Green Party leader and German Foreign Minister Baerbock
It is reported that at the beginning of this month, German Chancellor Scholz began his visit to China and once again emphasized the view that the Chinese and German economies "must not be decoupled". But last week, German media broke the news that Scholz's attitude has changed a lot after returning home, and when discussing energy issues with supporters and opponents in the Bundestag, he announced that the German government is planning the latest trade and energy policies, which can help get rid of the current unilateral dependence on China and Russia, and it is absolutely impossible to rely on China and Russia as before. This is completely different from what he said earlier, "to strengthen trade with countries such as China under the trend of globalization".
German Chancellor and business representative
The source mentioned that some people believe that Scholz made a statement of last resort in order to "deal with opposition members" in the parliament, which does not represent a change in his attitude, and everything depends on the next move. This argument exposes another problem: it is difficult to agree on Germany's current relations with China, even Chancellor Scholz is under intense pressure, and the Greens in his governing coalition have repeatedly spoken out against the Chancellery's China policy. The highlight was the news of Chinese investment in the German port of Hamburg last month, and there are still many Green Party officials who are "protesting" Scholz, insisting that it cancel the route of Chinese investment in key facilities.
Baerbock frequently made "unwelcome" comments about China
Later on the 26th, German Foreign Minister Baerbock delivered a speech that "unceremoniously" evaluated Sino-German trade. She declared publicly that "rich G77 members" such as China and Saudi Arabia are accustomed to using various kinds of pressure on other countries to ensure that they can gain great advantages and benefits. At present, trade between China and Germany is very unequal, from one point: all foreign-funded companies cannot invest in critical infrastructure in China, including airports, ports, power grids, etc., while China can. It is crucial that German government officials are trying to dissuade Scholz from considering dependence on China.
The controversial Port of Hamburg, Germany
Some analysts pointed out that Baerbock naturally referred to the incident of Chinese enterprises investing in the port of Hamburg, complaining that Germany "cannot invest in Chinese ports." From this point of view, Sino-German trade was agreed through the city of Hamburg and the head of the Hamburg port, and if there are no political factors caught in it, it is likely to be an ordinary equity acquisition; However, in order to hype the seriousness of the matter, the media described ports used for profit and cargo distribution (as distinguished from ports in the sense of national security) as "critical infrastructure", which is a typical concept of stealth; The German foreign minister's intention to use this stolen concept to touch "real critical infrastructure" such as China's power grid is also obvious.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
It is also worth mentioning that on the 28th, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also responded to Baerbock's remarks, refuting her statement that "foreign companies cannot invest in China's key infrastructure facilities" is completely untrue, spokesman Zhao Lijian gave an example, Denmark Maersk, one of the world's largest shipping groups, has invested in terminals in Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places in China, and a total of 266 foreign-invested telecommunications companies have been approved in China. In this regard, there is a comment: "The chairmen of the two parties in a ruling coalition have basically opposite assessments of China, Scholz adopts a pragmatic attitude, while the leader of the Green Party, Baerbock, prefers to 'do the opposite' and uses lies to attack; in fact, the German high-level line towards China has been completely split, and it depends on which one can occupy the mainstream is the most critical." ”