International Knowledge Bureau: Scholz visits China again, these special features deserve attention!
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China News Service, April 14 (Reporter Gantian Peng Dawei) On April 14, German Chancellor Scholz arrived in Chongqing to begin his visit to China. This is Scholz’s second visit to China since taking office as Prime Minister, and the first leader of a major Western country to visit China this year. This time Scholz visited China with three cabinet ministers of environment, agriculture, and transportation as members of the delegation. In addition, an economic delegation composed of relevant leaders of heavyweight companies such as Siemens, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz also visited China.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of an all-round strategic partnership between China and Germany, what are the special considerations for Scholz’s visit?
Many experts on international issues analyzed that Scholz’s visit to China with a “luxurious” delegation conveyed his willingness to continue cooperation with China. Germany should abandon the noise that some US and Western politicians are hyping up “risk reduction,” and work with China to meet each other halfway, properly handle differences, and “tear down walls, build roads, and move together.”
File photo: German Chancellor Scholz.
Two special features
This is Scholz’s second visit to China since he took office as German Chancellor. He is scheduled to pay an official visit to China from April 14 to 16. According to the itinerary announced by Germany, he will go to Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing.
There are two special features of his visit:
1. Scholz “never paid such a long visit to a country.”
Regarding this visit, Radio France Internationale commented that Scholz “has never paid such a long visit to a country.”
Buttke, general manager of the German Chamber of Commerce in East China, emphasized in a statement that Scholz’s visit to China lasted for such a long time and visited three cities, sending a strong signal.
German government spokesman Herbstreit said that this visit will more reflect “the consistency of the German government’s position.”
Since taking office as German Chancellor, Scholz has expressed his stance on Germany-China relations many times.
Just in February, Scholz said during his attendance at the Munich Security Conference that Germany is willing to prepare for high-level exchanges with China this year and promote more substantive results. Germany opposes protectionism and decoupling, is happy to see China’s development and revitalization, and is willing to provide a high-quality business environment for companies from other countries in Germany.
Data map: According to news on March 29, the China-Europe freight train (Chengdu-Chongqing) departed from Chongqing, China, to Duisburg, Germany.
2. Scholz is the only G7 leader to visit China twice since the COVID-19 epidemic.
Scholz’s last visit to China was on November 4, 2022. He is the first European leader to visit China since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, and the first European leader to visit after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Since his first visit to China, China and Germany have reached many important consensuses: a new round of Sino-German government consultations was successfully held, dialogue and exchanges at all levels have been rapidly restored, and cooperation projects have continued to advance.
Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University, said, “Scholz led a delegation to China again this year for a multi-day visit, which shows that although Germany’s view on China-Germany-China-EU relations has changed to de-risking, it cannot decouple and needs to Maintaining and deepening economic and trade exchanges and cooperation with China, and conducting communication and consultation between China and Germany on many economic, trade and international hot issues are beneficial to both parties and conducive to the maintenance of China-Germany and China-EU relations.”
He further pointed out that in the past period of time, China-EU relations have continued to recover and the momentum of improvement has continued, and it has become a consensus that China cannot decouple, but it still faces a complex situation. The economic recovery is weak, and Germany has even experienced stagnation and decline, making people’s livelihood difficult; the rise of far-right democratic forces, facing the European Parliament elections in June, has put great pressure on traditional establishment parties; the situation in Russia and Ukraine continues to be stalemate, and the mainstream of European politics is in a dilemma; Special Trump’s participation in the 2024 US presidential election and showing good momentum has brought uncertainty to European and American relations. A series of events have brought opportunities and challenges to Sino-German and even Sino-European relations.
Luxurious lineup of accompanying members
On the other hand, Scholz’s visit this time also continued the previous style – the accompanying delegation has a high-standard lineup, which can be called luxurious.
According to Reuters, members of the delegation are expected to include many well-known German company executives such as Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Zipse, Chairman of BMW Group, and Andersen, CEO of Bayer Group.
German media also reported that Scholz may be accompanied on his visit to China by Özdemir, the German Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture from the Green Party, and Wiesing, the Minister of Digitalization and Transport from the Liberal Democratic Party.
For Scholz, the significance of visiting the world’s second largest economy and Germany’s largest trading partner for many years at this time is self-evident.
A report from the German Economic Institute shows that in 2023, Germany’s total direct investment in China will reach a record high of 11.9 billion euros, an increase of 4.3% over the previous year. In 2023, German investment in China will account for 10.3% of total German overseas investment, the highest level since 2014.
Hu Chunchun, head of European Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, said that the close economic and trade relations between China and Germany are the cornerstone of the development of relations between the two countries. Currently, the German economy is facing the difficult situation of recession and the pressure of transformation, and it is even more necessary to consolidate and expand economic and trade cooperation with China.
For example, China’s strong new energy industry can provide low-cost and high-quality technologies and products for Germany’s environmental protection and energy transformation. “It can also be seen from the accompanying list that the two sides are expected to carry out further cooperation in these fields.” Hu Chunchun said.
Ding Chun also believes that so far, economic and trade exchanges are still a powerful and main “handle” to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Germany. At present, many large multinational companies in Germany, including automobile companies, are still based on their own economic operating logic and overall layout, and have a relatively positive attitude toward investment and trade with China. They are “unique” among European investments in China and oppose “decoupling.” The voice is loud and the attitude is clear, advocating normal exchanges.
“It’s time to tear down walls, build roads and move each other around”
Experts have also noticed that the originally good and complementary economic and trade relations between China and Germany have also been mixed with some noise.
Hu Chunchun pointed out that in recent years, Western countries have gradually replaced globalization thinking with geopolitical zero-sum game thinking. Some people in the EU and German political circles have also concocted the discourse that economic and trade exchanges with China need to be “risk-free” and advocate reducing “dependence” on China.
At the same time, the German government announced the so-called “China Strategy” in July 2023, clamoring for “de-risking” China, and adopted the European Commission’s “three-in-one” vocabulary to describe China, claiming that China “is simultaneously a cooperative Partners, Competitors and Institutional Rivals”.
In fact, holding the “rudder” of Sino-German cooperation requires a rational and pragmatic spirit. As two major countries and an important engine of global economic growth, China and Germany have far more consensus than differences, cooperation is far greater than competition, and the two sides are partners rather than rivals.
As Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken previously said, amplifying conflicts and differences, inciting ideological confrontation, and selling anxiety about competition with China are extremely harmful. Non-cooperation is the biggest risk, and non-development is the biggest insecurity. Through closer cooperation Addressing challenges together is the proper meaning of “risk removal”.
“Now is the time to tear down walls, build roads, and move around each other. Scholz’s visit to China hopes to unleash the spirit of openness and cooperation.” Hu Chunchun said. (over)
Editor in charge: Zhang Naiyue
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