Chancellor Olaf Scholz published an op-ed on Thursday defending his upcoming trip to China with a German business delegation of business leaders.
“It’s been a good three years since my predecessor last visited China,” Scholz began, referring to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The guest commentary was published jointly by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Politico.
He added that these were “three years in which the world has changed fundamentally – on the one hand because of the COVID-19 pandemic and on the other hand because of Russia’s war against Ukraine with its serious impact on the international order, our food and energy supply , economy and prices worldwide.”
What did Scholz say?
Scholz wrote: “Precisely because ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option under these circumstances, I am traveling to Beijing.”
He pointed out five considerations that guide his decision-making process. First, he said China’s political system is undergoing change.
“The result of the KPD congress that just ended is clear: commitments to Marxism-Leninism today occupy a much broader space than in the conclusions of earlier congresses,” said Scholz.
At the conclusion of last month’s party congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping was rewarded with a third term. At the same time, his immediate predecessor Hu Jintao, who supported a more collective form of decision-making at the top, was escorted off the dais by ushers in a much-discussed incident. Analysts are pointing to the events to suggest the country has made a more authoritarian turn.
Reinhard Bütikofer, Member of the German Greens in the European Parliament from Taiwan, described the Chancellor’s one-day trip as “probably the most controversially discussed visit to the country in the last 50 years”.
A changing China in a changing world
Scholz said the stability of the Chinese Communist Party and China’s national security are increasingly being interpreted as one and the same by President Xi and the clique of loyalists around him in the newly named Politburo Standing Committee.
“As China changes, so must the way we interact with China,” he wrote.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has also decisively changed global affairs, Scholz said, with Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons “brutally endangering the international peace and security order.”
Scholz said China has signed a joint UN statement condemning or threatening to use nuclear weapons.
“No country is the ‘backyard’ of another,” Scholz wrote before reunification. “In a multipolar world, new centers of power are emerging with which we want to build and expand partnerships.”
In the Czech Republic, the liberal newspaper Hospodarske Noviny published an editorial on Thursday criticizing Scholz’ trip. “Only eight months later, under pressure from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he announced a turning point in foreign and security policy,” the editorial said.
It goes on to say: “Scholz goes to China as if nothing had happened. The policy of change through trade had already failed with Russia.”
The German Chancellor will be the first European leader to visit China since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Trade brings money
Scholz’ critics accuse his visit primarily of business reasons, since China is Germany’s largest trading partner. In his comment, Scholz acknowledged that this was certainly the case.
“A significant part of the trade between Germany and China concerns products for which there is neither a lack of alternative suppliers nor dangerous monopolies. Instead, China, Germany and Europe benefit equally,” he wrote.
He was recently heavily criticized for allowing the Chinese shipping company Cosco to take a stake in one of the terminals in the port of Hamburg, despite the opposition of numerous ministers in his government.
Germany’s Cosco deal: A risky dependency?
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The President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), Hildegard Müller, signaled the support of the trade association for Scholz’s visit to China. “The current China business secures a large number of jobs here in Germany,” she told the Funke newspaper group.
“China is currently supplying us with important raw materials that we do not have ourselves and that we have not secured through alternative trade agreements,” said Müller, adding that China is also the largest market in the world for German automakers.
“The Movement of Contradictions”
“The world evolves through the movement of contradictions; without contradiction, nothing would exist,” Scholz recalls Xi’s words in Davos earlier this year.
For the chancellor, this means “not shying away from difficult topics in discussions. This includes respect for civil and political liberties and the rights of ethnic minorities, for example in the province of Xinjiang.”
He added, “The tense situation surrounding Taiwan is also worrying.”
Scholz explained: “Like the USA and many other countries, we are pursuing a one-China policy. However, part of this policy is that any change in the status quo must be brought about by peaceful means and by mutual consent.”
In conclusion, Scholz argued that Sino-German relations must succeed so that Sino-European relations are also on good terms.
“German China policy can only be successful if it is embedded in European China policy,” wrote the Chancellor.
On Thursday, a day before the trip, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian was quoted in the press as saying, “We are partners, not rivals.”
ar/nm (AFP, AP, dpa)