German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Chongqing on April 14 with some expectations of enhancing the China-Germany relationship. On this trip he brought with him the Ministers of Agriculture, Environment and Transportation; as well as business leaders, including BMW executive Oliver Zipse, and executives from Mercedes-Benz and Siemens. While he will be in Beijing for high-level meetings, including meeting with President Xi Jinping, Scholz has chosen western Chongqing for the first stopover, as this formerly undeveloped region in western Sichuan has become a hotbed of high-tech development, with many German companies involved. Scholz is also interested in finding out if all this hype in the Western press about the “decline” of the Chinese economy has any basis.
Nevertheless, he is coming in the context of a major EU report which plays into the new U.S. narrative of China’s “overproduction,” and it is not likely that he will avoid this issue—and the Chinese reaction to it—on his trip. There is also a full-court press from the Western powers, now that the U.S. is publicly declaring that China is supporting Russia in its Ukraine war, for him to broach that issue as well. Scholz must tread carefully on these sensitive issues if he is to make any progress in improving the relationship.
