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Olaf Scholz was visiting China with President Xi Jinping, who publicly humiliated his predecessor Hu Jintao at the party conference a few days ago. The meeting comes at a difficult time, critics of the trip to China say.

Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, speaks of a success, because the Chinese head of state speaks out against the use of nuclear weapons by Russia against Ukraine.

Presenter Anne Will on this occasion asks: “Get out of reliance on autocrats – how seriously does Chancellor Scholz take the turning point?”

The guests

the foreplay

Röttgen: US just shaking their heads at German rhetoric about China

CDU politician Norbert Röttgen, who has experience in foreign policy, does not see Olaf Scholz’s trip as a good sign and says the Chinese president would not have tolerated Russia’s use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine beforehand.

Olaf Scholz’s solo trip to China brings many drawbacks to Germany, as he believes partners like France are upset and “the rhetoric regarding China is being shaken in the US”.

From Röttgen’s point of view, the delegation, which consists only of company bosses and apart from both Macron and the Czech President of the EU Council, should have been set up differently.

The Mayor of Hamburg, Tschentscher, who is on the show for the SPD is criticized by Anne Will about the delegation, but evades and only refers to the success of the trip. Because critical issues were addressed and someone needs to be on site, Scholz got the job done.

Stormy-Annika Mildner is brought into the game for the first time and, like Röttgen, criticizes Scholz’s selection of the delegation. On the one hand, she understands the economic dependencies, China is an important sales market, at the same time, for the foreign trade policy expert, the country is increasingly becoming a dictatorship.

Coalition partner Greens and SPD in dispute over China issue

Editor-in-chief “Spiegel” Amann criticizes the trip mainly because Scholz allows herself to be instrumentalized by Chinese propaganda, the coverage in China and the timing in general is more than unfortunate for her, and it is difficult for Europe that there is disagreement within China Europe becomes visible .

There are also disagreements within the traffic light coalition about how to deal with China. During a recent meeting in Uzbekistan, Foreign Minister Baerbock made it unequivocally clear to Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the coalition agreement already contains a position on China. To which SPD faction leader Mützenich reprimanded the foreign minister.

When asked, the co-chair of the Groene Nouripour thought Scholz’s trip to China was justified, but again emphasized Baerbock’s statements about how this trip should be supported, for example by another delegation. “Because China needs clear guidelines,” says Nouripour. The Green politician says about Mützenich: “I can’t understand much of what my wonderful friend Rolf has been saying over the past few days” and also refers to statements about the conflict in Ukraine.

the scandal

Tschentscher: The media portrayed it as if China bought the port

Things get interesting when it comes to the Port of Hamburg. Norbert Röttgen addresses the next point the coalition disagreed with, when Olaf Scholz pushed through a deal with Chinese company Cosco to buy shares (24.9 percent) in the Port of Hamburg against six federal ministries. The CDU politician sees a serious failure in China policywhereupon Nouripour found that the CDU had previously also done nothing about the independence of China.

Hamburg’s mayor, Tschentscher, defends the deal, saying trade ties should not be broken. At the same time, China is not buying critical infrastructure here, which Finance Minister Christian Lindner has also confirmed, as the SPD politician twice emphasized. Cosco also has shares in other European and American ports. What is happening in Hamburg, he says, is perfectly normal for the industry.

Anne Will critically asks that Tschentscher, like Scholz, sounds pedantic here, as if the critical voices didn’t get the deal. To which the mayor emphasizes once again that he thinks it is good that the Cosco submission has been looked at critically, but that at the same time there is no reason for concern.

After the editors showed a population survey whether the Chinese participation in the Hamburg container terminal was the right decision, vthe otherwise calm mayor easily lost his cool and handed out the media.

After all, 69 percent rejected participation, which in a sense would be due to the headlines, as every citizen thought China was buying the port directly.

The SPD politician also blames social media for propaganda about Cosco’s entry.

Nouripour of the Greens, a coalition partner after all, sharply criticizes the mayor of Hamburg for his attitude and accuses him of taking people for idiots: “It’s not like you say it.”

From his point of view, the Greens were clearly against the sale, “Any greater dependence is bad for Germany”said the Greens co-chair.

At the same time, the Greens politician emphasizes that Olaf Scholz is aware of the dependencies and that the case of the semiconductor factory in Dortmund, which China wants to buy, shows how committed the SPD is to this issue, apart from the individual case in Hamburg. Here, in particular, Kevin Kühnert is campaigning against a sale.

What about Iran?

Mildner: We need a common European position on China

Anne Will talks briefly with Nouripour, born in Tehran, about the problems in Iran. In an emotional monologue, he reports that the situation torments him and that at the same time far too little is being done against the regime. At the same time, however, he can promise that every effort will be made at this point to include, for example, groups responsible for violence in Iran on the EU-wide terror list.

The final word goes to foreign trade expert Mildner, who will answer the program’s opening question and encourage Chancellor Olaf Scholz to take a strong European stance on China and autocracies in general. Quarrels within the coalition and especially within the EU make ‘us’ vulnerable.

sources