The economic powerhouse of Europe with a close relationship with Beijing, Germany is finally hardening its attitude towards China. This has come together with a hardening of the stance of the European Union towards China, particularly in issues concerning human rights.
On June 22, 2023, speaking at Bundestag, the German Parliament, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Beijing against using force to change the status quo in Taiwan and expressed concerns over the human rights situation in China. Significantly, the comments of the German chancellor came two days after his meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Berlin.
“We urged China to stick to international rules. No country is another’s backyard. That is true for Europe as much as anywhere else in the world. We strongly reject all attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Sea by force or coercion. That is especially true for Taiwan. We also view with concern the human rights situation and the rule of law in China. I underlined these messages the day before yesterday during the German-China government consultations.”
Significantly, during the release of a joint statement on June 20 after the meeting between the German Chancellor and the Chinese Premier, journalists were not permitted to ask questions. The office of Olaf Scholz attributed the decision to the wishes of the Chinese delegation.
Explaining how the attitude of Berlin towards Beijing has undergone a sea change in recent years, Professor Rafal Ulatowsky of the University of Warsaw has written in an article in Chatham House: “Relations between the two have become increasingly tense. Both the states are at odds over their roles in the Indo-Pacific, despite their close economic ties.
As the U.S. increased its engagement with China following the opening of the Chinese economy in the 1980s, Germany supported the U.S. policy. German politicians
believed that by integrating China into the global economy China will not only become richer, but also more politically liberal. Ultimately, however, China did not reform its political system in line with Western expectations, and its policy towards the West has become increasingly confrontational. Germany is worried about the unprecedented growth of Chinese power, combined with the challenge China’s international strategy presents to the existing liberal international order.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, too, has emphasized that Berlin must change the way it deals with China as the country behind the bamboo curtain lurches back towards a more openly Marxist – Leninist political trajectory.
In an article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, German Chancellor Scholz has stressed that German companies will need to take steps to reduce “risky dependencies” in industrial supply chains, particularly in the area of “cutting-edge technologies.” He has noted that under President Xi Jinping the Chinese
government is deliberately pursuing a political strategy of making international companies reliant on China. “The outcome of the Communist Party Congress that has just ended is unambiguous. Avowals of Marxism-Leninism take up a much broader space. As China changes, the way we deal with China must change too.”
To clear any misunderstanding with other Western countries before his visit to Beijing in November 2022 to meet Xi Jinping after the latter’s election to the post of President
of China for a record third term, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote: “German policy on China can only be successful when it is embedded in European policy on China. In
the run-up to my visit, we have therefore liaised closely with our European partners, including President Macron, and also with our transatlantic friends,” meaning the USA. Incidentally French President Emmanuel Macron had suggested that he and Scholz should visit Xi together to demonstrate unity and show that Beijing could not divide
European countries by playing their economic interests off against one another. Europe, incidentally, has lately demonstrated its united approach against the violation of human rights in China. The comments of the German Chancellor in the Bundestag warning Beijing on Taiwan and violation of human rights came close on the heels of the Parliament of the European Union on June 15 adopting a resolution condemning the deterioration of the freedoms of Hong Kong since the imposition by Beijing of a sweeping National Security Law in 2020 and also calling upon the member nations of the EU to suspend extradition treaties with Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China.
“Parliament urges the Hong Kong government to immediately release and drop all charges against pro-democratic representatives and activists, including prominent businessman and politician Jimmy Lal, who has been detained since February 2021 on trumped up charges. Members of the European Parliament call on the European External Action Service and the EU Office in Hong Kong to request prison visits to Hongkongers in jail for exercising their basic rights. They also reiterate their call on all EU member states to suspend any extradition treaties with Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China.”
Former Chair of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee Norbert Rottgen has said that Germany finds itself at odds with China over Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea. In other words, China’s desire to reshape the regional order concerns Berlin, particularly in the context of China’s efforts at modernization of its military. “The golden era of German-Chinese relations is over. The growth in their relationship was enabled by the U.S. strategy of integrating China into the liberal world order, and the failure of that project is having an adverse effect on the relations between China and Germany.
The economic ties will gradually weaken as China gradually reduces its need for German technology and capital,” Professor Rafal Ulatowsky has written. According to analysts, the Indo-Pacific strategy of Germany in recent years shows that economic ties do not determine the behaviour of states. Despite the unprecedented increase in the level of the economic exchanges of Germany with China, at the Munich Security Conference in 2020 German Federal Minister of Defence Annegret Kramp Karrenabuer said: “We are not somewhere in the middle. We are and will continue to be part of the West.”Indeed, now the Indo-Pacific strategy of Germany has revealed that Germany is trying to diversify its economic relations away from China and towards democracies and partners with shared values.
Since the mid 2010s, Berlin has started increasing its distance from Beijing; being cautious about economic co-operation with China. Germany has avoided joining the Belt and Road Initiative of China, concerned with the absence of transparency in BRI projects, the lack of a level playing field for business and European labour and threat to environmental and social standards.
Beijing, meanwhile, is trying to blackmail Berlin to keep Germany out of any coalition against China led by the U.S., analysts say. Particularly, Beijing is trying to use the dependence of the largest German automobile producers on the Chinese market. These auto giants have their production bases in China with its large repository of
cheap labour and China is also their biggest market. Beijing has even indicated that German automobile companies could be targeted by the Chinese authorities if Chinese electronic giant Huawei was excluded from the German market from security concerns.
Far from succumbing to Chinese pressure, however, the mighty German nation is seeking to diversify away from dependence on the Chinese economy. Germany now wants to strengthen its relations with the regional powers of the Indo-Pacific which, taken together, are also an economic powerhouse. Over the last two years, Germany has increased its own diplomatic engagements with the Indo-Pacific states. German politicians have been undertaking unprecedented levels of diplomatic activity in the Indo-Pacific region, meeting frequently with the regional powers throughout 2020 and 2021. Besides economic engagements, Germany is becoming more politically engaged in
the Indo-Pacific region and has also increased its military presence to a limited extent. From August 2021 to February 2022, Germany showed its maritime presence in the Indo-Pacific region with its Frigate Bayern; a symbolic gesture intended to strengthen the position of democratic partners of Germany in the region. The military presence of Germany in the Indo-Pacific may be bolstered by its capacity to deliver modern weapons to its allies in the region. Being a leading weapons exporter, the developing arms race is creating additional opportunities for Berlin. Beijing had reacted sharply against the presence of Bayern in the Indo-Pacific and refused to admit the ship in the Shanghai harbour, saying China did not trust Germany.