Several foreign leaders plan to travel to Beijing this week for talks with the Chinese leadership. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on November 4 will become the first western leader to visit China since the start of the Covid pandemic in December 2019. He will try to use the opportunity to boost collaboration and offset the impact from geopolitical conflict and economic volatility around the world, observers said. Despite the impact of Covid-19, bilateral trade between Beijing and Berlin has maintained strong growth momentum over the past two years, hitting record highs. Last year, total two-way trade exceeded €240 billion, and China has been Germany’s largest trading partner for six consecutive years.
Scholz will be accompanied on his visit to China by a business delegation with representatives from Adidas; Deutsche Bank; Siemens; BioNTech; Volkswagen; BMW; BASF; Wacker Chemie; Bayer and Merck. The presence of BioNTech, the manufacturer of an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine that has not yet been approved for use in China, could be a sign that Beijing is open to licensing the vaccine. French President Emmanuel Macron had raised the idea of a joint visit to Beijing, but Scholz rejected it. The French leader is now expected to visit China early next year. Scholz reiterated that there had been “no vote on deglobalization or to get out of China” among the European Union’s 27 member states. The German Greens and Free Democrats (FDP), the two junior partners in the coalition with Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), advocate a tougher policy towards China.
Also visiting Beijing this week are Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharifn and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
