Abstract

On October 11, German Chancellor Scholz made his latest remarks on China-German relations at the 13th German Mechanical Engineering Summit in Berlin. He said that Germany would not decouple from China, but rather build broader economic ties, and clearly expressed his support for globalization, saying that "decoupling" is a completely wrong path. Then on October 21, Scholz officially announced that he will visit China with a delegation of business leaders in early November. It will be the first visit by an EU leader to China since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's last visit to China in September 2019, China-Germany relations have been challenged by a series of disputes, including the Xinjiang issue, the Hong Kong issue, trade and investment barriers, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, the crisis in Germany caused by its dependence on Russia's energy triggered considerable concern over its economic relations with China. In 2021, China was Germany's largest trading partner for the sixth consecutive year. The questions of how much the German economy depends on China and how it can be reduced were analyzed by the German business community with an overall assessment. On this basis, the Federal Foreign Office is drafting the country's first China strategy since the establishment of diplomatic ties five decades ago, which will be published in the first quarter of 2023. The German economic minister Habeck has repeatedly stressed the need not to rely too much on the Chinese market, and to adopt a more diversified strategy. As a major member of the EU and NATO, the new German government has deliberately distanced itself from China since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. Unlike Merkel, who often visited China first when she made a trip to Asia, Scholz visited Japan and then held government consultations with India during the first few months after taking office. Now he says he opposes "decoupling" from China and plans to visit China soon. This paper focuses on the changes and prospects of Germany's China policy.