Olaf Scholz wants to reduce dependence on China, but German companies want to receive orders from there. He wants to blame the aid to Russia, but not alienate Beijing. That will be difficult.
It’s astonishing enough, but when Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives in China this Sunday, he will be breaking new ground. The first stop on his trip is Chongqing, said to be the largest city in the world with 32 million inhabitants. Not only has Scholz himself never been to the southwestern Chinese metropolis, the city was never on the agenda for his predecessor Angela Merkel’s numerous trips to China. Otherwise, Scholz is definitely continuing in Merkel’s tradition, who always went outside the capital Beijing and was accompanied by German corporate bosses. Scholz is also traveling with a large business delegation again, for which the Chancellery sees no reason to apologize. Of course they still want to do good business in China.