Scholz shows pragmatism, vision
German chancellor made the right call to travel to Beijing despite opposition and criticism
Dialogue across the table is indispensable not just in personal but also in international relations. The impact of a face-to-face meeting, perhaps with just a glass of water or a cup of coffee or tea and a few dainty morsels on the table between interlocutors is indispensable in bilateral and international relations.
Online video conferencing has been useful during the COVID-19 pandemic but it can never replace the effectiveness of in-person meetings, between state leaders in particular.
That is why German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on Nov 4 were the right way forward. The meetings took place despite the more or less vociferous diplomatic opposition by an unholy alliance of political forces in Washington, Paris, Brussels and Berlin, including two junior partners of Scholz’s three-party coalition, the Greens and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) — and even some segments of his Social Democratic Party — and not surprisingly the opposition Christian Democrats.
Most regrettably, some politicians and media in the West are, once again, hyping up the “China threat” theory, which has its origins in the 19th century when European colonial expansion was at its peak. Early this year, the European Union coined the term “systemic rivalry” to describe its relationship with China. To me, it sounds like a poorly disguised euphemism for “China threat”.
Scholz, a 64-year-old lawyer by profession, former mayor of Hamburg and vice-chancellor and finance minister in the Angela Merkel government, is widely regarded as a political moderate. My impression is that he is realistic enough to understand that it would be foolish of an export-dependent country such as Germany to decouple or even just de-intensify its strong trade, economic and investment relations with China.
China and Germany are the world’s largest and third-largest exporters respectively, and the second-biggest and third-biggest importers. Together with the United States, they are the world’s top three trading nations.
The relatively high standard of living in Germany would be impossible without its position as a global trade giant. And China has been Germany’s largest trading partner for the past six years. In terms of volume, Germany accounts for nearly one-third of the total trade between China and the 27-member EU.
The Chinese and German economies are complementary in many areas, not just in the all-important area of trade which helps both countries maintain their respective goals of achieving common prosperity (China) and safeguarding the principles of the social market economy (Germany), but also in fields such as the global fight against climate change, poverty alleviation and public health threats.
As a German national and a social democrat, I expect Scholz to always give priority to the protection of people’s livelihoods, public health, energy security and social justice — also during a major international crisis such as the ongoing RussiaUkraine conflict.
All this costs lots of money (the ultimate challenge of all economic development boils down to the simple question of who pays the bill), which, especially in the case of Germany and China, is primarily being generated by people who are inventing, designing and manufacturing export goods.
Scholz took the right decision to go ahead with his visit to China despite all the opposition and criticism.
As a major power, China has a huge number of dialogue partners, comprising both countries and international organizations, so it is natural that Xi recently met with not just Scholz but also, separately, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Scholz was the first G7 leader to visit China since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020. On the other hand, Vietnam and Pakistan are China’s neighbors, and China’s relations with both countries are geopolitically of immense importance.
As for Tanzania, China’s diplomatic relations with the African nation go back to the early 1960s.
The Chinese president was widely expected to meet with a raft of world leaders during the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. If US President Joe Biden, still “digesting” the outcome of the midterm elections, and the Chinese leader had a productive conversation “across the table” on the sidelines of the summit, it will not be just a matter of bilateral importance. Instead, it will be vital to tackling the perennial issues of international trade, world peace and global governance.