Before his visit to China, Chancellor Scholz is under pressure from all sides. Foreign Minister Baerbock is sending clear signals from Central Asia. Representatives of the persecuted Uyghurs strongly condemn the trip. Meanwhile, the Chinese state press warns against open criticism.
Shortly before Chancellor Olaf Scholz's first trip to Beijing, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock insisted on changes in Germany's China policy. During a visit to the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, the Greens politician made it clear "that we as the federal government are writing a new China strategy because the Chinese political system has changed massively in recent years and our China policy must therefore also change." .
Scholz is expected to make his first visit as chancellor to Beijing on Friday. There has been criticism of the timing of the trip and the approval he obtained for a Chinese state-owned company to take over a stake in the Port of Hamburg. In particular, the concern is that Germany could become even more dependent on the People's Republic. Critical voices are also still coming from the ranks of the coalition partners Greens and FDP.
After a meeting with Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov in the capital, Tashkent, Baerbock said she expected Scholz to convey central messages from the federal government to China's head of state and party, Xi Jinping. "The chancellor has decided the time of his trip. Now it is crucial to get the messages that we laid down together in the coalition agreement - the messages that I also brought with me to Central Asia - to make clear in China as well." This includes that issues such as fair competitive conditions, human rights and the recognition of international law are "the basis of international cooperation" - "be it with a view to Central Asia, be it with a view to other regions of the world".
Representatives of the persecuted Uyghur minority in China are also putting pressure on Scholz when it comes to human rights. At the invitation of the federal press conference, the President of the World Congress of Uyghurs, Dolkun Isa, appeared before the media in Berlin - and sharply criticized the travel plans. With the visit to Beijing on Friday, Scholz decided to "pay homage to President Xi and thus completely ignore the suffering of millions of people," said Isa. Scholz should refrain from the trip.
Isa criticized the fact that Scholz was taking a high-ranking business delegation to Beijing with him. This shows "that for Germany, profit continues to take precedence over human rights." Scholz also contradicts the agreements of the coalition agreement of the traffic light parties. Isa reported on millions of Uyghurs who have been interned in the Chinese province of Xinjiang over the past five years. He spoke of "concentration camps" and accused China of "genocide".
Human Rights Watch Germany director Wenzel Michalski called on Scholz to take a clear stance on human rights violations in China. "The trip should not be canceled," said Michalski at the press conference with Isa. "But you also have to talk about the unpleasant things - namely the human rights violations." Michalski positively emphasized that the chancellor had personally spoken to the human rights activists.
The CDU foreign policy expert Jürgen Hardt also asked Scholz to address the human rights situation in the People's Republic during his trip to China. He would "wish" for this from Scholz, Hardt said on ZDF.
According to the federal press conference, the Chinese embassy in Berlin intervened before the event with the China critics. The non-governmental association of capital journalists took note of this "with surprise", said Ute Welty from the federal press conference. If the Chinese ambassador "wants to be our guest here on our terms, here we renew our invitation," she added.
The Chinese leadership is usually very sensitive to foreign criticism. This also became clear in the reports of the state press on Scholz's visit, in which expectations of the chancellor were formulated. "To make the trip a success, he must focus on pragmatic cooperation and not geopolitics -- regardless of pressure from radical Western politicians and media," reads a published commentary by the nationalist-leaning state-run newspaper Global Times, referring to scholz The state newspaper expressly warned against open criticism by Germans of the Chinese hosts: "Putting the host country under pressure before a visit with unfounded demands is wrong in many respects."
At the United Nations on Monday, Germany and 49 other UN member states joined a statement denouncing "serious and systematic" human rights violations in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. The states are "deeply concerned" about "continuing human rights violations against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang," said the statement read by Canada before the UN General Assembly's Human Rights Committee.
