‘Wrong visit, wrong time’: What Germany makes of Scholz’s Beijing trip

This afternoon, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz goes to China. His one-day visit to Beijing is the first by a democratic leader since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic nearly three years ago. But before he has even touched down on Chinese soil, Scholz’s trip is going down badly back home. 

‘It’s the wrong visit at the wrong time,’ declared the broadsheet newspaper Die Welt. Scholz will be the first Western leader to meet with President Xi since he secured his unprecedented third term in power. For many China-watchers, Xi’s consolidated rule and zombification of the country’s Communist party marks a watershed moment for the country – not one, according to Die Welt, that Germans think Scholz should be lending any support to.

The make-up of Scholz’s trip, too, has been met with disapproval: a ‘trip with heavy baggage’, said the news site Tagesschau. Accompanying Scholz on the visit to meet Xi will be an entourage of German CEOs from companies including Adidas, Deutsche Bank and Siemens.