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.”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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