The German government announced on the 8th that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will pay a state visit to China for three days starting from the 14th (local time).
Chancellor Scholz is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on the 16th and attend the China-Germany Economic Advisory Committee with Premier Li.
Before this, he plans to visit a German hydrogen engine company in Chongqing on the 14th and an eco-friendly material production company in Shanghai on the 15th.
This is Chancellor Scholz’s second visit to China since November 2022. At that time, leading a large economic delegation, Chancellor Scholz sparked controversy over his stance against decoupling, causing a ‘pro-China controversy.’
Handelsblatt reported that three German ministers, including Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, and Transport Minister Volker Wissing, will accompany Chancellor Scholz on this visit to China, along with a delegation of German business representatives.
Before he visited China, Chancellor Scholz showed a friendly gesture by opening a TikTok account today and posting a 13-second video of his office. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “I won’t dance (for the TikTok challenge). I promise.”
The US House of Representatives recently passed the so-called ‘TikTok Ban Act,’ pressuring China’s parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok’s business rights in the US.
The German government said, “We will provide information about the Chancellor and government work and show the daily behind-the-scenes of the government,” adding, “Recently, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola have started TikTok.”
Steffen Hebestreit, the spokesperson for the German government, said today that Chancellor Scholz is skeptical about imposing EU-level tariffs on Chinese electric cars. The EU plans to impose additional tariffs if confirmed that the Chinese government has provided subsidies for electric vehicles after an investigation until November this year.
Despite the containment of the West, including the United States, Germany, which has China as its largest trading partner, has continued economic cooperation with China. Maximilian Büttner, executive director of the German Chamber of Commerce, said, “The Chancellor’s long visit to China and touring three cities is a strong signal of the normalization of relations.”
On the other hand, Handelsblatt predicted, “The expansion of the high-level delegation seems to be entirely according to the wishes of the Chinese leadership,” and “Unlike the era of Chancellor Angela Merkel, there will be no large-scale new contracts for local companies.” It is also predicted that the Chinese government’s ban on imports of German pork due to the African swine fever outbreak in 2020 will be lifted this time.
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