China’s head of state praises Merkel: flowery words to say goodbye

She is an “old friend of China”: In a video link, President Xi said goodbye to Chancellor Merkel with much praise. However, rulers like Castro or Mugabe are also considered “old friends”.

The kitschy music that underlies the short video clip is intended to underline the festive occasion. You can see and hear China’s head of state Xi Jinping showering Chancellor Angela Merkel with praise. Merkel herself does not have a say.

Public praise

China’s head of state and party calls the outgoing Chancellor “lao pengyou”: an “old friend” of the Chinese people. To be publicly referred to by the Chinese head of state as an “old friend” is, from the point of view of the communist leadership, not a matter of course, but an express honor. It is mainly given to politicians who have publicly supported China’s communist leadership for years without any ifs or buts.

Castro and Mugabe are also considered “old friends”

Above all, numerous rulers with a revolutionary past are considered “old friends” of the People’s Republic: Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Robert Mugabe and Alexander Lukashenko, for example.

Politicians and business people without a revolutionary past have earned the unofficial honorary title again and again: Richard Nixon, Bill Gates and Gerhard Schröder, for example. According to the Communist Party’s reading, these “old friends” of China are largely uncritical of the policies of the People’s Republic and have expressly improved relations between their states and China.

Praise for Merkel in economic relations

Above all, the German Chancellor is highly credited for having strongly promoted economic relations between the two states. At the end of last year, Merkel persuaded the EU governments to approve the controversial investment agreement between the EU and China after tough negotiations.

“When we talk about Merkel’s legacy, we have to mention the planned investment agreement between China and the EU,” said Ye Jiang of the Shanghai State Institute for International Studies. “If this investment agreement is implemented, the Chinese market will open up further for Germany and the German economy.”

EU economic agreement on hold

But it doesn’t look like that. On the contrary: the EU Parliament stopped the ratification of the European-Chinese investment agreement in the spring after China’s government had recently imposed sanctions on what it considered to be unpleasant MEPs.

The fact that, with the Greens and the FDP, parties with an extremely critical stance towards the communist leadership may soon be part of the federal government, makes ratification of the economic agreement that has been shelved even more unlikely.

Critical attitude towards China

The FDP politician Johannes Vogel and Franziska Brantner from the Greens said yesterday in an online discussion by the Berlin China think tank Merics: “As long as these completely disproportionate Chinese sanctions exist, taking the agreement off the ice is the completely wrong signal . “

And Brantner added: “As Greens in the European Parliament and also as Greens here in Germany, we are not in favor of ratifying the investment agreement with China quickly because we believe that adopting the agreement was a wrong step – and ratification would be even more so now the wrong step. ”

Political observers largely agree: It will not be as easy for Xi Jinping to have a new federal government as it is with his “old friend” Angela Merkel – regardless of what exactly it will look like.