Scholz’s balancing act in China
German Chancellor Scholz is devoting a lot of time to his second visit to China. There is plenty to discuss - from the Ukraine conflict and threats aimed at Taiwan to subsidies for electric cars.
Berlin (dpa) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be spending three days in China, from Sunday morning till Tuesday evening, and will visit three of the country’s major cities: besides the capital Beijing, he will stop off in Chongqing - probably the world’s most populous city with 32 million inhabitants in the centre and surrounding region - and in the business metropolis Shanghai. The chancellor will be flanked by three German ministers during his talks in Beijing.
One success of the chancellor’s inaugural visit to Beijing a year and a half ago is that Xi, after his talks with Scholz, has to this day continued to oppose Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons. This time, the talks are likely to focus on the Ukraine peace conference that is due to take place in Switzerland in mid-June. Any possible success of the conference hinges on China’s participation. Scholz is therefore likely to push precisely for this during the talks.
China is still Russia’s most important ally and is endeavouring to set in motion a process by which to end the conflict. To this end, the Chinese leadership presented a position paper last year and has already sent its special envoy Li Hui to Europe twice - most recently in March. However, Germany and the US also accuse China of supporting Russia’s war economy.