Germany bids farewell to China as well? The end of a profitable partnership

The documents released were shocking: Images from Xinjiang province showed strictly guarded internment camps, torture chairs, batons, ill-treated prisoners. In the protocols of senior party officials it is required to shoot at those who want to escape. We are talking about Uighur refugees, who according to the Chinese residence are in vocational training centers and are not prisoners. The research of an international media investigation team proves with “Xinjiang police files”, how brutally China oppresses the Muslim Uighur minority. Their publication comes at a time when there is a lot of talk about a value-oriented foreign policy. And indeed the documents have given a new impetus to German policy towards China.

Camp in Xinjiang

In addition to its strong energy partnership with Russia, China has been another strong pillar of the German economic model of recent decades, and is now being questioned, through almost all political parties. The German government’s ombudsman, Luise Amtsberg, is calling for a different policy toward China. “We need a debate on economic dependence on countries that have such a terrible balance of human rights,” the green politician told the German portal Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. CDU politician Michael Brand, head of the human rights working group in the Bundestag, has said that just as we are gaining independence from Russia in the energy issue, we must also become independent in our economic relations with China.

Proximity and distance

At the governmental level, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed concern at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the rise of China’s claim to power. Of course, the People’s Republic is a “global actor,” Scholz said. But as little as the need to isolate China stems from this, so little goes beyond this claim to Chinese hegemony in Asia. We can not help but react when human rights are violated, as is happening now in Xinjiang, Scholz said.

Last week it was German Economy Minister Robert Habeck who had demanded more distance towards China. The People’s Republic is indeed a major trading partner, Habeck said, but there are many “relevant problems” in respecting human rights. “This has been set aside for years. “This government has changed the way it approaches problems with China.” “We are diversifying more, and we are reducing our dependence on China. “Respect for human rights carries more weight.”

For a quarter of a century the relations between Germany and China were strong economic relations. This worked so well that China in 2021 for the sixth year in a row was Germany’s most important economic partner. The booming businesses were accompanied by an intense bilateral exchange. China and Germany have also developed a “broad strategic partnership”, where the two countries meet every two years for government consultations, with the participation of heads of government and ministers.

Robert Habeck

Partners, competitors, rivals

But the German-Chinese partnership, meanwhile, shows obvious flaws. Relations between Germany and Europe on the one hand and China on the other are determined by the partnership, but also by the competition and rivalry of the systems. It has recently gained more rivalry weight. The German governing coalition agreement mentions this, stating that “in order to pursue our values ​​and interests in systemic rivalry with China, we need an expanded strategy in Germany within a common EU-China policy.” This strategy is currently being drafted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Details are not disclosed, but it can be assumed that China’s attitude towards Russia will have an impact on the development of this strategy. Mikko Huotari, director of the Meric Institute for China Policy, called in early May for future engagement with China to be “calibrated to the extent of Beijing’s support for Putin.” According to him, the priority should be to reduce those dependencies that in case of crisis would limit Germany’s strategic ability to act.

When the world was still in order – German-Chinese government consultations, July 2018

Turn?

It was painful and expensive to wake up to German energy dependence on Russia. But the economic complexities with China are much bigger and more intense. Breaking the model of the German economy from China should be much more difficult than giving up cheap energy from Russia. At the same time new conflicts arise, especially in the energy turn. Ex. in the future in Germany solar panels on the roof will have to produce more ecological energy. But an important material of these panels is polysilicon. 40% of the world production of this substance comes from China, namely from Xinjiang province, the homeland of the oppressed Uighurs.

Wolfgang Niedermark, director for Asia at the Federal Association of German Industry, DUI admits in a conversation with DW, that “especially in the mineral sector there is partly a strategic and important dependence on China.” He wants us to take control of this dependency and invest in other partnerships. Niedermark says that “we are learning from the war in Ukraine, and recent discoveries from China, that there is no security in the way we deal with autocracies.” But according to him, in the future we will have to “continue to cooperate economically with countries that are not liberal democracies. “Only in this way can the EU remain a strong global player on an international scale.”

Jörg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China

Who is dependent on whom?

Indeed it is China that is much more dependent on the European market than Europe. This is what Jörg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, says. He knows the facts and the facts. “We export 600 million euros worth of goods to China every day. “The Chinese export 1.3 billion euros worth of goods a day to Europe,” Wuttke told DW. But in investment it is different. The major automobile concerns, the chemical sector, the machinery sector are firmly positioned in China and produce for China in the Chinese market. According to the data of the Ministry of Economy, the total of German direct investments in China is 86 billion euros. So much commitment makes it hard to break away. “Will we close our factories?” asks Wuttke. Chinese investments have been very profitable last year, according to the expert. “This benefit has supported stock courses in our country and created jobs.” There are millions of jobs in Germany that depend on Chinese investment.

But the tone has not changed only in the west. “Decoupling” is also China’s policy. Especially since Chinese tech firms have to work without significant chips because of US sanctions. In March 2021, China in its 14th five-year plan set a clear course of “reducing dependence on the world and finally achieving a great deal of independence in the country,” the European Chamber of Commerce wrote in a document. for China.

It seems that the global world is disintegrating more and more. You can only wait with interest, what answers to the strategy towards China will the German government find./DW

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