Growing geopolitical tensions are straining relations with Germany.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Berlin, Dusseldorf Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is already leaving for his trip to China next week. “It’s very complicated due to the corona regime there, which is why the trip is very short,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit on Monday in Berlin. An overnight stay in Beijing is not planned, it is “actually a day trip,” Hebestreit added.
Despite criticism from Brussels and within the coalition, Scholz is sticking to his plan to take a business delegation with him, as usual. But the big companies in particular seem to have little interest in traveling with them. For example, the head of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing, does not want to accompany Scholz to China, as the Handelsblatt learned from people familiar with the matter. The reason for this should have been scheduling problems. Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Sewing was still there when Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled in 2019.
The head of Mercedes, Ola Källenius, does not want to travel either – he was also on board during the Merkel trip in 2019. The reason for the cancellation was “important dates”, as it was said. Martin Herrenknecht, head of the tunnel builder of the same name, who is often involved in difficult expeditions, will also not come along, according to information from the Handelsblatt. He was not asked, but also did not apply, according to those around him.
Other well-known German medium-sized companies have expressed their interest to the Handelsblatt, including VDMA President Karl Haeusgen. According to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, Siemens boss Roland Busch, VW boss Oliver Blume and Siegfried Russwurm, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), are on the trip with them. Otherwise, according to the report, there were mainly refusals for Chancellor Scholz – including from SAP, Infineon, Deutsche Post and Thyssen-Krupp. Most companies are silent about the reason for the low interest in the trip and name other important dates.
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In normal times, the chancellor’s trips are popular, especially when it comes to such an important market. The company representatives not only get access to important political representatives, but also a lot of time with the respective Federal Chancellor. But in view of the increasing geopolitical tensions with the People’s Republic, the repeated threats of violence against Taiwan and China’s unbroken support of Russia in the Ukraine war, many business representatives have apparently lost interest in the trip.
246
billion euro
This is the value of the goods traded between China and Germany in 2021. Source: Federal Statistical Office
In addition, the federal government had repeatedly warned in the past few months, in particular the companies that invested particularly heavily in China, not to “put all their eggs in one basket”, as Chancellor Scholz emphasized several times. You should therefore diversify more and not only focus on China as a market.
>> Read here: China’s new leadership suggests that things will soon become even more difficult for German companies
The Chancellor’s visit is the first trip by a European head of state or government to China since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. American government officials have also not been to the People’s Republic for almost three years. For Chancellor Scholz, it is also the inaugural visit he is paying to state and party leader Xi Jinping, who was only recently reappointed as General Secretary of the Communist Party at the weekend.
Predecessor Merkel traveled to China for the last time in September 2019. In the presence of Merkel and China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang, former Siemens boss Joe Kaeser, Allianz boss Oliver Bäte and BMW boss Oliver Zipse, among others, signed several economic agreements in Beijing.
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