Honestly, I wouldn't mind the EU sending their entire navies to China's doorstep to "destroy the Chicoms and protect the democratic Wanwans".
China would be doing the entire Global South (except India and the Philippines, as they are welcomed to join the EU's adventure) a massive favor by sinking their entire navies there, and leave the EU defenseless against the refugee hordes coming from Africa and West Asia thanks to their own doing over the past centuries.
The EU navies aren't going to do "jack shit" in the event of a Taiwan contingency.
They're
not actually stupid enough to test China.
It's all bark, no bite.
In September 2024, two vessels of the German Navy, the
for all intent and purposes to metaphorically
shake their obnoxiously overly serious German fists at Beijing for the sake of Washington's approval.
This was followed by port calls in Manila and Goa, where the German sailors, were inshallah, able to celebrate the local hospitality as sailors traditionally do.
Soon to be former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz even swung by Goa to mark the occasion.
Finally, in late October 2024, it was time for the Baden-Wurttemberg and Frankfurt am Main to return home.
However, rather than take the shorter way home through the Suez,
which would have required sailing through the Red Sea and potentially encountering Houthi missiles, the
: a scenic, yet extended journey that effectively required circumnavigating most of the coastline of the African continent prior to arrival in Europe.
According to US media outlet,
:
The German Ministry of Defense spokesperson told The War Zone that German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius decided last week to reroute the two German Navy vessels that form the Indo-Pacific Deployment Task Group, “based on a comprehensive assessment of the threat situation in relation to the air defense capabilities of both ships.”
“Due to the fact that Baden-Württemberg is not designed as a major air defender combat vessel, she is not able to provide an air defense umbrella for extended self-defense against air-breathing threats and to efficiently protect the supply vessel which is in company,” the same spokesperson added, before confirming that both ships had recently departed India.
As you can imagine, the entire episode made the German Navy the subject of mockery on social media.
If the German Navy does not even want to risk exposure to anti-ship missiles operated by a near state actor like the Houthis with no meaningful airborne, never mind spaceborne ISR capabilities, the German authorities are going to do everything in their power to avoid direct conflict against the PLA, which operates the largest and most sophisticated arsenal of anti-ship missiles in the world, including weapons that are arguably two generations ahead of anything the Houthis have ever fired, especially now that German elites are generally convinced that they're getting dumped by Uncle Sam.
