Germany Courts Xi Despite Its Disastrous Fling with Putin
The US and other allies want Berlin to “decouple” from a menacing autocracy, Germany only wants to “diversify.” Sound familiar?
When Xi met Scholz.
Photographer: Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images
In thinking about the geopolitical threat of China, Germany’s spooks are several steps ahead of its chancellor. “Russia is the storm, China is climate change,” Thomas Haldenwang, the president of Germany’s domestic spy agency told a committee of the Bundestag the other day, adopting a metaphor already used by British and other intelligence services.
Those are wise words for Chancellor Olaf Scholz to pack in his carry-on luggage to Beijing this week. Many of Germany’s allies and quite a few German politicians — even in Scholz’s own governing coalition — don’t want him to visit China at all. And yet, the chancellor is not only going but also bringing along a gaggle of German corporate honchos eager to do more business there.