As the scheduled visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to China on November 4 approaches, the German business community continues to voice support for enhancing economic ties with China despite noises urging the German government to show a firmer stance on China over topics concerning values, including human rights.
There are mixed attitudes in Germany toward Scholz’s visit, which observers attributed to discrepancies between the business community and politicians, as well as divergences inside the coalition government.
One of the latest voices supporting Scholz’s visit came from Martin Wansleben, managing director of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Wansleben said that it is right to make the visit, as Germany, Europe and the world are dependent on China in many ways as well as in solving emerging problems, including climate change and food security.
“Without China, we can never really solve these problems,” German national public radio reported on Sunday.
The German government’s spokesperson told a briefing on Friday that Berlin’s view of Beijing had changed, but it was against “decoupling” from the Chinese economy and wanted Beijing to show reciprocity in trade relations.
Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times the business community remains a strong pillar pushing forward China-Germany cooperation because of the great and stable benefits from such cooperation.
China has been Germany’s biggest trading partner for the past six years, with value exceeding 245 billion euros ($243 billion) in 2021. According to media reports, the chief executives of automaker Volkswagen and chemicals giant BASF are in the German delegation.
The visit is widely acknowledged as an opportunity for face-to-face communication, which is crucial for the two countries to exchange views, manage differences and consolidate common ground, Cui said.
The visit is the first to China by Scholz since he took office in 2021, and the first visit by a leader from the G7 (Group of Seven) and EU since the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the momentum for cooperation is increasingly disturbed by politicians who argue for less “economic reliance” on China and view economic cooperation from a political and security angle, Cui said.
China-Germany relations have been transformed from “casting aside differences and seeking common ground” in the past to a new pattern of shared economic interests along with increasing political rifts, Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of European Studies, told the Global Times on Monday.
The mixed messages reflect a thorny situation Scholz faces – he needs to ensure German interests and represent his Social Democrat party while delivering German “values” as other parties of the coalition government demand, Zhao said.
The Liberal Democrats are inclined to perceive China’s development as a threat to local small businesses, while the Greens are inexperienced and lack a long-term strategic vision in handling diplomacy, and therefore they speak louder on “values,” Zhao continued.
One example of the struggle is the Hamburg port deal. Germany’s foreign ministry drew up a note on the cabinet meeting that documented its rejection of the Cosco investment, which the economy ministry and the four ministries led by the liberal democrats joined, Reuters reported, citing two government sources on Wednesday.
A Green party lawmaker cited Germany’s painful cut from Russian gas to argue against the port deal.
Scholz has to carefully navigate through all these different interests to safeguard the stability of the coalition government. He also faces mounting pressure from other EU member states to take a tougher stance over China ties against the backdrop of escalating geopolitical confrontations, observers said.
Cui said it is important for the two sides to reiterate their consensuses, and China hopes the Scholz administration to clarify its judgment of China ties and corresponding policies. “How has Germany changed from the Merkel era, and how to maintain bilateral cooperation?” the expert asked.
Both sides should push pragmatic economic and trade cooperation – providing favorable conditions for companies from the other side to invest and operate, and converting any consensuses reached on cooperation in new fields, including the green and digital economies, into real projects and actions, Cui said.
China and Germany still have a great consensus on bilateral relations and global governance, but differences could emerge from topics related to the Ukraine crisis and Germany’s “Indo-Pacific” guidelines. Analysts believe the two sides should listen to each other and try their best to expand their common ground and manage differences.
