Scholtz
Various signs indicate that Scholz's visit to China was not "willful", but was forced out, because of the situation and a "helpless move."
The importance of China to Germany is self-evident. As a resource-scarce country, Germany's prosperity model relies on Russia's low-priced energy, and on China's huge market.
Merkel
Merkel is very clear about this. She chose China for her first stop in Asia after taking office. However, Scholz chose Japan for his first visit to Asia after taking office. Obviously, Scholz did not put China in a critical position.
From now on, Scholz has withstood the pressure to visit China, including the pressure from the United States, from the European Union , from the German coalition government, and the Liberal Democratic Party. This is not because he "willed" to the point where he was forced to come.
First of all, I was awakened by the United States.
Natural gas pipeline
Germany 95% of natural gas depends on imports, of which 55% relies on Russia, and 40% of coal and oil also come from Russia. It can be said that Germany's job is in the hands of Russia, but Scholz is confused. He firmly follows the United States on the issue of sanctions on Russia, takes the lead in military aid to Ukraine, and sanctions against Russia fiercely.
North Stream Line 2
North Stream pipeline was bombed and he came back to the point that the biggest beneficiary of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was the United States. It was the United States' arch fire. Russia's energy cut off supply to Europe, Europe has inflation, euro depreciated, funds have been withdrawn, and Europe has been harvested in a mess.
This is not counting, "the boat of friendship will overturn." French President Macron can't stand it anymore, and publicly criticized the big brother for supplying European natural gas at a price of 4 times. A LNG arrived in Europe and made a net profit of nearly 200 million US dollars. The United States was really making a fortune.
LNG transport ship
If the Chinese market is lost again after completely losing Russia's energy, Germany's prospects will be worrying! Depend on the United States? Not reliable. Scholz knew this. He could come under pressure, which means that he was completely awakened and hurt by the United States this time.
Previously, he said that in order to avoid the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Germany will no longer provide Ukraine with offensive weapons and equipment such as "Leopard 2" tank . On the issue of globalization, Scholz said that "globalization makes many prosperity possible" and said that "decoupling is the completely wrong path."
Scholtz
Secondly, I was scared by the shutdown of the company.
After the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, high energy prices pushed Germany's September inflation data to a record high of 10% since 1951, while adding great pressure to labor costs and wages.
Due to the high energy supply, it has accelerated the pace of deindustrialization of in Germany. A survey report also said that due to natural gas prices, 10% of the 600 medium-sized German companies had to announce production cuts or even suspensions. Germany's steel industry cut production by about 5%, the chemical industry cut production by 8%, and the fertilizer industry even closed 70% of Germany's production capacity.
BASF
The world's largest chemical factory, Germany's BASF invested 10 billion euros to build a factory in Zhanjiang, China. BASF natural gas consumption accounts for 4.5% of Germany. After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, energy rose sharply. BASF could only save itself. If you move around the world, you can only have a way out. Because 70% of the world's chemical industry demand is in Asia, and 71% of Asia's energy is in China. China's energy has ultra-high voltage technology, which is the most stable and cheapest. What's more, China also has the most complete industrial categories in the world, has the world's large-scale engineering and technical personnel, and has the most resilient industrial chain and supply chain. BMW and Volkswagen from Germany have also settled in China one after another.
China-Germany Trade
According to German official statistics, China has become Germany's most important trading partner for six consecutive years. In April 2022, the total trade volume between China and Germany was 27.1 billion euros, far higher than the total trade volume between Germany and the United States of 19.3 billion euros in the same period.
Scholtz saw this, so his focus on economic and trade was on his failure to visit China.It is reported that a total of 12 German corporate representatives will accompany Scholz on a visit, including Bloom, President of Volkswagen, , Fu Leren, President of Siemens, and Bo Mule, Chairman of BASF's Executive Board of Executive Board of the Executive Board of BASF Europe. There are more than 100 business representatives who have signed up to participate in the visit to China.
German people march
Third, it was annoyed by the public protests
Germany's inflation rate reached a record 10.4%. Due to the high inflation, the German trade union and the capital party's salary negotiations failed to reach an agreement, and the consequence was that nearly 4 million workers held a nationwide strike.
On October 25, German President Steinmeier visited Ukraine, triggering late-night protests by German people, saying that he was "too disappointed" with the government and demanded that Germany withdraw from NATO .
Previously, people protested in many cities in Germany, and people shouted: We have money to fight, but we don’t have money to support the poor. "We must stop obeying the will of the United States and don't let Biden lead Germany."
The German Chancellor is the elected Prime Minister. If the people continue to make trouble like this, it is not ruled out that the Prime Minister will be kicked off. At this time, China is the only one who can save Germany.
Trade
EU Foreign Affairs Committee Head Borrell said that low-cost goods produced by Chinese factories have exported low inflation to countries around the world. The role they play in curbing inflation is more effective than the measures taken by central banks in various countries.
In this way, Scholz's visit to China at this time also had the element of "self-protection".
China is a big country, and a hospitality power. The "excessive words" that Scholz said and the "unrelevant" things that have been done will pass, and it will be progress. We welcome you with open arms.
Is it a great pleasure to have friends coming from afar!
I hope Scholz will not come in vain this trip, and don’t be fooled by others after going back. #Media People Weekly#
