The German Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economics have successively written “tough” policies towards China and they have been criticized as “incompetent” and “a piece of waste paper” | Blog post

In addition, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs also plans to reduce political support for Sino-German cooperation projects and imposes extensive requirements on German companies with operations in China, such as regular reporting of their operations to the federal government.

The “Daily Mirror” and Reuters said that the Ministry of Economy document has not been officially released at this time, and no agreement has been reached within the Green Party and the government. Nevertheless, the document has received considerable criticism from all walks of life in Germany.

The initial criticism came from the German business community. Reuters cited sources as saying that as early as September, executives from German companies such as chemical giant BASF, Deutsche Bank and Siemens called German Economy Minister Habeck to express their opposition to the plan. For Germany, the importance of the Chinese market is beyond doubt, and China has become Germany’s largest trading partner for the sixth consecutive year. Therefore, the German business community has repeatedly opposed the federal government’s promotion of reducing “dependence on China”.

Shortly before the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ document was revealed, the German Foreign Office also drafted its own document for the new version of the federal government’s China strategy. The content of both documents is identical. Therefore, some SPD and FDP members in the federal government believe that Habeck’s behavior can only be explained by a personal rivalry with Foreign Minister Bel Burke, and the two are only competing for a candidate in the next federal election the leader of the Green Party.

The German media “Süddeutsche Zeitung” bluntly called the “strange process” of the strategic documents of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and pointed out that instead of acting alone and taking advantage of China’s so-called strategy, it is better to coordinate and act in a unified way. Otherwise, any strategic document will be just a piece of paper.

Reinhard Houben, an economic expert from the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, told the “Daily Mirror” that relations with China should not be characterized easily. He said that even if some people say that China is a “systemic competitor” of Germany, “it cannot change the fact that we are closely linked in terms of trade policy”; Almost impossible.

Eberhard Sandschneider, former chairman of the German Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on China affairs, was more direct in his criticism. He said that “the writers of the Ministry of Economic Affairs document clearly know very little about China” and called the requirement for regular reports from German companies in the document as “divorced from reality”, which caused the German Ministry of Economic Affairs to face the entire German business community.

Sanderschneider went on to say that two Green Party politicians (Foreign Minister Berberke and Economy Minister Habeck) seem to be tougher on China, as if “whoever criticizes China gets approval in the domestic political arena in ( Germany)”.

“If you look closely, this is incompetent and ideologically driven China policy,” he added, adding that “if necessary, the Chancellor must ensure that crude ideas like this do not dictate the government’s China strategy Germany in the future.”