Berlin When she talks about her student days in Beijing shortly after the massacre on Tiananmen Square, Petra Sigmund thinks about how difficult it was in China in the early 1990s. The time was leaden, says the head of the Asia department at the Federal Foreign Office in an interview with the Handelsblatt.
After the country had embarked on a long phase of opening up after the Tian’anmen shock, China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping has been gradually decoupling again for years. “We’re not dealing with the same China as we were ten years ago,” says Sigmund. “China has changed – how we deal with China must change as well.”
Under this leitmotif, the Federal Government is working on a cross-departmental China strategy for the first time in Germany’s history. The Federal Foreign Office is in charge, with Sigmund pulling the strings in the background below the State Secretaries.
In particular, the dependency into which large German car manufacturers in particular, but also the chemical group BASF have entered, has been an issue in German politics for months. The federal government is critical of the dependency, also because it restricts the government’s options for action. The traffic light coalition had already indicated a tougher course towards China in the coalition agreement.
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Hardly anyone in the “office”, as the foreign ministry is called among diplomats, knows China as well as Sigmund. She has been intensively involved with the People’s Republic since the 1980s. The sinologist speaks Chinese, studied in Beijing and was head of the trade promotion office at the German Embassy in the Chinese capital from 2004 to 2006. Sigmund is attached to the country, her office is adorned with art from China and black-and-white photographs she took during numerous trips there.
The head of department is considered an expert on China.
(Photo: Federal Government)
The China strategy is written in the Federal Foreign Office – and there in particular in the China department, which belongs to the department Sigmund heads. The text is then discussed in the departmental group at the working level and at the level of the state secretaries.
According to reports, the first passages have already been written. The finished strategy is to be published after Germany’s national security strategy, probably in the first quarter of 2023. However, some do not expect it before the middle of next year.
Numerous meetings with business representatives
Hundreds of experts are involved in the process. There have already been around 33 meetings with business representatives, researchers and representatives of other governments on the China strategy this year. Sigmund attended more than half.
On a Friday afternoon in September, the 56-year-old is again sitting across from business representatives. They are representatives of a German company that is very heavily invested in China. The Handelsblatt is not allowed to write who exactly it is – the conversation is confidential. The head of the China department is sitting next to Sigmund. It’s about the issue of human rights and how the company intends to ensure compliance with them in its business in the People’s Republic.
In parts it is a strange conversation that takes place in one of the wood-panelled rooms in the Foreign Office. During the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, the company representatives discredited, among other things, the report published just a few weeks ago by UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet on the serious human rights violations by the Chinese leadership against the Muslim Uyghur minority in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang.
>> Read here: UN sees possible crimes against humanity in Xinjiang
Right at the beginning of the conversation, Sigmund made it clear that she considers the report to be very valuable, and the federal government has already said so publicly.
Sigmund sits across from the representatives, listens, but doesn’t criticize – although she, as someone who knows China and the situation on the ground, should actually be annoyed by what is being said. But Sigmund doesn’t want to lecture, she wants to form her own opinion. People who know her well confirm that she often tends to hold back in conversations and prefers to let the other person do the talking. She is a “diplomatic professional,” says one. In fact, the company representatives keep talking about head and neck.
The China strategy should address three pillars. On the one hand, German politics wants to reposition itself in relation to China. This means greater reciprocity when it comes to investment rules, which are mostly to the detriment of German companies in China. Second, China policy should change inward. This concerns, for example, Chinese influence in Germany and the extent to which highly subsidized companies from China are allowed to operate in Europe. And thirdly, Germany should detach itself from its China concentration.
This is what the new China strategy looks like
For Sigmund, the work on the China strategy is the high point of a remarkable career in the Federal Foreign Office. In 2015, after several posts with a European focus, she became head of the Southeast Asia department – at that time there was not even a separate China department. It was not until 2017 that a separate Asia department was founded – Sigmund played a key role in its founding. During this time, she progressed from Head of Division to Head of Sub-Department and in 2019 to Head of the Asia Department in just four years.
Everyone who came into contact with her agrees on two things about her: she knows a great deal about China – and she is critical of the Chinese government. Business people appreciate the fact that companies are involved in the China strategy process.
For some, however, the strategy is not moving fast enough, such as the Ministry of Economic Affairs. According to information from government circles in the Handelsblatt, a tighter allocation of investment guarantees to German companies is under discussion. Even tightening export controls is being considered.
>> Read here: Study Despite warnings, German companies are investing record sums in China – but there are exceptions
Sigmund doesn’t seem averse to any of this. “If fundamental, pressing issues arise in relation to our cooperation with China, we cannot wait for the China strategy, but must clarify these issues at the political level now,” she says.
Under the new federal government, China policy has shifted further towards the Federal Foreign Office. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) still has an important say. Sigmund emphasizes that Germany wants to continue working with China. “But we in the federal government agree that there will be no simple “business as usual”,” she clarifies.
The German Foreign Minister and her Chinese counterpart at a bilateral meeting on the fringes of the general debate at the UN General Assembly.
(Photo: dpa)
Sigmund has to mediate – also towards the economy. The companies should understand that they should position themselves more broadly with a view to China. Another reason is that the conflict over Taiwan could escalate sharply in the next few years – with devastating consequences for economic ties. But: “Reducing economic dependencies does not mean that we want to completely decouple ourselves from China,” Sigmund emphasized during the discussion with the company representatives in September. “It’s about risk management, not decoupling.”
In her own house, she is recognized and well connected for her great knowledge of China and as a doer, but not entirely uncontroversial. According to information from the Handelsblatt, Sigmund did not sufficiently accept the expertise and insights of the diplomats at the German embassy in Beijing, and in some cases even completely isolated the branch office. And even in the Federal Foreign Office there are some who don’t expect the strategy to be a big hit.
Nevertheless, diplomats and business representatives agree on one thing: It is important and long overdue to deal comprehensively and systematically with China across all departments.
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