Scholz's Visit to China: Beijing 'Will Be Laughing at Germany's Self-Destructive Policies'

On April 14, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in China for an official visit to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.

Olaf Scholz’s visit to China was likely intended to achieve two goals, says Gunnar Beck, a member of the European Parliament from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and current vice-president of the European Parliament's Identity and Democracy Group.

“One is, of course, to consolidate economic relations with China because of the importance of China as an export market for Germany,” he said. “And then secondly, I suppose, to please certain domestic political audiences by voicing some criticism of China's so-called human rights record.”

As Beck had explained, by “certain domestic political audiences” he meant mostly the Green Party adherents who, in his eyes, “who tend to favor a foreign policy based less on economic considerations, but more on human rights matters.”

However, it does not appear that the German Chancellor has been able to achieve these goals, Beck noted.

“He's probably not voiced as much criticism of China as some of his own allies would have wanted to. He's adopted a compromise course, but ultimately, I think, the Chinese government will be laughing at Germany's self-destructive policies. Both over Ukraine - Germany has no interest in the perpetuation of the Ukraine conflict, and China, I'm sure, will be laughing at Germany's energy and industrial policy as well," he said.

He also observed that Scholz had a smaller number of business leaders accompanying him on this trip compared to his predecessor Angela Merkel's visits to China.

“Germany was the worst performing major economy in the world last year, and I think will be again this year. So, I think, it doesn't go unnoticed in China. And, inevitably, China's foreign policy is guided by the importance of its partners. And I think Germany is very gradually making itself less relevant,” Beck shared. “I mean, the Germans are more present on the international scene now than ever before. But ultimately, I think, one's significance internationally is determined by two factors - by military capacity and by economy. Germany is militarily almost irrelevant. And its economic importance is declining.”

According to him, Germany's faltering economy complicates its relations with China, as China's growing power makes it "less willing" to be lectured on its own domestic affairs.

“Not saying such criticism is always unjustified and the Germans are overemphasizing it. And from Germany's point of view, I think, it's a very risky and potentially disastrous course of action,” he said. “If we look at Germany's economic performance between something like 2010 and 2018, Germany was performing not particularly well by international comparison, but relatively well in the European context.”

Meanwhile, German political analyst and independent journalist Dr. Gregor Spitzen suggested that “the Chinese side clearly does not see Scholz's visit as a significant and breakthrough one, capable of turning the page in relations between the two countries and taking them to a qualitatively new level.”

“China knows that Europe, which has been in a state of economic crisis since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, cannot afford to risk its relations with the Celestial Empire and therefore makes maximum profit by actively dumping its high-tech products on the European market,” he remarked.

Previously, China had repeatedly denied allegations of dumping made by the United States and other Western powers.

Last month, the Chinese media outlet Global Times postulated that “the dumping lies are a narrative that the US-led West creates to deceive the world, and its real purpose is to smear the Chinese economy, so it can use that propaganda as camouflage for its protectionist measures against Chinese goods.”

Dr. Spitzen also speculated that chancellor’s visit did help accomplish “one important goal.”

“A year later, the polite, diplomatic and good-natured Scholz, acting as a petitioner, managed to smooth over the negative impression left by the visit of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who defiantly tried to lecture her Chinese colleagues on the nature of democracy and almost provoked an unprecedented cooling of German-Chinese relations,” he quipped.

AfD lawmaker Dr. Christian Blex seemed to share Dr. Spitzen's assessment of Baerbock, saying that Scholz was "not as stupid and arrogant" as she was.

He did, however, say that, “given Germany's obvious decline, Scholz's only concern is to continue to sell Germany to the German public as a moral superpower.”

“In line with the German media, Scholz is of course selling a different image of the goals to the German public. He claims that the most important topics of the trip are the ‘Russian war of aggression’ and international climate protection. Only then would the trade relations come. Scholz also said on Tuesday that the talks should also be about biodiversity and the avoidance of plastic waste,” Dr. Blex said while offering his take on what the German chancellor was trying to accomplish.

“Of course, these are all smokescreens for the German public, which has been shrouded in a self-destructive woke bubble by politicians and the media for years. Germany has no means whatsoever to even begin to enforce such demands. The German Emperor is naked. Of course China knows this. Basically the whole world knows this,” he added.