When Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) lands in Beijing on Friday morning with twelve German company bosses for talks with China's President Xi Jinping, he can only disappoint expectations: the German export industry is hoping for diplomatic tones from the Chancellor.
Abroad, especially in the United States, Scholz is expected to have a clear edge over China.
Johannes Pennekamp
Responsible editor for business reporting.
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Winand von Petersdorff-Campen
Economic correspondent in Washington.
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Scholz himself had outlined his position in a guest article in the FAZ before he left.
Germany will reduce unilateral dependencies without decoupling itself from China.
Economic contacts must be based on reciprocity, which is too far away in China.
If Germany's largest trading partner does not change that, it "cannot remain without consequences," wrote Scholz.
The German auto industry, which will be represented in China by VW boss Oliver Blume, emphasized on Thursday that many jobs depend on business with China and that the relationship is also indispensable in other respects.
"China is currently supplying us with important raw materials that we do not own and have not secured through alternative trade agreements," said the President of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), Hildegard Müller, of the Funke media group.
The Federal Association of Medium-Sized Businesses gave Scholz the advice not to "smash any Chinese porcelain".
In Washington, the chancellor's course is viewed with skepticism.
The Americans fear that Germany will accept strategic dependencies in order not to endanger the business of German industry.
The events surrounding the port of Hamburg have fueled concerns.
The American government put pressure on the federal government to limit Chinese influence on the port of Hamburg.
The Biden government has made it clear to Germany that it should not leave strategic economic sectors to China, a senior US government official told the Bloomberg news agency.
The Federal Chancellery had initially approved a 35 percent stake by the Chinese group Cosco in the operating company of the container terminal in Tollerort.
Later, after a heated debate within the traffic light coalition, the federal government decided that it would only allow participation below the blocking minority of 25 percent.
China reacts coldly to the American intervention.
A government spokesman said on Thursday that US interference was symptomatic of the forced diplomacy it was practicing.
Increasingly, the question arises as to how much German-Chinese trade cooperation the western partners want to tolerate while cutting business ties themselves.
The most recent example is provided by the Canadian government, which has ordered three Chinese companies to divest their stakes in three Canadian companies that mine lithium.
Canada recently tightened the rules for foreign investors in critical industries.