According to the global network, German media sources said that German Chancellor Scholz plans to lead a delegation to visit China in late April, in addition to the three ministers will visit China with Scholz, there will be a number of senior executives of German companies in the list of visiting delegations, and the competition for seats is very fierce.
According to the report, Kang Linsong, chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz Group, will visit China with Scholz, and Siemens chairman of the board of directors Bo Leren, Merck Group CEO Ge Lihe, BMW chairman Zipzer and others are also likely to visit China together. It is worth noting that the German executives just came to China at the end of March to attend the annual meeting of the China Development Forum, during which they expressed their optimism about the Chinese market and their desire to expand their business in China. At a time when the EU is hyping up "de-risking", top German business executives have sought to join Scholz's delegation to China, highlighting China's status as Germany's largest trading partner. Some people in the German business community said that "decoupling" from China is unrealistic, and "decoupling from China" is the biggest risk.
Germany is a leader in Europe, but this "weather vane" has been experiencing some economic difficulties recently. According to German media reports, the momentum of Germany's economic development is declining, with an economic growth rate of only 0.3%. According to the report released by the European Commission, the EU's economic growth forecast fell from 1.4% to 1.3%, which shows that the economic recovery of the whole of Europe is facing great uncertainty. In order to recover the economy as soon as possible, German companies are placing their hopes on China, looking forward to further deepening bilateral economic and trade relations and exploring opportunities in the Chinese market.
Europe's far-sighted politicians have seen their own problems and hope to solve them with China's help, but there are still some who are still living in dreams and engaging in boring political hype for their own political gain. According to AFP, European Commission executive vice president Vestager said the EU is already investigating whether to impose taxes on Chinese imports of electric vehicles and will conduct a countervailing investigation into Chinese wind turbine suppliers. Vestager asserted that the EU needed to take a more systematic approach, that it should not conduct a case-by-case investigation, and that "electric vehicles, wind energy or important chips should not be allowed to repeat the mistakes of solar panels".
It is reported that after China's high-quality and inexpensive solar panels entered the EU market, they soon occupied more than 90% of the EU market share. Originally, most of the wind turbines used by the EU were self-produced, but after the Chinese product entered the market, EU users quickly abandoned the original product. Back last year, the European Commission announced a plan to strengthen competition in the wind power industry, which included a review of China's wind power industry. It is not difficult to see that the EU's so-called "development plan" is actually "not allowing others to develop". When they increase subsidies for their own products, they do not allow others to subsidize them. China's Ministry of Commerce has long stated that China has always advocated the rational and prudent use of trade remedy measures and resolutely opposes protectionist acts of abusing trade remedy measures.
Speaking of which, the EU's attitude towards China during this period has not been very good, not only thinking of ways to hype up and smear China, but also pulling Chinese companies into the sanctions list on the grounds of "supporting Russia". However, now the EU is facing resistance to economic development and wants to seek China's help. Therefore, before negotiating with the Chinese side, it is necessary to prepare some chips, and if there are no chips, create them. Investigating subsidies for Chinese products and threatening to tax Chinese electric vehicles is a bargaining chip prepared by the EU for Scholz and a deterrent to China.
Recently, there have been many high-level foreign officials visiting China, some of whom have reached a consensus on cooperation with China and signed cooperation agreements, while others have returned empty-handed. Judging from the enthusiastic attitude of German companies, they must want to bring something back, so the Chinese side should be shown to be sincere.