He didn’t use the language of a personal attack, but German Deputy Chancellor and Minister on Economy and Climate Robert Habeck (Greens) was apparently directing public criticism at his own SPD Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Habeck’s interview today with Deutsche Welle. He was in Singapore at the Nov. 13-14 Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business, with Scholz. The interview was headlined by DW, “Germany Must Be More Careful with China"; and Habeck told the interviewer, “I would say we have made up our mind about China. We see the problem. We and all of the government, also the Social Democrats in the government, we know the risk. There might be some—I wouldn’t say dispute—but different thoughts.” And, “We are, of course, interested in trade with China, but not in stupid trade with China.”
As for all the German companies represented by those who just traveled to China with Chancellor Scholz, Habeck answered a question by saying that German companies have to keep in mind “whether they risk their business model” by their presence in China because sanctions could hit them. And he said the government—perhaps meaning himself—is considering revising its guarantees on German companies’ investments abroad, with rather sharp capital controls to make companies diversify out of China. “If companies will invest in China above a certain amount—let’s say €3 billion sounds reasonable—they can do that, but we won’t guarantee for that anymore. But we will guarantee for more investment in other countries. And then we have a percentage rate of the whole amount of all investment. If this is higher than—let’s say, 20-25%—we will have an extra fee that you have to pay more if you’re still investing in one country.”
