German entrepreneurs, scholars view Scholz's visit to China as positive signal

BERLIN -- Following Olaf Scholz's first visit to China as German federal chancellor last week, German businesses and scholars welcomed the visit as a long-expected positive signal for bilateral ties and future cooperation.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping put it, China and Germany should make the pie of common interests still bigger. German enterprises and scholars also expect the two sides to carry forward their extraordinary achievements made during the five decades of diplomatic relations.

"IMPORTANT FOR EACH OTHER"

"I was very happy when it was made official that our Chancellor Olaf Scholz was traveling to China," said Volker Tschapke, honorary president of Germany's Prussian Society.

Calling the visit a chance for German companies to share China's development opportunities, Tschapke said, "Germany needs China," and large German enterprises, including auto and e-commerce industries, especially need relations with China.

In an article published on the German political magazine Cicero on Thursday, former German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping stressed that China and Germany, as well as Europe, are dependent on each other with needs that are "not fundamentally different."

The talks in Beijing are important for German and European interests, said Scharping.

The German economy is on a worrying track with disruptions in the supply chains, energy crisis, and rising inflation rates, said Michael Borchmann, a German expert on China and former head of the European and International Affairs Division of the Hessen State Government in Germany.

Under such circumstances, it is quite important for Germany to deepen its economic ties with China, said Borchmann. "That is why we welcome the visit by Scholz."

Relations with China bear on Germany's prosperity and well-being, said Egon Krenz, former general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic.

"China will still be the most dynamic country around the world in the first half of the 21st century, and the importance of Germany-China relations is axiomatic," Krenz said, adding that the Western countries need to understand the fact that China wants dialogue instead of confrontation and will never seek hegemony.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES TOGETHER

As a member of Scholz's delegation to China, Oliver Zipse, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, said this visit sent a strong signal about reinforcing economic cooperation between China and Germany.

"I am looking forward to many such opportunities in the future and I am confident Chinese and German business ties can continue to build strong bridges between our countries," he said.

Citing the ongoing transformation in the global automobile industry and China's leading role in intelligent automobile technology, Liu Yunfeng, executive vice president of Volkswagen Group China, said Volkswagen would continue to deepen cooperation and work together with its Chinese partners for a better future of electrification and digitalization.

Mechthild Leutner, German sinologist and a professor at the Free University of Berlin, said Scholz's visit served to set the course for the further expansion of economic and political cooperation with China and to reject all fantasies of decoupling.

Calling for joint efforts to implement projects on the basis of mutual interests and to shape relations at all levels in a lively and future-oriented manner, Leutner said cooperation potential can be exploited in scientific and cultural relations.

Commenting on China's business environment, Marc Wiese, commercial general manager with Waelzholz New Material Corporation, said that China's new "dual circulation" development paradigm creates huge market potential, and German companies are enjoying equal treatment in China.

TACKLING CHALLENGES TOGETHER

Scholz's trip to China took place at a time when challenges of global warming, conflicts between countries, and the scarcity of fossil raw materials are testing all humanity.

Noting that global crises are getting worse, Hans-Josef Fell, president of German thinktank Energy Watch Group, said that it is important that leaders of the two countries keep talking and look for solutions together. "In the past, Germany's cooperation with China to expand renewable energies and other climate protection technologies was a success story."

A green economy with an economic partnership that is fair for both sides is necessary in order to win the fight against global warming, he stressed, noting that this can only succeed with the cooperation of all nations on earth, instead of by isolating individual markets.

The growing global challenges -- climate crisis, disruptions to global trade, food insecurity, increased migration movements -- require increasing global cooperation, Leutner stressed.

China and Germany, as two states committed to multilateralism and sharing complementary economic and political interests, can play important roles in efforts to meet those challenges, Leutner said.

"Indeed, viable answers to global challenges can only be found together with China," said Scharping.