For the first time in five years, German-Chinese government consultations have been held in person. In Berlin, Prime Minister Li will have to deal with a different German China policy.
The trip to Germany by China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang has not been a big topic in the People’s Republic so far. Government spokesman Wang Wenbin left it at a brief announcement of the trip on Thursday.
The German-Chinese government consultations have also hardly been discussed in the state media, nor has the fact that the governing coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP in Germany is much more critical of China’s leadership than the grand coalition under Angela Merkel.
The signs have changed
If you talk to the political scientist Long Jing from the Shanghai State Institute for International Studies (SIIS), you can at least hear between the lines that China’s state and party leadership now has to deal with a different German China policy.
Compared to the times when Angela Merkel was in power, many factors have changed in Sino-German relations, including the global situation, the regional security situation and Germany’s own domestic political situation.”
Relationships have become complicated
The Beijing political scientist Wu Qiang takes a more analytical look at the bilateral relations. In his view, China and Germany are in a phase of self-reflection – and in a phase of mutual distrust.
Wu is one of the few experts on international politics who is still publicly critical in China. He used to teach at Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University, but was then fired for his openly critical stance on the Communist Party.
“The distrust between China and Germany affects issues such as Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Wu said in an interview with the ARD“also the relations with the USA and the question of how the German-Chinese economic relations will continue”.
What problems companies face
Although China is Germany’s largest trading partner, the political environment is becoming increasingly difficult for German companies in China. The state and party leadership expects international companies even more than before to completely ignore political aspects and even more so critical questions about politics and human rights when they are active in China.
The federal government is also likely to address the Chinese anti-espionage law at the government consultations. The new law will make it even easier for China’s authorities to criminalize foreign companies and their employees, for example when they evaluate Chinese government statistics.
Questions about the national security strategy
China’s head of government Li Qiang will probably have many questions in Berlin about the German China strategy that is expected soon and about the national security strategy that the federal government presented last week and in which China is mentioned six times.
China’s leadership views her critically, seeing in her further evidence that democratically governed countries around the world increasingly feel threatened by China’s nationalist policies. Political scientist Wu put it this way:
What worries the leadership in Beijing most is the so-called collective security order of the US and the western world – including the states of the western Pacific and Southeast Asia. What people fear most in Beijing is that the democratic states will stand together to enforce this security order.
China’s Interests in Asia-Pacific Region
Beijing is aware that Germany is also becoming increasingly interested in the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region. The state and party leaders see the region as their sphere of influence.
She is therefore critical of the fact that Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced at the beginning of June that he would send German Navy ships to the region again next year. That should also be an issue at the German-Chinese government consultations in Berlin.