German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit to China later this week could trigger fierce backlash at home. Scholz's trip will make him the first EU leader to visit the Asian country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But 84% of Germans would like the country to reduce economic ties with China, according to a recent"Germany made a big bet on China," says Noah Barkin, a managing editor of Rhodium Group's China practice. "For many years, this was seen as a source of strength. Now it has become a vulnerability.
China's foreign ministry said last week that the visit comes at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.It feels at the moment that the Chancellory is specifically trying to maintain a certain traditional framework and economic ties with China, in the teeth of pretty sweeping opposition from...the public, most of his coalition and increasingly other parts of Europe as well," says Andrew Small, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund .
"It's a point of continuity with [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel in this kind of view that Germany should be careful, look out for its own economic interests, and ignore everything else that's going on," he tells Axios.
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