German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is currently on a visit to China. Before his trip, Scholz said that he hoped to use the visit to repair German-Chinese relations that had been damaged by "de-risking". However, the world is unpredictable, and now the whole focus has completely deviated. Just over halfway through Scholz's flight from Berlin to Chongqing, Iran launched an attack on Israel, raining down more than 300 drones and rockets.
The first thing Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for the German federal government, said publicly after arriving at Chongqing airport: "This Iranian attack is irresponsible and unjustified, and it is igniting a powder keg in the region." ”
In fact, Iran's retaliation did not come without warning. Tehran's authorities had previously announced that they would retaliate for Israel's April 1 bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, in which a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps general was killed.
According to international agreements, foreign missions should not be targeted, and the Iranian embassy in Damascus is not spared. Iran's state television reported in the early hours of Sunday that the airstrikes against Israel were part of a punishment for Israel's crimes.
"For this reason, Scholz, who just arrived in Chongqing on Sunday, at least partially abandoned his original plan that day - after visiting the Bosch factory and the German-Chinese research project, he was scheduled to take a boat trip to the Yangtze River with a business delegation that evening," German media reported. But the accompanying business representatives and journalists were later told that the prime minister would not be on board the boat for the tour. ”
In an article entitled "Iran's attack on Israel casts a shadow over Scholz's visit to China", the German media Handelsblatt even described Chancellor Scholz's trip to Chongqing with some romance: "After an 11-hour flight, the prime minister arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel in the morning, which is located on an island at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, with a stunning urban backdrop. The weather is humid and warm, Chinese tourists stand on the shore to take pictures, and in the alleys, porters set out in the morning to carry goods and groceries up steep stairs to small shops in trolleys. But no one paid attention to the fascinating surroundings on this day. “
During a visit to a joint research project on water quality monitoring between the state of Saxony and Chongqing University. Scholz wore red goggles and patiently listened to the project manager's presentation. The Handelsblatt article commented that "Scholz has a serious facial expression and does not show a smile to the media". In view of the escalation of the situation in the Middle East, Handelsblatt considers such seriousness appropriate.
A few minutes later, Scholz walked over to the microphone set up at the scene – before mentioning China, he first mentioned the situation in the Middle East: "The Iranian attack is a serious escalation of the situation", Scholz said, "This is absolutely unacceptable." Germany strongly condemns the Iranian attack. At the same time, we stand entirely with Israel. “
The German delegation and the accompanying journalists were also concerned about the danger of further escalation of the situation in the Middle East. While they are exploring China, German politicians such as Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), chairman of the German Bundestag Defense Committee, have called on Scholz to persuade China to intervene to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairman of the German Bundestag Defense Committee, asked the German Chancellor to make clear statements about the attacks against Israel during his visit to China. The LDP politician also told Der Spiegel on Sunday: "A fire in the Middle East may not be in China's interest for economic reasons." "On the occasion of Chancellor Scholz's visit, the Chinese leadership should make it clear to Tehran that attacks on Israel must be stopped immediately. I'm sure his arm can reach that far. Scholz is already in China, and he should clearly remind people that Israel is our friend and Germany is on Israel's side. ”
Indeed, like other EU countries and the United States, the German government has been trying for months to persuade Beijing to exert its influence over Iran to prevent Iranian-backed Houthi attacks on merchant ships docked in the Red Sea.
However, the German media expressed great disappointment, "So far, these appeals have not worked." Not only did Beijing not participate in the joint defense against attacks on merchant ships. Instead, they signed agreements with the Houthis to ensure that Chinese ships would not be attacked. (Haha it's too much, why only protect your own ship, not the EU and US ships, bad review!)
On Monday morning, the German government plane flew to Shanghai, where Scholz visited the Covestro Innovation Center and gave a lecture at Tongji University. In his speech, he focused on the support of Chinese cars in Europe, but also called for European cars to enter the Chinese market as well. "The only thing that must always be clear is that competition must be fair," Scholz said in a discussion with students at Tongji University, "so that there will be no dumping, no overcapacity, no copyright infringement." Scholz objected to the fear of international competition, "and when Japanese and Korean cars entered the German market, people were afraid. But now Germany has Japanese cars, and Japan has German cars, and the same applies to China and Germany. ”