“Not at all”: Ueli Maurer’s visit to the Chinese ambassador raises questions

Ueli Maurer has not been a member of the Federal Council since last December. Nevertheless, he met the Chinese ambassador Wang Shihting in Bern in April, Blick writes. According to a statement from the Chinese embassy on its website, the ex-SVP federal councilor and Wang talked about the “innovative partnership” between Switzerland and China and also discussed economic and financial issues.

According to the statement, Maurer and Wang also discussed the countries’ bilateral relations, which are at a high level, and the deepening of cooperation. The embassy writes about Maurer’s position in the conversation:

According to André Simonazzi, spokesman for the Federal Council, Maurer met with the official representative of the Chinese state in Switzerland without the knowledge of the incumbent Federal Council. “The said meeting was not a subject in the Bundesrat and was not due to a mandate from the Bundesrat,” Simonazzi told Blick.

There is a kind of code of conduct for former federal councilors in Switzerland: they cannot do and meet what and whoever they want. It should always be considered and there should be no conflict of interest, and professional secrecy should be protected. It is not clear whether Ueli Maurer broke these rules by visiting the Chinese embassy. Maurer did not respond to a request from Blick.

For SP national councilor Fabian Molina, the answer to the question is simple. Maurer’s behavior “doesn’t work at all and needs to be processed”. In the past, Molina has repeatedly clearly positioned herself in favor of Taiwan, which is in constant conflict with China because of its autonomy, denied by its big neighbour.

Even the leader of the Mitte, Philipp Matthias Bregy, has little to gain from Maurer’s visit. It’s insensitive, he tells Blick. Former federal councilors must adopt a restrained attitude after their resignation – Maurer obviously does not adhere to that.

Bregy is also critical of the visual staging of the meeting as an official state visit. If Maurer appeared at the Chinese embassy in his capacity as a member of the Olympic Ethics Committee (IOC), he should not have hung a Swiss flag behind him. And according to Bregy, he shouldn’t have talked about economic and financial subjects either.

SP National Council member Molina was recently successful in the National Council with an initiative aimed at rapprochement with Taiwan. The council accepted – much to the chagrin of China, which published the announcement of Ueli Maurer’s visit to the embassy on the same day. It is questionable whether this is a coincidence – the visit of the ex-Federal Council took place in mid-April. (con)