- Merkel makes the case on sensitive issues in Beijing without being offensive, observer says
German Chancellor Angela Merkel may be slowly declining in influence in European politics but she remains the EU’s strongest voice in dealing with China, analysts said after her latest trip to China last week.
During the two-day visit, Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the sensitive topic of Hong Kong and the social credit system in China.
After talks with the Chinese president and premier, Merkel said Beijing had listened to her views about resolving the Hong Kong conflict without violence, adding: “This is important.”
She said she also pressed the European Union’s position that the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong remained effective, countering Beijing’s assertion that the 1984 document has ceased to be valid.
“Merkel navigated the narrow line to raise these sensitive issues without being overly offensive,” said Jan Weidenfeld, of the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies.
Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, said Merkel’s biggest achievement was to raise the issue about the social credit system in China, a policy that aims to rank every individual and corporate entity based on their compliance with state-stipulated social norms.
“It is important to us that she makes the Chinese leadership aware that the German business community would like to get better briefed and prepared for this major change in company compliance by the Chinese authorities,” Wuttke said. “Merkel was the first foreign leader to do so.”
Despite Merkel’s tough approach, China’s foreign ministry was full of praise for the German leader’s visit, saying both sides were “satisfied” with the outcomes.
“This is Chancellor Merkel’s 12th China visit, so she should be one of the Western leaders who visited China the most times and knows China the best,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.
Hong Kong is a matter for China, Premier Li Keqiang tells Angela Merkel
Back home, however, German media and businesses remained sceptical about the future.
Bild, the country’s biggest-circulation newspaper, has been following closely the arrest of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, who was detained at Hong Kong airport on his way to Berlin at the newspaper’s invitation. Wong was later cleared to travel abroad.
Several newspapers have put pressure on Merkel to speak out for Hong Kong, with one calling on her to replace a stop in mainland China with one in the former British colony, which she refused.
On the business side, German businesses also urged Merkel to caution Beijing against sending troops to Hong Kong out of concerns that the lucrative Chinese market would become subject to international sanctions.
Another concern is the slow pace of structural reforms that would open up Chinese markets to foreign businesses.
Source: SCMP
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 