Beijing, Seoul, Kariuzawa Finally among friends again. Annalena Baerbock looks visibly relaxed as she walks with her colleagues to the traditional opening photo at the start of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Kariuzawa, Japan, on Sunday. The sun is shining, smiling as she talks to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Japanese children playing the violin accompany the scenery with happy songs.
The Japanese holiday resort is the last stop for the Green politician on her six-day trip to Asia. The German Foreign Minister has two days of difficult talks in China behind her. She also met with her South Korean counterpart Park Jin in Seoul on Saturday. In addition to the latest North Korean missile tests, one topic dominated everything there too: China’s role in world politics.
The internationally increasingly offensive behavior of the Chinese government is worrying governments worldwide. At the meeting of foreign ministers, too, the talks will primarily revolve around Russia and the People’s Republic.
China has changed massively under head of state and party leader Xi Jinping in recent years – the state leadership is more repressive internally and more aggressive externally. Just before Baerbock’s trip to China on Thursday, the Chinese military had practiced extensive sea and air blockades around Taiwan.
In the People’s Republic, the foreign minister was received at a high level, but the talks were rough. She and her counterpart Qin Gang exchanged blows in front of the world press on Friday in Beijing. She warned that the Taiwan conflict must not escalate and called for human rights to be respected; For his part, Qin forbade the “teacher from the West”.
Baerbock is now experiencing what she announced in the 2021 federal election campaign as the Greens’ candidate for chancellor: to meet China with “dialogue and toughness”. She is not afraid of clear words. At the same time, it worries about the sometimes high dependency of the German economy on China.
If she had her way, Germany would sooner rather than later become independent. Baerbock sees parallels with Russia. She was one of the few German politicians who had rejected the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline even before the Russian war of aggression. “You shouldn’t make mistakes twice,” said Baerbock in Beijing.
The Chinese government sees the foreign minister as a hardliner in relations, while she rates Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) as pragmatic. The analysis is exaggerated, because Scholz expressed similar criticism during his trip to China in November, but also in other places.
It is still unclear how the coalition will ultimately position itself with a new China policy. The conservative wing of the SPD calls for a pragmatic policy from Baerbock. One thing is certain: the motto “change through trade” is considered a failure.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Wang Yi, Member of the Politburo and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Central Committee.
(Photo: dpa)
The forthcoming course correction in China policy is not only a concern for the Chinese government. Nothing good is in store for the German economy either. She fears that business in the People’s Republic will be politically restricted more and more in the next few years.
During the Chancellor’s trip, Dax CEOs publicly warned against decoupling from China. Research institutes painted horror scenarios with cost forecasts. Since then, the federal government has emphasized that it is not interested in completely turning away from China.
The minister sees the problems in the workshop
For Baerbock, the focus of her trip to China was on talking to local companies. Her very first appointment took her to the German medium-sized company Flender.
The company manufactures turbines for wind turbines in huge halls in the port city of Tianjin near Beijing. Large machines hummed dull, it smelled of lubricant. A manager explained the production to Baerbock. The Foreign Minister listened and kept asking: How many components come from China, could they be replaced? Are safety-critical elements also installed?
Flender has just completed an almost 10,000 square meter hall in which it intends to build the new generation of offshore wind turbines: systems that can each produce up to 20 megawatts of electricity. Cranes on the ceilings can lift up to 300 tons. Such huge colossi are not intended for export, but for the Chinese market. The transport costs alone would be far too high.
>>Read here, how the relationship between Beijing and Berlin has changed.
Many German companies are in a similar situation to Flender. Your business is closely linked to the Chinese market. If the federal government decided to deny entry: it would be a big problem.
Baerbock sees this with concern. For years, the Chinese government has been using economic dependencies in a targeted manner to achieve political goals. The Minister would like to change this.
But she also knows that her options are limited. It became clearest in 2022, when Chancellor Olaf Scholz, against the advice of a large part of his cabinet, pushed through the sale of a stake in a Hamburg port terminal to the Chinese shipping company Cosco.
Baerbock was also against it. When things turned out differently, she complained, but she did not risk a major coalition crash. These days, the question is back on the coalition’s agenda.
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