German Chancellor: Germany’s First China Strategy is Not Made for Decoupling

BEIJING, July 13 (TiPost)— German Chancellor OIaf Scholz clarified Germany‘s first China strategy aims to take response to China’s increasing assertiveness, rather than to cut ties with the world’s second largest economy.

Credit：Visual China

“Our goal is not decoupling. However, we want to reduce critical dependencies in future. With China Strategy, we are reacting to a China that has changed and become more assertive,” Scholz tweeted Thursday, adding “China is and will remain a partner, competitor and systemic rival.” In another tweet, Scholz said Berlin will continue to work with China on economy and climate protection, and the China Strategy gives Sino-Germany relations a new framework.

Scholz’ cabinet approved a long-awaited comprehensive China strategy, fulfilling the pledges the coalition made when it assumed office in late 2021. According to the 64-document of strategy, Germany, as Europe’s largest economy, decided to change its approach as the resulting of a changing China. In the strategy, Germany vowed to ensure economic cooperation with China “becomes fairer, more sustainable and more reciprocal.” It admitted China is an indispensable partner for global challenges like climate change and pandemics, while cautioned China’s actions have led to growing international rivalry and competition. It said Germany wants to cooperate with China on WTO reform, but also prepared to respond if there is a continued lack of progress.

While Associated Press called the strategy “a balancing act”, Reuters noted it came as some Western policymakers advocated reducing dependence on China. Such attempt, which has been labeled by them as de-risking, was denounced by Chinese officials recently.

In his first overseas trip since taking office as Chinese Premier last month, Li Qiang warned the German government against decoupling under the cover of de-risking. Li reiterated warning about de-risking soon after his wrapping up his trips abroad. Li blasted the Western countries’ attempts for de-risking and reducing dependency on China, reversing the historic trend of economic globalization. What made people more concerned about is that “the invisible barriers put up by some people in recent years are becoming widespread, and pushing the world into fragmentation and even confrontation”, China’s No. 2 official warned, in his keynote delivered late June at the opening plenary of the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos Forum.

“We firmly oppose the politicization of economic and trade issues and we must jointly maintain the safety, stability, and smoothness of the global industrial and supply chain, so that the fruits of economic globalization can benefit different countries and people in a more equitable manner,” Li said. He noted that the consensus made from exchanges with leaders in his visits to Germany and France was to “reject the zero-sum mindset and keep to the right track of win-win cooperation”.

“To shut out China in the name of “de-risking” is to throw away opportunities, stability and development. Such a move would only create and spread risks, and no one would benefit from it,” Wang Wenbin, Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, commented on the de-risking that some U.S. and European officials have advocated on Thursday.  Wang said China is undoubtedly a force for stability, a source of certainty and a factor of predictability as the world undergoes changes unseen in a century. He stressed China is not the source of the risks that countries need to jointly guard aginst, but a staunch force for preventing and defusing them.

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