German Chancellor Angela Merkel is often presented as humanity’s leader for democracy and human rights.
CNN’s Stephen Collinson has lauded the German premier as the “moral leader of the West.” The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin has argued that Merkel is Europe’s last line of defense against the dual threat of Trumpism and Putinism. The Los Angeles Times’s editorial board worries that Merkel’s departure from office will “leave liberal democracy leaderless.” The media reaction to the chancellor’s 2019 Harvard University commencement address was a cacophony of ecstasy.
Such plaudits aren’t simply manifestly undeserved: They are quite absurd.
Truly, I’ve never understood why this most overrated defender of the liberal international order receives such overwhelming tribute from so many writers. After all, when it comes to the two most defining challenges to that liberal order, China and Russia, Merkel isn’t just weak. She’s an overt appeaser.
On Russia, Merkel happily supports Vladimir Putin’s Nord Stream 2 energy blackmail pipeline while furnishing a German military that uses painted broomsticks as rifles, can’t or won’t put warships to sea, and lacks enough functioning tanks to conduct a parade, let alone support NATO’s defense. Oh, and forgotten by much of the media is the fact that Merkel is pressuring Ukraine to yield to Putin’s demands rather than the other way around.
Don’t misunderstand me: None of this is to excuse President Trump’s flippant ignorance on the value of NATO and the democratic international order. Trump was wrong to shake down the Ukrainians to investigate Joe Biden, deludes himself that Putin is a partner, and undermines American security and prosperity when he questions NATO’s Article Five. Still, Trump’s increased defense spending, nuclear deterrent enhancements, continuing (if reluctant) support for NATO, and policy resistance to Putin make him a more practical defender of the West than Merkel could ever dream of being.
Merkel’s policy toward China’s gulag imperium is even worse.
As with most European Union leaders, the good chancellor continues to regard Chinese investments, with all their strings attached, as an acceptable price for Beijing’s destruction of the post-World War II international order. Let me know when a German warship confronts China’s effort to steal the Western Pacific rim by patrolling through the South China Sea or when Merkel tables an urgent EU Council meeting to deal with rampant Chinese espionage in Europe. I’m not going to hold my breath.
But it’s even on the most obvious of Chinese affronts to human rights that Merkel fails to defend liberal values. While Merkel gave early hints of strength on Hong Kong, now that China’s tyranny in that city has become tangible, the chancellor has retreated. Where the Trump administration has imposed sanctions over China’s Hong Kong security law, Merkel won’t even talk about doing so. Indeed, Merkel’s Hong Kong response has been decried even by her own allies.
What of the millions of innocent Uighur Muslims China keeps in concentration camps, uses as slaves, or simply kills?
As Politico’s Matthew Karnitschnig observed this week, “Whether the issue was oppression in Tibet, the detention of Uighurs or Chinese leadership’s pervasive surveillance of its own citizenry, Merkel has always put business first.”
So, yes, Merkel might speak well and find common media adoration. But when she leaves office, those on the frontiers of freedom will hardly shake in fear of what might follow. The story of this shield for freedom has always been a fallacy.
