Annalena Baerbock can take a symbolic trophy home with her. Of the many foreign state visitors who have visited the People’s Republic since the end of China’s zero-Covid lockdown, she made by far the most confrontational appearance. For around an hour at the joint press conference with her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, the Greens politician engaged in a polite but increasingly intense exchange of blows, in which hardly a conflict topic was left out.

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