According to persons with knowledge of the situation, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz intends to visit China between November 3 and 4, striking a careful balance between corporate interests and human rights abuses.
It will be Scholz’s first trip to China as chancellor of Germany since taking office in December, and one of the persons said he will use the meetings in Beijing to clarify China’s ambiguous involvement in the crisis over Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
The conflict in Ukraine is likely to take centre stage at the Group of Twenty leaders summit in Bali, Indonesia, on November 15–16, according to one of the people. On a separate trip to Asia, Scholz plans to visit Vietnam and Singapore with a sizable business delegation around November 12–14 before continuing on to that event.
Scholz’s trip schedule is a part of a larger initiative to change Germany’s approach to the Asia-Pacific region, which may result in greater hostility against Chinese President Xi Jinping. But the chancellor has prioritised seeing Xi in order to forge stronger connections. Scholz is certain that Europe needs China as a partner in the global battle against climate change, notwithstanding their disagreements.
The German government is developing a new national policy on China with the objectives of reducing dependency on the second-largest economy in the world, diversifying supply chains, and boosting security.
China is now Germany’s top commercial partner in terms of imports and exports combined due to decades of economic entanglements by Scholz’s predecessors Gerhard Schroeder and Angela Merkel.
