What next for China? This unanswered question caused a ruckus in the traffic light coalition. During his visit to Beijing, Chancellor Scholz could now create facts. His foreign minister puts pressure on in advance.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to stick to the coalition agreement during his trip to China. “The Chancellor has decided the time of his trip,” said the Green politician on Tuesday during her trip to Central Asia in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
“Now it’s crucial to make the messages that we laid down together in the coalition agreement, the messages that I brought with me to Central Asia, clear in China as well.”
Human rights organizations and representatives of the Uyghurs are also putting pressure on Scholz. The world congress of the predominantly Muslim minority in China called on the chancellor to cancel the trip. “This is not the time for friendly dialogue and business as usual,” President Dolkun Isa said at a press conference in Berlin. The predominantly Muslim Uyghurs accuse the Chinese leadership of massive repression and internment of hundreds of thousands of people in re-education camps.
Baerbock: “Increasingly systemic rival”
Baerbock said that Beijing had to be made aware that fair competitive conditions, respect for human rights and the recognition of international law were the basis for Germany’s cooperation. “As you know, we clearly stated in the coalition agreement that China is our partner on global issues, that we cannot decouple in a globalized world, but that China is also a competitor and increasingly a systemic rival.” China policy must be based on this strategic understanding.
Scholz is expected to make his inaugural visit to Beijing this Friday, accompanied by a business delegation. He will be the first Western leader to visit President Xi Jinping after his re-election as head of the Chinese Communist Party. The trip is burdened by differences in the traffic light coalition over the direction of China policy.
Noise about Chinese participation in the port of Hamburg
Last week, Scholz pushed through the participation of the Chinese state-owned company Cosco in a terminal in the port of Hamburg in the cabinet against the resistance of several ministers from the SPD, Greens and FDP. Baerbock had distanced himself from the decision in a memorandum. She sees critical infrastructure endangered by the Chinese involvement. Scholz has no security concerns.
In the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties had agreed to develop a new China strategy. “We want and must structure our relations with China in the dimensions of partnership, competition and system rivalry. On the basis of human rights and applicable international law, we seek cooperation with China wherever possible. We want fair rules of the game in the increasing competition with China.” , it says in the contract.
Uyghurs: “Profit continues through human rights”
The Uyghurs sent a letter to Scholz asking him to give up the trip. Despite the UN Human Rights Office’s harsh criticism of the Chinese leadership’s actions against the Uyghurs, Scholz decided to “pay homage to Xi, completely ignoring the suffering of millions of people,” said World Congress President Isa. The visit, together with a business delegation, shows “that for Germany, profit still takes precedence over human rights.”
In Xinjiang, there have long been tensions between the ruling Han Chinese and ethnic minorities. The Uyghurs complain about cultural and religious oppression. The leadership in Beijing accuses them of separatism and terrorism. In a report published in the summer, the United Nations Human Rights Office denounced possible “international crimes, especially crimes against humanity” against the Uyghurs.
Human rights activist: “You have to talk to each other”
Unlike the Uyghurs, the human rights organization Humans Rights Watch spoke out against canceling the Scholz trip. “You have to talk to each other,” said Germany director Wenzel Michalski. Scholz had to bring the issue of human rights to the table “at least as prominently” as economic interests, he demanded.
The Society for Threatened Peoples criticized that Scholz had not coordinated sufficiently in the EU before the trip. “I am very much assuming that Mr. Scholz will be very subdued towards Mr. Xi (…) when it comes to human rights,” said China spokesman Hanno Schedler.
Source: Stern
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