Stronger Sino-German relations urged
In phone talks with Merkel, Xi also calls for pushing proper China policy within EU
President Xi Jinping has called for further strengthening mutual trust between China and Germany to advance bilateral ties, and expressed hope that Germany could push for the European Union to uphold a proper policy toward China to ensure the healthy development of ChinaEU relations.
Xi made the remark in a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sept 10.
He highly appreciated Merkel’s active efforts to advance pragmatic cooperation and friendly exchanges between China and Germany, as well as between China and the EU.
Xi said his frequent and efficient communications with Merkel over the past year have played an important role in guiding the development of China-Germany and China-EU relations, and demonstrated the highlevel mutual trust between the two countries.
He said bilateral ties have maintained sound development and the two countries’ cooperation in various fields has shown strong resilience despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Xi talked about the countries’ joint efforts to push for the conclusion of negotiations on the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment on schedule, advocate multilateralism, uphold free trade and actively deal with climate change, saying that China and Germany have joined hands to contribute to safeguarding world peace and stability.
The reason that China and Germany make tremendous achievements in their ties is that they respect each other, seek consensus while putting aside their differences, focus on winwin cooperation and leverage their respective strengths for mutual benefit, Xi said.
As long as they stick to consolidating their mutual trust, treating each other as equals and focusing on cooperation, bilateral ties will have new development, he added.
Xi expressed hope that Germany could push for the EU to adopt a correct China policy so that the EU will objectively view its differences with China, and rationally deal with disparities in order to help China-EU relations develop healthily.
Merkel said that she stands ready to maintain close communication with the Chinese side to advance GermanyChina and EU-China relations.
Noting that the EU-China investment agreement is mutually beneficial, she expressed hope that the agreement could be approved and take effect as soon as possible. She also said Germany wants to intensify vaccine cooperation with China.
The two leaders also exchanged views about the Afghanistan situation. Merkel said that Germany wants to strengthen communication and coordination with China on the Afghan issue under the multilateral framework, including the United Nations.
Xi explained China’s position on the Afghanistan situation, saying that Beijing advocates coexistence and mutual learning among different civilizations and opposes interference in other countries’ domestic affairs.
China is willing to work along with the international community, including Germany, to make constructive efforts to help Afghanistan truly realize peace and stability, he added.
Meanwhile, with the general election in Germany less than two weeks away, the leading candidates have indicated they will largely continue the China policy of Merkel, experts said.
The second debate among the main contenders on Sept 12 focused mostly on domestic issues, with Armin Laschet from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union attacking Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate Olaf Scholz. An Infratest dimap poll revealed that 41 percent of 1,500 viewers found Scholz the most convincing, compared with 27 percent for Laschet and 25 percent for the Green party candidate Annalena Baerbock.
Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University, said that for the winner of the Sept 26 election, the biggest foreign policy challenge will be how to deal with China-US relations, referring to tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
“A hostile policy toward China would inflict huge damage on the export-dependent German economy. At the same time, it’s unrealistic to expect Germany to side totally with
China,” he said before the debate.
Trade between China and Germany reached 213 billion euros ($251 billion) in 2020, making China the top trading partner of Germany for the fifth consecutive year, according to the German Federal Statistical Office.
Ding, who has met Scholz, described him as a “steady” leader. However, he warned that if a Scholz coalition government gave foreign affairs to the Greens, it might have a negative impact on China-German relations, given the Greens’ obsession with human rights issues.
Ding said he does not expect the next German government to totally side with the US, either, and adopt a hostile policy toward China.
As the current finance minister and a former mayor of Hamburg, a sister city of Shanghai, Scholz has extensive experience on China. A supporter of globalization, Scholz has warned against the decoupling advocated by some US politicians.
During a debate among the three candidates in June hosted by the Munich Security Conference, Scholz said he was “explicitly against any kind of decoupling fantasy” and leaving North America, Europe, and China in isolation and developing their own economic structures.
He also said he did not believe that any tough German policies, such as sanctions, would have an impact on China.
“We shouldn’t build this notorious hubris as if a decision taken by the German Bundestag will lead to China changing everything from one day to the next,” he said.
Laschet, the CDU party leader and governor of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, said that Germany needs to “call a spade a spade” on human rights, but added that China is Germany’s partner in many areas. “Climate change cannot be combated without China. We have to talk, cooperate, be partners,” he said.
He Zhigao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of European Studies, said that neither the CDU nor SPD is a bad option for China.
“As leader, Scholz is more friendly to China. But as a party, the CDU is more friendly, more focused on economic issues and less obsessed with ideology,” he said.
He believes that bilateral economic ties have played an important role in stabilizing the overall relationship, adding that economic relations have been stable despite political ups and downs.
“The German policy toward China in the post-Merkel era might tilt toward being values-based for a while, but will ultimately lean toward pragmatic economic cooperation,” he said, a view many experts have used to describe Merkel’s China policy during her 16 years in power.
“Merkel has laid some good foundations for the bilateral relationship,” said Ding of Fudan University.