German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier yesterday urged Beijing and Washington to boost dialogue, as he hosted Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) at a time when China’s policies on Russia, trade and human rights are receiving an increasingly hostile reception in the West.
Li is on a two-nation visit which is also to take him to France for a climate financing summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Steinmeier stressed the importance of ties between China and the US for “global security and cooperation,” his spokeswoman Cerstin Gammelin wrote on Twitter.
Photo: Reuters
“He called for the strengthening of communication channels between both countries,” she added, after months of US-China tensions.
Steinmeier also urged Beijing to use its “political weight and influence on Russia to bring about a just peace” in Ukraine, Gammelin said.
Li and his Cabinet are to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his team for so-called government consultations today, when he is expected to outline China’s “hopes to deepen and expand its relations” with the EU heavyweight, but Germany’s first national security strategy, published days ago, could set the tone at the talks.
The blueprint stridently accused China of acting against German interests, putting international security “under increasing pressure” and disregarding human rights. At the same time, it underlined the necessity of getting Beijing’s cooperation on global issues such as fighting climate change.
Scholz himself had said the message sent by the document is that “China’s integration into world trade and world economic relations should not be impaired, but at the same time the security issues that arise for us must be taken into account.”
Beijing has bristled at being described as a “partner, competitor and systemic rival” in the text, saying such labels would only “push our world towards a vortex of division and confrontation.”
Diversifying has now become a buzzword in Germany, with Berlin wooing more partners beyond the world’s biggest powers. Inconveniently for China, the shift is happening when the Asian giant is experiencing an economic slowdown.
Sluggish exports and domestic demand are weighing on China’s post-pandemic economy.
No surprise, then, that Li picked Germany as his first stop abroad, analysts said.
Li is “in charge of fixing the economy, which is in trouble,” said Ian Johnson, China expert at US think tank the Council on Foreign Relations. “So it makes sense to go to China’s biggest trading partner in Europe.”
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