(Bloomberg) — Chinese President Xi Jinping told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz their nations should unite for peace in a “chaotic” world, a call for closer ties that comes as tensions rise between Brussels and Beijing.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The two leaders met in Beijing on Friday morning ahead of their first in-person talks since Scholz took office, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
“As influential major powers, China and Germany should work together in this chaotic and changing situation to make more contributions to world peace and development,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster China Central Television. He added that their meeting would facilitate the “next stage” of China-German relations, according to the report.
The German leader said his visit came at a “time of great tension,” as Russia’s war in Ukraine challenged the rules-based order. “We can now talk concretely and directly with each other to respond to the challenges the world is facing and the bilateral relations between Europe and China,” he added. Scholz said the two men would also discuss how to further their economic ties, as well as world hunger, climate change and debt distress in other nations.
Scholz is the first major European leader to visit China in more than two years, and his trip comes as Xi looks more powerful than ever at home, having secured a precedent-defying third term in office. But the meeting also comes as China rebounds this week from a record market rout sparked by policies Xi laid out at last month’s leadership reshuffle.
The German chancellor is expected to sit down with Premier Li Keqiang later Friday, before departing from China in the evening.
Xi’s efforts to solidify ties with Germany are part of a broader push to prevent relations with the European Union from further deteriorating, as Beijing faces an increasingly hostile environment in Washington. Ties between China and the West have been strained by Xi’s crackdown on Hong Kong, treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang and refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Berlin is working to hone a new national strategy on China that aims to weaken reliance, diversify supply chains and enhance security, while reinforcing business ties. That leaves Scholz walking a fine line between pushing trade ties in Beijing, while voicing concerns on sensitive allegations of human rights violations by China.
Scholz is joined by a powerhouse delegation including top executives from BASF SE, Volkswagen AG, Deutsche Bank AG and BioNTech SE. China will be looking to reassure foreign business leaders that it’s open for investment and trade, despite a strict Covid Zero policy that’s weighed on the economy and effectively closed the nation’s borders for nearly three years.
Rebecca Choong Wilkins on Scholtz Trip (Audio)
Jens Hildebrandt, executive director of the German Chamber of Commerce in North China, told Bloomberg TV that clarity on Xi’s Covid Zero policy was the “biggest concern” of the European nation’s businesses. “We need predictability and stability,” he said.
Last year, the EU halted an investment agreement with China after both sides traded sanctions over Xinjiang. A panel of UN experts in 2019 said an estimated 1 million people had been sent to counter-terrorism internment facilities in the far west region, part of a set of policies the US has said amount to genocide. Beijing denies such allegations.
Scholz wrote in a guest article for German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Wednesday that Berlin was seeking cooperation with China. “China remains an important economic and trading partner for Germany and Europe, even under changed circumstances,” he said. “We do not want decoupling.”
Xi has hosted a flurry of top foreign leaders from Vietnam, Pakistan and Tanzania this week, as he returns to in-person diplomacy after recently breaking a long spell of Covid isolation. Those meetings come ahead of the Chinese leader’s expected attendance of major summits in Indonesia and Thailand later in the month, where he could sit down with President Joe Biden.
–With assistance from Sarah Zheng.
(Updates with Xi Jinping’s comments in third paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
