What’s Up Germany: Why Olaf Scholz’s China Trip Spruced Some Debate, If Not Debacle?

There are some in Germany who state in no uncertain terms- and even warn- about the country’s over reliance on China where it comes to economic matters.

Their concern, should they be believed, is that Deutschland is perhaps a bit too over dependent on a country that has little or no respect toward human liberty and dignity.

Can they be doubted? Can their stand be completely negated?

Yet, at the same time, they are them. And one’s got to remember, not all of them, but obviously, happen to be the current German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Isn’t that understandable!

For where the Lower Saxony-born current German Chancellor is to be believed, then the recent visit to the Xi Jinping-territory was useful or should one say, critical?

While only a novice who has little or no awareness about the basics of Geopolitics today would be unaware about the political heat that China often finds itself in, the country regardless of the troubled waters it tends to swim in, think of matters like the Uighur Muslims, is key for Germany.

At least, that seems to be the case for why else would Olaf Scholz spend all but eleven hours in a day there and yet manage to spruce headlines that aren’t exactly a bundle of joys.

So here’s the key question then- what really happened in the German chancellor’s visit to China that most international publications can’t stop covering a happening that isn’t even receiving exactly rave reviews?

Firstly, it’s important to remember and appreciate the fact that Scholz’s visit to the land of the dragon as the perennially martial-arts-obsessed would say focused on three matters that the German leader from Osnabruck wanted to highlight. Given the fact that it appears he regards China for the behemoth of a figure the country is in the scheme of contemporary era, its involvement in the following three streams are vital:

Indebted Countries

Climate Change

Food Security

All of that being said, the following news snippet from DW.com (one of the leading/ go-to information platforms on all things Germany) had the following to share about Germany’s Olaf Scholz’s visit to China:

The trip sends a message that even though Berlin should be seriously rethinking the relationship with China, they are going back to business as usual,” said Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, an assistant professor at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan and a former political advisor to the European Parliament.

“While I think Europe needs to find a way to constructively talk to China from a position of strength, what Berlin is doing undermines that position by pursuing its own interests at the expense of the emerging, yet fragile, European unity that we’ve seen since the Ukraine war,” added the brains behind the must-read “Europe, China and the Limits of Normative Power!”

Furthermore, if one wanted to highlight the key subjects that the two may have touched upon in Beijing, then in that case the words of the a leading politician from Germany, Mr. Reinhard Butikofer holds much value (also quoted from DW.com):

This member of the Greens party in the European Parliament states that Scholz’s trip has contradicted the German coalition government’s agreement and will also have a negative impact on the European Union. “He sent a message that continuing trade and investment will be a political priority [for him].”

To conclude, while there may be many for whom Germany’s “so called” over-reliance on China isn’t the most intellectually stimulating move.

But if one were to think from the perspective of Chancellor Scholz, who has to call the shots and not those who resort to bias, would he not want to ensure that the economic engine is in an active mode?

Furthermore, it ought to be noted that as of 2021, Germany was China’s sixth-largest trading partner (South China Morning Post).

By that logic, how difficult is it to understand that even if backing off from China given Germany’s ‘alleged overreliance’ on it it was the morally correct thing to do, can Europe’s top economy afford that right now?