German Chancellor Visits Beijing Amid Lingering Questions of Rivalry

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with the head of the Chinese communist regime in Beijing during his Nov. 4 visit that focused on business ties, drawing criticism at home and also from the international community.

Scholtz, who was leading a group of CEOs from German companies on the trip, was the first foreign leader to meet with Xi Jinping since he secured a third term as head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last month.

While other Western government leaders have pledged to take a tougher stance against the regime in China, a delegation of 12 German-based business executives accompanied Scholz. Most of these companies, such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Siemens, have been in the Chinese market for a long time.

Scholz told Xi during their meeting that China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole, according to the CCP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The UK’s Financial Times reported on Oct. 30 that critics believe that “instead of deepening economic ties with authoritarian regimes, Germany and the [European Union] should decouple from them.”

Germany firmly opposes decoupling, the ministry said, showing how the CCP interpreted the visit. Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China and supports more mutual investment between Chinese and German businesses.

In return, Xi specifically approved the vaccines produced by Germany’s BioNTech and Pfizer to be used in China. On the same day, China Aviation Supplies Corp. announced that it has signed a bulk purchase agreement with Airbus for 140 aircraft, with a total value of about $17 billion.

Song Guocheng, a senior researcher at the Center for International Relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan told The Epoch Times that the entire EU is re-examining the dependence of that economic bloc on the Chinese market.

Scholtz’s visit “shows that Germany basically has no way to get rid of its dependence on the Chinese market. Because its trade with China is a relatively high-end structural relationship, which is mainly concentrated in automobiles, machinery, chemicals, Medical and other industries,” he said.

Questionable Timing

Currently, the German government is drafting a new China strategy.

According to the German business daily Handelsblatt, an official China strategy is expected to be officially released in the spring of 2023, which will be tougher than former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s China policy. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who has called for more assertive measures against China, publicly criticized the Beijing regime’s human rights record when she took office, emphasizing that China is Germany’s “institutional rival.”

Xi is seeking to meet with foreign government leaders to mark his achievement during the party congress of securing a third term in office, Chinese economist Li Hengqing told The Epoch Times.

“Two months ago, when Scholz announced that he was planning to visit Beijing, Germany and the European Union, including NATO ministers, expressed their opposition,” Li said, noting that the implication of the visit is to kowtow to Xi, especially when Xi had secured his third term.

Li said Scholz’s visit shows a two-sided mentality.

“On the one hand, he particularly wants to preserve the interests of German companies in China. But he also knows that China differs from the Western world on human rights issues. He also knows that the CCP has been helping Russia behind the scenes.

“So, he’s in a dilemma,” Li said.

Criticism From Human Rights Groups

Scholz’s China trip has sparked strong criticism from human rights organizations and activists.

The German chancellor’s decision to visit Beijing “to pay tribute to Xi Jinping is a choice that totally ignores the suffering of millions of Uyghurs,” Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said at a press conference in Berlin on Nov. 1.

Hanno Schedler, a spokesman for the Society for Threatened Peoples said, that Scholz shouldn’t forget the human rights situation in Tibet and Inner Mongolia, let alone the deprivations of freedom of the press and speech that Hong Kong people endure.

“I think Scholz’s visit to China is a symbol, representing the economic dependence of Western countries on China,” Qin Jie, a dissident in exile in Germany, told The Epoch Times.

“This dependence has brought prosperity to Western countries in the past few decades. But all this is based on the pain and blood and tears of the Chinese people.

“I hope that the governments of Germany and the United States can realize that their appeasement will only infuse blood to the CCP bandits, and will only prolong the suffering of the Chinese people. It will always put Western countries under threat by the CCP dictatorship.”

Qin said he’s concerned that even though there is internal opposition, the mainstream in Germany is still swayed by the CCP and that Germany will continue to rely on the Chinese market for a long time.

“They will still choose their interests,” he said. “Their standard of living is based on the huge market [of China].”

Li Xin’an and Luo Ya contributed to this report.

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Alex Wu is a U.S.-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on Chinese society, Chinese culture, human rights, and international relations.