Xi Jinping notably quick to greet Olaf Scholz as China seeks new German friend

Chinese president wastes no time in writing note to newly confirmed German chancellor as he takes over from Xi’s ‘old friend’ Angela Merkel
Congratulations are sent to Scholz markedly earlier than was the case for the US’ Joe Biden or Japan’s Fumio Kishida

Angela Merkel

Teddy NgandZhao Ziwen

Published: 8:37pm, 9 Dec 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

Chinese President Xi Jinping moved quickly to congratulate Angela Merkel’s successor as German chancellor, doing so almost immediately after Olaf Scholz’s appointment was confirmed.

In a note sent on Wednesday less than 10 minutes after Scholz took office, Xi said China and Germany should seek mutual respect and common ground while acknowledging their differences.

The sentiments echoed Xi’s previous exchanges with German politicians, but China’s eagerness to establish contact may reflect how important the relationship is to Beijing.

Other major world leaders waited longer to hear from the Chinese leader. Following the US presidential election last November, Xi sent a note to Joe Biden more than two weeks after Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did so.

It raised questions about how badly China-US ties had deteriorated, although the drawn-out American vote counts may have contributed.

Weeks earlier, Xi had sent a message congratulating Fumio Kishida about five hours after he was reelected as Japan’s prime minister.

The swift reaction when Scholz was formally elected and sworn in showed Beijing’s positive intentions regarding relations with his government, said Zheng Chunrong, director of Tongji University’s German studies faculty.

Beijing hoped to continue the closeness of Chinese-German relations cultivated during the Merkel era, Zheng said.

Merkel nurtured ties with China in her 16 years as German chancellor and was described by Xi as an “old friend” during his last virtual meeting with her in October, when he urged her to continue supporting China-Germany and China-Europe cooperation.

But relations with Germany entered uncertain territory after the Christian Democratic Union’s election defeat. Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party, the incoming foreign minister in the new coalition government, promised “dialogue and toughness” in dealing with China.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, meanwhile, has opted to stay away from the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is facing diplomatic boycotts from other nations – although Germany did not label its decision a boycott.

Is ‘golden age’ of relations between Berlin and Beijing coming to an end?

EU-China relations this year sank to arguably their lowest point in three decades, with Brussels imposing sanctions on Chinese officials for their role in alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang – the first such action taken by the EU since the arms embargo that followed the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

Wang Shuo, former deputy director of the Institute of European Studies at state-affiliated think tank China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said Beijing did not assume Scholz would follow Merkel’s path.

“Beijing is not expecting relations to be the same as under Merkel,” Wang said. “Change is inevitable, so China should focus on controlling the direction and pace of change in China-German relations.

“China can simply hope to maintain this stability, instead of wishing for Scholz to be another Merkel.”