Visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and members of his delegation (right side of table) attend a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 4, 2022.
(KAY NIETFELD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s recent trip to China indicates that Berlin will continue to maintain business ties with Beijing while working to gradually reduce critical dependencies, despite growing external and internal pressure for more aggressive decoupling. Scholz visited China Nov. 3-4 accompanied by a large business delegation, the first Western leader to do so since Chinese President Xi Jinping won an unprecedented third term in October. The two leaders condemned the threat of nuclear weapons in Ukraine and discussed the mutual need to ensure the stability of food and energy supply chains. Finally, as Scholz returned to Berlin on Nov. 4, the German chancellery posted a tweet emphasizing the “reliability and trust” between Germany and China as the basis for a “political partnership” between the two countries. As he returned to Berlin on November 4, Scholz tweeted that “reliability and trust [formed]…
