Scholz’s upcoming visit ‘aims to strike a balance in China policy’
▶ Germany’s top corporate brass to join the trip: media report
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to travel to China in midApril, accompanied by three federal ministers and a business delegation, media reported. Chinese analysts said Scholz aims to strike a balance in Germany’s China policy, ensuring it is not swayed by the hard-line rhetoric of politicians advocating “de-risking.”
Scholz’s visit is part of a broader series of high-level engagements between China and the EU, and may help foster positive momentum toward consensusbuilding, analysts noted.
Scholz reportedly will travel to China for a two-day trip from April 15 to 16. German newspaper Handelsblatt said in a report on April 4 that Scholz will be accompanied by Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir and Transport Minister Volker Wissing. It noted that “it is unusual” for a Chancellor to be accompanied by several federal ministers on a trip to China and would “otherwise only [take] place as part of government consultations.”
Reuters reported on the same day that Germany’s top corporate brass, including Roland Busch, chief executive of Siemens, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius and lab equipment and semiconductor chemicals maker Merck KGaA’s CEO Belen Garijo will join Scholz when he visits China.
The Chinese side hasn’t yet released information on Scholz’s visit as of press time on Sunday.
Scholz’s upcoming visit to China signifies Germany’s willingness to maintain pragmatic cooperation with China. The visit is part of a series of exchanges and communications between China and Germany that have been ongoing since 2022, He Zhigao, a research fellow with the Institute of European Studies from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Scholz was last in China in November 2022. Chinese President Xi Jinping met Scholz in Beijing and the two leaders agreed on enhancing cooperation, maintaining dialogue, and rejecting decoupling and bloc confrontation.
In June 2023, Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Germany and co-chaired the seventh China-Germany inter-governmental consultation with Scholz.
Sustaining high-level engagements is crucial in preventing strategic misunderstandings between China and Germany, especially in light of the unveiling of a new strategy by Scholz’s three-party coalition in July 2023 that claimed to de-risk Germany’s economic relations with China. This strategy, borne out of complex negotiations and compromise among the coalition partners, has sent mixed signals, He said.
Scholz will endeavor to seek a political balance in Germany’s China policy, preventing it from being kidnapped entirely by negative voices, Cui Hongjian, a professor with the Academy of Regional and Global Governance with Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times.