China’s Xi tells Germany’s Scholz to seek ‘common ground’

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday (16 April) two-way ties with Germany would continue to develop steadily as long as both respected each other and sought “common ground” while reserving differences.

“We must view and develop bilateral relations in an all-round way from a long-term and strategic perspective,” Xi told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing, the Chinese capital.

Scholz’s three-day visit to China was his first since his government launched a “de-risking” strategy last year to avoid tethering Germany too closely to the world’s second-largest economy.

“As long as both sides adhere to mutual respect, seek common ground while reserving differences, communicate and learn from each other, and achieve win-win co-operation, relations between the two countries will continue to develop steadily,” Xi told Scholz.

On Monday, Scholz said competition between China and Germany ought to be fair, a point which he is expected to stress in his talks with Xi, while warning against taking a protectionist stance.

“At some point there will also be Chinese cars in Germany and Europe. The only thing that must always be clear is that competition must be fair,” Scholz told students at Tongji University in Shanghai.

“In other words, that there is no dumping, that there is no overproduction, that copyrights are not infringed,” Scholz said.

The visit by Scholz has taken him to big Chinese cities including Shanghai and Chongqing.

He was joined by Germany’s top corporate officials such as Ola Kallenius, chairman of Mercedes-Benz, and Oliver Zipse, chief executive of BMW, underlining the importance of the Chinese market to Europe’s largest economy.

The Sino-German economic relationship should not only be cultivated but expanded, Mercedes-Benz Chairman Kallenius told German broadcaster ARD in Beijing on Tuesday.

“Withdrawing from such a large market is not an alternative, but rather strengthening our position,” he said on his company’s strategy in China.

BMW’s Zipse expressed a similar view on China, Germany’s biggest trading partner.

“We actually see more opportunities than risks,” he told the ARD news programme Tagesschau.

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