­ate of a promi­nent Ger­man cul­tural award made a plea for smash­ing China to pieces. China is a “heap of rub­bish,” he said, it must “be dis­mem­bered,” insisted the Chi­nese author, Liao Yiwu, a res­i­dent of Ger­many, who was awarded the pres­ti­gious Peace Prize of the Ger­man Book Trade last Sun­day. His accep­tance speech, in which he made a plea for dis­mem­ber­ing his native coun­try, received hefty applause from Ger­man Pres­i­dent Joachim Gauck and other gov­ern­ment offi­cials. This diplo­matic affront occurred only a few days after the Ger­man For­eign Min­is­ter and his Chi­nese coun­ter­part had signed a “Com­mon Dec­la­ra­tion,” in which Berlin declared its inten­tions to enhance its “strate­gic part­ner­ship” with Bei­jing. On the one hand, this dec­la­ra­tion has resulted from the fact that, because of China’s eco­nomic strength, Ger­many, for the time being, needs a cer­tain form of coop­er­a­tion, not only to sat­isfy the busi­ness inter­ests of its enter­prises, but also to get sup­port in solv­ing the Euro cri­sis. On the other hand, the applause for Liao’s recent anti-Chinese invec­tive shows that Berlin still con­sid­ers Bei­jing as its rival to be com­bated, on a long-term basis.

“Heap of Rubbish”

Sun­day, the exiled Chi­nese author Liao Yiwu declared dur­ing his accep­tance speech for the Peace Prize of the Ger­man Book Trade, that the Chi­nese nation must be “dis­mem­bered.” He said, China is an “infi­nitely huge heap of rub­bish” — a “dic­ta­to­r­ial (...) great empire,” in which “many regions and peo­ples are forcibly chained together.” It must be dis­mem­bered into numer­ous small coun­tries — “for the sake of peace and peace of mind of the whole of human­ity.” A sit­u­a­tion should be sought, in which Tibet, for exam­ple, is “a free coun­try,” in which “bor­ders sep­a­rate Sichuan from Yun­nan.” Sichuan and Yun­nan, are two provinces of China, which Liao evi­dently would also like to see become sep­a­rate coun­tries. Liao said that the famous philoso­pher Laozi, who is sup­posed to have lived in the 6th Cen­tury BC, had made a plea for the cre­ation of “smaller coun­tries with fewer inhab­i­tants.” Back then, China was in fact com­prised “of innu­mer­able small splin­ter states.” Although, he says, “through­out this period, the fires of war were never” extin­guished, “one nation has per­ma­nently occu­pied the oth­ers.” Nev­er­the­less, Liao says in essence that the People’s Repub­lic of China must absolutely be replaced by numer­ous small nations.[1]

Spon­sored by the For­eign Ministry

The week­end appeal for smash­ing China, has sig­nif­i­cance through Liao’s con­nec­tions to Ger­man pol­i­tics. The author, born in 1958 in the People’s Repub­lic of China, has been in seri­ous con­flict with the Chi­nese author­i­ties since the 1980s and has spent time in jail. After his works were made avail­able in Ger­man trans­la­tions in 2007, Ger­man gov­ern­ment agen­cies endeav­ored to win wide pub­lic­ity for him. Liao’s planned appear­ances at the Frank­furt Book Fair in Octo­ber 2009 as well as at the Inter­na­tional Lit­er­a­ture Fair (lit.COLOGNE) in the spring of 2010, had been explic­itly endorsed by the Ger­man For­eign Min­istry, which was aware of him being an oppo­nent of the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment, but author­i­ties in Bei­jing thwarted these appear­ances. The author came to Ger­many in 2011, where he has since resided, liv­ing on a schol­ar­ship from the For­eign Min­istry financed, Ger­man Aca­d­e­mic Exchange Ser­vice (DAAD). After receiv­ing the Geschwis­ter Scholl Award (2011) of the Bavar­ian Regional Asso­ci­a­tion of the Stock Mar­ket Soci­ety of the Ger­man Book Trade, Liao has now received the even more pres­ti­gious Peace Prize of the Ger­man Book Trade, which, accord­ing to its offi­cial expla­na­tion, is awarded each year to a per­son, who has “con­tributed to the real­iza­tion of the idea of peace.” Sun­day, when the author called for smash­ing China, the Ger­man Pres­i­dent, the Pres­i­dent of the Ger­man Bun­destag, Germany’s Min­is­ter of Edu­ca­tion, along with numer­ous other promi­nent Ger­man offi­cials attend­ing the cer­e­monies, applauded.

Busi­ness Interests

Liao’s invec­tives, which were widely acclaimed in the Ger­man media, were uttered only a few days after the Ger­man For­eign Min­is­ter and his Chi­nese coun­ter­part had signed a “Com­mon Dec­la­ra­tion.” Guido West­er­welle had vis­ited China dur­ing the sec­ond half of last week, to cel­e­brate the 40th Anniver­sary of diplo­matic rela­tions between the Fed­eral Repub­lic of Ger­many and the People’s Repub­lic of China. Using the occa­sion, he pointed to the fact that Berlin, in the mean­time, has estab­lished a “strate­gic part­ner­ship” with Bei­jing — since China has become a “great power cen­ter,” to which Ger­many wants to strengthen its ties.[2] On the one hand, this is because of very strong Ger­man busi­ness inter­ests, devel­op­ing out of China’s grow­ing eco­nomic influ­ence. The People’s Repub­lic has devel­oped into Germany’s sec­ond largest sup­plier and fifth largest cus­tomer, both with an upward trend, as well as an impor­tant loca­tion for Ger­man invest­ments. Dur­ing Chan­cel­lor Merkel’s most recent visit alone, com­pany con­tracts were signed with a com­pos­ite value of sev­eral bil­lion US dol­lars. Volk­swa­gen has announced new invest­ments worth bil­lions. In addi­tion, Berlin is also seek­ing Beijing’s sup­port in help­ing curb the Euro crisis.[3] The Com­mon Dec­la­ra­tion, signed Octo­ber 11, 2012, pro­vides for new steps toward a closer coop­er­a­tion, includ­ing an annual “strate­gic dia­logue” between the for­eign min­is­ters as well as reg­u­lar “con­sul­ta­tions” of the chiefs of staff.[4]

Seces­sion­ists as Allies

The sig­nif­i­cance of the devel­op­ing coop­er­a­tion with the People’s Repub­lic can now be seen in the applause for Liao Yiwu’s anti-Chinese invec­tives. While Berlin, for the time being, is inten­si­fy­ing its coop­er­a­tion in the inter­ests of Ger­man busi­nesses and mea­sures to gain con­trol of the Euro cri­sis, it is simul­ta­ne­ously inten­si­fy­ing its con­tacts to those forces, who could poten­tially become Chi­nese allies in oppo­si­tion to Bei­jing. Liao Yiwu is exem­plary in two ways. First, he calls for China to be dis­mem­bered and thereby joins the seces­sion­ists, who had already begun to impli­cate the Fed­eral Repub­lic of Ger­many in the sec­ond half of the 1980s. This was par­tic­u­larly the case of the old Tibetan feu­dal clique around the Dalai Lama. He had been dis­em­pow­ered in the 1950s, sub­se­quently waged an under­ground war against Bei­jing, with­out suc­cess, in spite of com­pre­hen­sive west­ern sup­port — par­tic­u­larly from the CIA. He is today in exile in Dharam­sala, India, where he con­tin­ues to pur­sue his strug­gle against the People’s Repub­lic of China. Their struc­tures and some of their sub­ver­sive activ­i­ties have been sup­ported by Ger­many. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[5]) Since some time, Ger­many has been giv­ing the seces­sion­ist activ­i­ties of the Uyghurs in west­ern China’s Xin­jiang province much more attention.[6]

Ambi­tious Mid­dle Class as Partner

Sec­ondly, Liao, in Berlin’s views, seems apt to infil­trate social set­tings that can be brought into posi­tion against the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment on a long-term basis. These are the ambi­tious, for the most part, urban influ­enced and mid­dle class, whose grow­ing profit and power inter­ests could one day com­pel them to join with west­ern lib­er­al­iz­ers against Bei­jing. This has been the idea pro­pelling Berlin’s efforts, over the years, to win part­ners among the Chi­nese civil rights activists and artists, acces­si­ble to the West. They, in the long run, could gain ben­e­fi­cial access to the mid­dle classes. This explains Ger­man sup­port for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize lau­re­ate, Liu Xiaobo, who does not want to com­pletely dis­mem­ber China, but still trans­form it into a loose con­fed­er­a­tion of rel­a­tively inde­pen­dent units (a “fed­eral republic”). . . .