The more than 230 crew members of the German military frigate Bayern know their journey is historic.
They even opened a Twitter account for the occasion in early July to document it.
There are smileys and other emojis galore to illustrate the preparation photos.
It's hard not to see it as a way for the German military navy to try and play down one of its most sensitive missions for years.
Because Bayern left the port of Wilhelmshaven, Monday, August 2, to reach the China Sea.
For its first military mission in nearly 20 years, a German warship will therefore sail in diplomatically troubled waters.
Along with the United States, France and the United Kingdom
The German frigate will join a growing contingent of military ships from different countries, all of which have officially come to ensure that navigation in the waters of the China Sea remains free, despite Beijing's ever more pressing territorial claims in this region. .
The leading Asian power has its sights set on a whole series of islands and territories, also claimed by other countries in the region, such as Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.
The United States - spearheading the strategy to counter Chinese ambitions in this region - have deployed aircraft carriers there on several occasions since the start of the year. France sent an atomic-powered submarine in February, while the United Kingdom will carry out joint military maritime maneuvers with American and Dutch warships there in the coming months.
Bayern is going there "to defend our values and interests," said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the German Minister of the Interior, during her speech to the sailors of the frigate on Monday. She did not quote China, but Beijing must have felt targeted by the minister's statements. She, in fact, maintained that the ship should provide support to “Germany's partners” in Asia - Australia, Japan, South Korea - while “the freedom of maritime movement is threatened” and that “Some” seek to impose “land claims by applying the law of the strongest”.
China has, moreover, reacted strongly.
The Foreign Ministry warned Germany on Tuesday asking for more "clarification on the intentions of the German military ship," reports the Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post.
Diplomatic revolution ...
For Berlin, this mission “is an important first step to assume more responsibilities on the international scene and to be more aware of its role in the application of European security policy”, summarizes the German daily Tagesspiegel in an editorial.
The simple fact of successfully sending a frigate - the most powerful warship in the German naval arsenal - to the China Sea is already a political feat for the Minister of the Interior.
Others have broken their teeth there, recalls the Tagesspiegel.
In 2010, German President Horst Köhler was forced to resign for simply suggesting the dispatch of warships to “secure important trade sea routes” for Germany, including those passing off China.
All the German parties and the media then denounced “warmongering” statements incompatible with the non-interventionist tradition of Germany since 1945.
The departure of Bayern “shows how much German military doctrine has evolved since this episode of 2010”, continues the Tagesspiegel.
It is all the more revealing that with this mission, the government is taking the risk of offending Beijing, “which has become its first trading partner,” recalls the Bavarian daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Strengthening economic ties between China and Germany has always been one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's top international priorities throughout her four terms, the South China Morning Post recalls.
“The fact that Germany sends a military frigate to the China Sea while Angela Merkel is still in post is a small miracle,” adds Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, interviewed by the South China Morning Post. .
... in small steps
In this sense, Bayern's trip constitutes one of the first pages of the post-Merkel diplomatic era, since the current Chancellor will not stand for re-election in the next general election in September 2021. A new chapter in which Berlin would choose more clearly his camp alongside the United States, notes Arnaud Boehmann, a German sinologist in a column published by the South China Morning Post.
While not being too firm on China either. The mission of the German military frigate “looks like an attempt to adapt to the Asian context the famous 'ostpolitik' [East policy] of Willy Brandt [German chancellor from 1969 to 1974] which consisted in showing solidarity with the Western powers while extending a hand to the rival, whether it is the countries of the East at the time or China today ”, underline Moritz Brake and Sebastian Bruns, two specialists in German maritime strategy, in a note published by the Center for International Maritime Security, an American think tank on maritime military issues.
Berlin has, in fact, pledged not to sail Bayern within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of any island claimed by China. In other words, “Germany submits de facto to Beijing's rules in the China Sea”, underlines Helena Legarda, a specialist in Chinese security issues at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, interviewed by the news agency. German Deutsche Presse Agentur.
The ship has also submitted a request to Chinese authorities to make a stopover in Shanghai before entering the China Sea. "It is a way of showing diplomatic white paw by asking the authorization of passage to Beijing", notes Sun Keqin, researcher at the Chinese Institute of Contemporary International Relations, questioned by the South China Morning Post. A halt which “could give the impression that Germany tacitly recognizes Chinese territorial claims in the China Sea instead of contesting them”, analyzes the Chatham House, the British institute of international relations, in a note published in May 2021 .
Bayern is therefore leaving for a mission that perfectly symbolizes the contradictions of 21st century Germany.
It is a safer country militarily and diplomatically, but it does not want to show it too openly for fear of hurting its sacrosanct economic power.
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