Bloomberg (November 4) said that during their meeting on November 4 in Beijing, Chinese
President Xi Jinping told visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that he opposed the use of
nuclear force in Europe. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi
Jinping called on the international community to “reject the threat of nuclear weapons” and
advocate against a nuclear war to prevent a “crisis on the Eurasian continent”. He also spoke
of the joint need to ensure the stability of food and energy supply chains, which have both been
disrupted by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine adding that China and
Germany should collaborate amid “times of change and turmoil” and contribute more to global
peace and development. The German Chancellor said his one-day trip came at a “time of great
tension,” and stressed the importance of face-to-face dialogue. He said, “We can now talk
concretely and directly with each other to respond to the challenges the world is facing and the
bilateral relations between Europe and China”. Xinhua quoted Chinese President Xi Jinping
saying, “Destroying political trust is easy, but rebuilding it is difficult, so it requires both sides
to take care of it.” In a press briefing after meeting Premier Li Keqiang on November 4, Scholz
said he’d urged China to use its influence over Russia to deter it from nuclear force. The Global
Times (November 6) commented "Xi-Scholz meeting injects new momentum into ChinaGermany, China-EU ties, enhancing political trust". German Chancellor Scholz led a business
delegation which included the CEOs of Volkswagen, BASF, and Siemens, all of which have
plans for major investments in China. The CEOs of German hi-tech companies like CEOs Mercedes-Benz, Bosch, Continental, Infineon, SAP, and Thyssen Krupp, however, did not
accept Scholz's invitation to join his delegation.
(Comment: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is the first leader of a G-7 country to visit China
in the three years since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Germany’s foreign direct
investment into China has been on the rise since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, with
inflows hitting 3.19 billion euros ($3.12 billion) in the second quarter of 2022 and the fourquarter moving average reaching a post-Covid high, according to financial analysis platform
Macrobond using data from the German central bank. China has been Germany’s largest
trading partner for six consecutive years from 2016 to 2021, with bilateral trade volumes
reaching more than 245 billion euros last year, accounting for 10% of Germany’s total imports
and exports, according to statistics from the German government.)
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