Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, welcomes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, welcomes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday.
Kay Nietfeld/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
BERLIN — He was only 11 a.m. in Beijing, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz used that precious time to urge Chinese leader Xi Jinping to use his influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin to prevent further escalation in Ukraine.
At Friday’s meeting, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that Xi Jinping called on the international community to “reject the threat of nuclear weapons and advocate against nuclear war to prevent a crisis on the Eurasian continent.”
After the meeting, Scholz said the two men agreed that with the use of nuclear weapons, Russia would cross a line drawn by the international community.
Scholz has been widely criticized in the German press and by other politicians ahead of his trip to Beijing – which he took with CEOs of German companies whose businesses rely on the Chinese market – for placing the short-term business interests over the long term. strategic concerns and the unity of the European Union.
In the days leading up to Scholz’s trip, he went versust the view of many advisers and cabinet ministers to approve a 24.9% stake in the Port of Hamburg by Chinese shipping giant COSCO, a move that 69% of Germans polled by Deutschland Trend called a “bad move “. The United States too voiced doubts about the case.
But Xi’s comments during his meeting with Scholz, and those of Premier Li Keqiang during a joint press conference, show that this trip was of greater importance to Scholz than maintaining good economic relations at a time of crisis. hyperinflation and energy security crisis for Germany.
Visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and members of his delegation attend a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday.
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Visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and members of his delegation attend a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday.
Kay Nietfeld/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Friday’s one-day trip to Beijing is Scholz’s first as German chancellor. He is the first head of state Xi has met since the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China offered the Chinese leader a third term as party secretary. Scholz’s visit is also the first to China by a European leader since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which strained ties between Western European countries and Beijing.
Immediately after his meeting with Xi, Scholz took part in a press conference with Li, the outgoing Chinese premier. Scholz warned China against military intervention in Taiwan and called for the protection of human rights in China’s Xinjiang region, stressing that all members of the United Nations have agreed to protect the rights of ethnic minorities and calling for these protections now is therefore not interference in China’s internal affairs.
Li stressed that the world could no longer afford further escalation in Ukraine. He also said that China remains an attractive place for investment and that China and Germany support multipolar solutions to international problems.