Germany’s education minister will visit Taiwan next week to improve cooperation between Berlin and Taipei in the field of semiconductors, a ministry spokesman said on Friday, adding that the issue of sovereignty would not be at the center of the trip.

China claims the democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military, political and economic pressure to assert those claims. The politically sensitive visit comes at a time when Berlin is reviewing its previously strained relationship with China.

A visit to Taiwan in January by a delegation of senior lawmakers from the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), the smallest party in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s tripartite coalition, drew protests from Beijing.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, also of the VDP, will begin her visit early next week, a ministry spokesman said.

A source with direct knowledge of the visit said Stark-Wattzinger would not meet President Tsai Ing-wen at the behest of the German government so as not to upset China too much.

The source emphasized that the trip was a working visit to discuss Stark-Wattzinger’s areas of activity, and not directly to send a message of support from Germany to Taiwan.

Ahead of a planned trip to Japan on Saturday, Scholz reiterated his support for Beijing’s so-called “one China” policy. However, Berlin maintains low contacts with Taiwan.

Tsai meets with most, though not all, of the high-ranking foreign officials and lawmakers who visit the country.

At a regular press conference in Berlin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education said that research into batteries and supply chains would also be on the agenda during Stark-Watzinger’s visit.

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC is currently considering investments in Europe and Germany.

In a departure from the policies of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Scholz’s government is developing a new China strategy to reduce dependence on the Asian economic superpower, which has until now been a vital export market for German products.

Last year, China condemned a visit to Taiwan by then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-level US visit in 25 years, as a threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. (photo: Dreamstine)