The German chancellor hopes to “persuade” the Chinese leader to act “responsibly” from the United Nations and contribute to the end of a devastating war
What under the conservative Angela Merkel was an almost annual ritual – the visit to Beijing leading a delegation of businessmen and investors – became almost a red line for the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz. The German chancellor has been showered with criticism from both his coalition partners, Greens and Liberals, as well as from the two unquestionable allies in his international relations – France and the United States. If Merkel was confronted on every trip with the violation of Human Rights under that authoritarian regime, Scholz has been confronted with an atypical coalition. It is no longer just NGOs that criticize trips supported by commercial interests; experts in the economic field also question its opportunity.
“Germany is already economically dependent on China, which makes it blackmailable,” the Institute for Studies of the German Economy (IW) warned this Thursday, the day before his Scholz meeting with Xi Jingping. With the trip there is a “problematic signal”, added this reference institute. The German country has had to rapidly reduce its energy dependence on Russia, as a result of the aggression against Ukraine and with skyrocketing energy prices. Now it should contain, instead of extending, the following mortgage, also with an authoritarian regime and which also benefits from the sanctions on Moscow.
“close ally”
Beijing acts as a “close ally” of Russia from its position as a member of the UN Security Council, sources from the Scholz government admitted these days. The foreign minister hopes, however, to “persuade” Xi to act “responsibly” from the United Nations and contribute to the end of a devastating war.
The round trip to Beijing is long – about 24 hours. The stay there will be fleeting – eleven hours. Scholz will be the first leader of an EU country to visit China since the outbreak of the pandemic. And a joint appearance by Scholz and the Chinese president in a question-and-answer format is not planned. Berlin defends, however, that the trip is of great importance.
The foreign minister boards the plane on his way to China to meet Xi-Jingping. /
It is not another visit. It comes at a time when the international community is alarmed by the possibility that Russian aggression on Ukraine will be followed by a Chinese escalation on Taiwan. But Berlin disputes that the Asian giant cannot be “decoupled” from globalization, despite admitting that it must be reoriented towards partners “with shared democratic values.” China, the world’s leading exporting power, was already a commercial affront to the United States. She is now seen as the big winner in Western attempts to isolate Russia.
Scholz’s partners, Greens and Liberals, with usually divergent opinions, have coincided in showing their criticism of the trip. Especially the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the environmentalist Annalena Baerbock, has insisted on the need to take a “more critical” line towards Beijing. Her Finance colleague, the liberal Christian Lindner, has warned of the dangers of falling into new dependencies with “certain countries.”
Controversy
The controversy surrounding the trip began to brew weeks ago. The trigger was the intention of the Chinese state company Cosco to acquire more than 35% of a terminal in the port of Hamburg. After much internal tension, Scholz’s coalition agreed to limit that stake to 24.9% to prevent it from exercising “strategic influence.” The presence of a Chinese company in a European port is nothing new – there are multiple precedents in those of Valencia, Barcelona and Bilbao, in Spain, together with Piraeus, in Greece, and other ports in France and the Netherlands.
But the world woke up to a new reality on February 24, the day Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The term ‘business as usual’ has disappeared from political, economic and diplomatic terminology. The dangers on critical infrastructures are not abstract, but concrete. In Ukraine they are reflected in massive attacks on energy installations that leave hundreds of towns without light or running water. In EU territory, with the sabotage that disabled the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, keys to energy dependence on Russia that Scholz and his associates are trying to bury against the clock.
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