After a long wait, Germany presents its strategy for dealing with China. It must also minimize the risk of becoming as dependent on Russia as it is.
She was there three minutes before Thursday afternoon. “The German government’s China strategy” is on the cover, followed by about 60 pages in which the world’s fourth-largest economy has written how it intends to deal with the second-largest going forward. Diplomats, businessmen and analysts have been waiting for the newspaper for months.
Shortly after the publication of the text in German and English – the Mandarin translation is still being worked on – German Chancellor Annalena Baerbock gave a speech in Berlin. The location she chose for this was symbolic: the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) is not only the most important China research center in Europe. It has also been blacklisted by Beijing since April 2021.