German Vice-Chancellor starts China visit with clear announcements
Published: Friday, Jun 21st 2024, 18:20
Back to Live Feed
German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck is in China for the first time. He's barely been there a few hours before he's already speaking plainly - including to Berlin.
Robert Habeck starts his first trip to China with clear demands for the host. In Beijing on Friday, the Green politician criticized China's good economic relations with Russia despite Western sanctions. He also wanted to address the difficult issue of human rights.
But that was not all: Habeck gave German politicians some homework from the Far East. The China strategy adopted last year by the traffic light coalition after a long struggle needs to be revised, he said - albeit not immediately.
The Federal Minister of Economics also addresses the conflict issue of subsidies a few hours after landing in the government plane. This support from the Chinese state would result in goods being sold below market value in Germany and Europe. These would "undermine or even destroy" the markets there.
Attitude towards Russia harms China's economy
The EU Commission recently threatened high punitive tariffs against Chinese electric cars. The Brussels authority accuses the Chinese government of unfair subsidies.
China retaliated by announcing an anti-dumping investigation against imported products from the European Union involving pork and by-products. Both sides are still trying to find a solution to the dispute over impending car tariffs until the beginning of July.
Habeck also criticized China's solidarity with Russia. "Trade relations with Russia are growing and the Chinese are buying Russian raw materials cheaply," said Habeck. "That is without question the case, and in my view it is wrong and will be addressed in the same way, as all European and American ministers and foreign ministers and heads of government always do."
China knows that this attitude is also damaging its economy, said Habeck. "China is also losing something, namely increasingly natural access to the European market." He thinks that this will be clear to China. "Otherwise I will address this again tomorrow."
Criticism of forced labor
The Vice-Chancellor plans to hold talks in the Chinese capital on Saturday with the Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Zheng Shanjie, and the Minister of Commerce, Wang Wentao, as well as the Minister of Industry, Jin Zhuanglong. A possible meeting with Premier Li Qiang had fallen through - Habeck said he did not know why.
Human rights are always an issue and central to Germany, Europe and him personally, said Habeck. Serious human rights violations are repeatedly criticized in the People's Republic, most recently in Xinjiang in the far west, where according to reports people from the Uyghur minority were housed in camps and forced to work.
"Nobody in Europe, nobody in Germany wants to buy products that were produced using forced labor, that were produced in violation of human rights, where children had to work miserably, under miserable conditions, where land grabbing is the basis of production," said Habeck. In future, the European Supply Chain Act will ensure that companies have to comply with due diligence obligations.
Habeck calls for revision of China strategy
In Habeck's opinion, the German government's China strategy, which was only adopted last year, should be revised. "Sooner or later, the China strategy will need an update," said the Green politician.
Two things were missing. The current strategy starts "with the status quo, but not with the horizon". The question is what the relationship with China will look like in thirty years' time. "I say that because I am sure that China has a strategy of where they want to go, and I believe the US does too." Furthermore, this is a strategy for the German government alone, but a European approach is needed.
Last summer, the German government adopted a comprehensive China strategy for the first time. It defines the country, which is ruled with a heavy hand by the communist leadership, as a partner, competitor and systemic rival. The core of the strategy is to reduce economic dependency on China in order to avoid a rude awakening like the one that followed the Russian attack on Ukraine when gas supplies were cut.
EU should find a common line
When questioned later by journalists, Habeck only referred to the second part of his comments. "It is a German China strategy and the approaches in Europe are quite different." At a meeting with the ambassadors of the EU states in Beijing, Habeck said that these approaches would have to be combined in a changed world. "This is not something that can be done in the short term, but rather a long-term task for Europe."
The German government, made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP, had a long - and very controversial - struggle over the strategy. The Greens, led by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Habeck, advocate a much tougher course than Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic