In the first visit by a European leader to China since the beginning of the pandemic, almost three years ago, German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz lands this Friday (4) in Beijing to strengthen trade ties between the countries.
But the visit is not being well received in Europe and has generated a wave of criticism. The condemnations come from allies of his government, from other countries on the continent and from Brussels, seat of the European Union.
What has been worrying is the possibility of transferring German economic dependence to another authoritarian country. Dependent on Russian energy – half of the gas consumed came from Vladimir Putin’s country, Berlin saw the Ukrainian War turn off that tap and now expects a difficult winter in the coming months.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, from the Greens party, told the ARD TV channel that it was “extremely important that we never again place ourselves so dependent on a country that does not share our values.” For Bijan Djir-Sarai, secretary general of the Free Democrats, another member of the ruling coalition, the decision to make the trip now is naive and deeply unfortunate.
“If Ukraine has taught us anything,” criticized Belgian MEP Samuel Cologati, “it is that we are stronger when we Europeans are united, when the 27 speak together with the same strong voice. on their own just to represent their country. That’s really unfortunate.”
Scholz travels with a delegation of businessmen to China, Germany’s biggest trade partner since 2016, with a volume of €245 million (R$1.2 billion) traded in 2021, which represents more than a third of the Asian country’s trade with the European Union. Recent research by a think tank found that almost half of German industrial companies today rely significantly on Chinese material.
China, on the other hand, imports a lot of heavy machinery and cars from Germany.
Under so much fire, the website Politico and the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published this Thursday (3) the article “We don’t want to dissociate ourselves from China, but we can’t be overly dependent”.
In it, Scholz says that the world has undergone profound transformations in recent years — Covid and war — and, “because ‘business as usual’ in these circumstances is no longer an option, I’m traveling to China”.
“A significant volume of Germany-China trade concerns items with alternative suppliers, without risk of dangerous monopolies. China, Germany and Europe benefit equally,” he wrote. “German policy on China can only succeed if it is embedded in European policy on China.”
In Beijing, Scholz will meet with Prime Minister Li Keqiang and the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, who consolidated his hold on the Communist Party by taking on a third term last month.
An anonymous government source told Reuters news agency, the German prime minister will try to get China to help persuade Russia to end the Ukrainian War, on “an exploratory trip to find out where the country stands, where it is going and what forms of cooperation will be possible”.
Behind the scenes, French President Emmanuel Macron is said to have suggested to Scholz that they go to Beijing together. The idea would be to send a signal of European unity and counter China’s attempts to pit one country against another. Scholz, however, did not agree with that view and only confirmed the visit after it became clear that he would be the only European leader in China, rather than just one in a series.
The German delegation includes executives from companies such as Volkswagen, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Basf, Merck and BioNTech. Despite this, it is not planned to close any business with these companies.
“The decision to bring a delegation of businessmen shows that, for Germany, profits continue to prevail over human rights,” said Uighur NGO president Dolkun Isa, accusing Scholz of neglecting what he calls the genocide of his people. in the Xinjiang region, which Beijing denies.
The visit comes a week after the German government gave the green light for the purchase of 25% of one of the terminals in the port of Hamburg by the Chinese company Cosco. The €45m deal was backed by Scholz but was viewed with reservations by some of his allies.
“This is the time to reduce China’s dependence. We shouldn’t become more dependent and entangled in the Chinese economic system. That’s what intrigues people about this trip, since it’s not known what the intention of it all is”, he summarized. researcher Andrew Small, from the German Marshal Fund.
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