German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting China again. This is his first visit to China since the German government announced its "China Strategy" last year.
The German Chancellor's visit to China is worth paying attention to. In the past, when Scholz's predecessor was Merkel, Merkel came to China one after another, becoming the most visited person by Western leaders.
At that time, every time Merkel came, she would not only talk to high-level leaders, but also go to the cities below to see what the economic and social situation in China was. It was arguably the best period of Sino-German relations.
The current Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is no match for Merkel. After all, Merkel was in a state of being in a state of self-refuge in Germany at that time, and the German government at the helm of Scholz now is a "traffic light government". In other words, Scholz himself cannot be the master of the government. But if you look at the changes in Scholz's relations with China since he took office, you can figure out something very interesting.
At the beginning, Scholz also wanted to learn from and inherit Merkel's China policy. At that time, Scholz's visits to China were also quite frequent. However, with the United States shouting "decoupling and breaking the chain", and the European Union is also talking about "de-risking", in this context, Scholz can no longer withstand foreign pressure. The German government has introduced a "China strategy", and the main tone is to be in tune with the tone of the United States, which is roughly in tune, and it is from that point in time that Scholz has never been to China again.
Now there seems to be a bit of loosening in Sino-US relations, the two heads of state have spoken on the phone, and high-level diplomatic interactions have begun to take place. At this time, Scholz seemed to sense an opportunity and immediately organized a delegation to begin his visit to China.
What to talk about during the visit to China, we can just look at the main members of the visiting delegation. In the report of the German "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" on this matter, it was specifically mentioned that among the accompanying delegations were Siemens CEO and chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of the German Economic Committee, Siemens CEO Kang Linsong, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, BMW boss Zipzer, Bayer CEO Bill Anderson, and thyssenkrupp CEO Miguel Lopez.
When it comes to Siemens, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, everyone is familiar with it. Bayer is another German industrial giant, mainly engaged in medicine. ThyssenKrupp is famous. If you go to some modern forts built at the end of the Qing Dynasty in China, most of the artillery is Krupp, and the largest and most advanced caliber is also Krupp's.
It should be said that the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" listed all these are the big bosses of large enterprises, and the accompanying delegation is mainly composed of big bosses of big enterprises. So it is clear what Scholz is talking about during this trip. Of course, we are talking about the economy and economic cooperation.
Interestingly, on the eve of Scholz's visit to China, the German Institute for Economic Research, a German think tank, released a report. According to the report, although the German government has urged "de-risking" to China, the data shows that the German economy is still highly dependent on China, and a clear structural "de-risking" trend has not yet taken shape.
In fact, as early as July last year, after the German government announced the so-called "China strategy", the Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade of the German Chamber of Commerce issued a statement. The statement said that it did not welcome this "China strategy", believing that it would affect Sino-German trade relations and would not be in the interests of German companies in China.
Two days ago, I saw a message on the Internet that Audi was going to cooperate with Huawei. Cooperative intelligent driving system. I'm not sure if this news is true yet, but I think it's going to happen. are talking about the "overcapacity" of China's auto industry, which is so much that foreign countries can't stand it.
It's not really that far. China's share of the global auto industry may be quite large, but the vast majority of this share is in our domestic market. The development of foreign markets has just begun and needs to be further developed. But the trend is already being felt, as China's car market accounts for almost a third of the world's total. According to the current trend, foreign brands will gradually withdraw from the Chinese market.
No, in addition to the Chinese market, there are two-thirds of the market. With such a large market share, you can cut out more of a percentage, then you can also live well.
Obviously, you can't do it with your own technology, and you need to bring in a partner with more advanced technology. We have seen that smart German auto entrepreneurs have begun to cooperate with China's leading intelligent driving software companies.
What is the ultimate goal of this cooperation? The ultimate goal is to build his foreign brand stronger and be able to maintain more market share than the market share of China's auto industry.
Scholz's visit to China is a good thing, and the economic cooperation between Chinese and German enterprises is also a good thing, but this kind of good thing must be uncomfortable for some people to see, so even if Scholz comes, even if he talks, whether the final talks can be implemented or not depends on the face of the Americans.
To what extent Germany's sovereign autonomy can go, we might as well wait and see.