Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is taking a business delegation to China after the European Commission warned the country should be treated as a rival. The German delegation is to arrive in China on Friday, making Scholz the first G7 leader to visit the country after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Reuters reporting on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton warned EU member states and companies that China is a rival and should be treated as such.
He reminded that the bloc in recent years adopted defensive measures aimed at strengthening control over investments by foreign state-owned entities to prevent rivals from gaining more leverage over the EU.
Commenting on Scholz’s decision to allow COSCO, China’s shipping giant, to buy a minority stake in the Port of Hamburg, Breton noted that he prefers it to the original plan, which was to allow the company to buy more than 33% of the port and give it a blocking minority.
Trade between China and Germany has been increasing in recent years, with China becoming Germany’s largest trade partner in 2016. According to a recent Ifo Institute for Economic Research survey, close to 50% of German companies are reliant on significant inputs from China.
Annalena Baerbock, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, recently pointed out in an interview that “it is extremely important that we never again make ourselves so dependent on a country that does not share our values.” According to a German government spokesperson, Scholz will push China on human rights concerns and Beijing’s autocratic tendencies as well as call on the country to open its market.
Profit over principles
However, Dolkun Isa, head of the World Uyghur Congress, pointed out that Scholz’s decision to take a business delegation to China “shows that, for Germany, profit continues to trump human rights.”
He pointed out that Scholz was turning a blind eye to the genocide that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is conducting in Xinjiang region. The CCP rejects the accusations.
German and French governments noted that French President Emmanuel Macron offered Scholz to accompany him to Beijing to show EU unity, adding that Scholz turned down the offer.
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