- Interview: Gabriel praises investment deal
- Foxconn enters the electromobility market
- Portugal: stress over golden visas
- Beijing focuses on domestic robot production
- Heads: Stormy-Annika Mildner
Strict lockdown – fast recovery: That is the short formula through which China achieved economic growth of a remarkable 2.3 percent in the Covid year. Other countries in Asia were also able to return to normality all the more quickly thanks to consistent containment of the pandemic. Germany, on the other hand – as an exporting nation quite comparable with China or South Korea – is down five percent.
The prime ministers should consider this when they decide on further measures today. Economy – or health? The example of China shows that only health protection makes a strong economy possible – although Xi Jinping also had to help with strong economic stimuli to present the desired figures.
China’s lesson learned from the pandemic is to use more robots in the future. The country’s army of workers is susceptible to diseases and other irregularities. Machines continue to toil away undeterred, even as the pandemic rages outside.
The EU’s controversial investment agreement with China remains an issue. Portugal, which has taken over the Council presidency from Germany, wants to push for confirmation by the member states. This makes the Portuguese one of the biggest supporters of the treaty, along with Germany – sharp tongues believe it is a masterpiece of Chinese negotiating skills. Whether this is the case, however, will be known when the Commission makes the text of the treaty available to the public – which will hopefully happen soon.
After all, Sigmar Gabriel thinks the agreement is basically good. The SPD politician spoke to China.Table in his capacity as Head of the Atlantic Bridge. After endless negotiations, it was right to sign now instead of waiting for the Americans. This is another way for the EU to assert its independence.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Feature
‘Alliance does not mean allegiance’
Mr. Gabriel, under Donald Trump, US-China relations have been worse than they’ve been in more than four decades. Now Joe Biden will become President of the United States. Do you expect a change of direction in the China policy?
Both Republicans and Democrats had long believed that China would open up politically through economic cooperation. This approach has failed in the view of the strategists of both parties. Today, China is more authoritarian than ever. China is seen in the USA as the new global rival that is catching up technologically and thus also economically and militarily. Both parties see that as a threat and want to push back China’s influence. So it doesn’t really matter which one of them the president is. And in China, it’s also about decoupling from too great an economic dependence on the US.
From the Chinese perspective, the last 600 years have been a historical accident. Now China has returned to the place it believes it deserves: the center of the world. That is also the reason for the ambitious policies of the communist leadership. But it is worth examining whether China is really at heart about expanding global dominance or whether its strong international influence is merely a means to an end, to make itself unassailable and thus guarantee the Communist Party’s power even as it celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. The strategies for dealing with China will likely differ depending on what is seen as the real goal in the West.
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