Why Beijing is not troubled by Europe’s far-right rise

When Alice Weidel’s name comes up in China, admiration for her command of the Chinese language often comes first. So does curiosity about her sexual orientation and doubt about what her connection to China really means.

Weidel lived for six years in Shanghai and Hong Kong and earned a doctorate on China’s pension system. The article asks whether that experience produced lasting sympathy for the Asian power, or perhaps the opposite, a deep aversion. It offers no simple answer.

Beijing clearly identified the Alternative for Germany as an important political force in Europe’s strongest economy, the article says. But China’s attitude toward Europe’s far right is difficult to sum up, just as it is difficult to generalize about the positions of right-wing parties across the European Union toward China.

Many analysts accuse Beijing of encouraging, or even supporting, the rise of right-wing populists in Europe. The article says there are several possible reasons, while noting that its discussion of China’s calculations is incomplete in the supplied text.