World News | German Scholz urges Xi Jinping to exert influence on Russia

BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Associated Press) German Chancellor Olaf Schultz urged China to exert influence over Russia during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, while Chinese leaders reiterated their calls for Moscow and Ukraine to negotiate, And warned against nuclear conflict.

Scholz is in Beijing on a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over China’s tacit support for Russia, lingering disputes over economic ties and human rights issues and the timing of the trip.

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It comes after Xi Jinping further cemented his authoritarian rule at a key Communist Party congress last month, while China continues to reject criticism of Russia.

Scholz’s visit reflects the importance of Germany’s trade relations with China, the world’s second largest economy, especially in the automotive and manufacturing sectors.

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Mercedes-Benz alone sold 758,863 vehicles in China last year, more than any other country, company figures show.

Scholz, who was traveling with several of Germany’s top business leaders, was formally welcomed at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing by Xi Jinping, who was recently re-appointed as the third president of the ruling Communist Party.

“Currently, the international situation is complex and volatile,” Xi Jinping was quoted as saying to Schultz by CCTV.

“As influential powers, China and Germany should work together in changing times to make more contributions to world peace and development.”

Regarding Ukraine, Xi “pointed out that China supports Germany and the EU in playing an important role in promoting peace talks and building a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework,” CCTV reported.

It’s an apparent nod to Russia’s anger over NATO’s eastward expansion, largely the result of Moscow’s increasingly belligerent policies toward its neighbors.

The international community should “create conditions for the resumption of negotiations and jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons,” Xi said.

Without providing evidence, Russian leader Vladimir Putin repeated Moscow’s unsubstantiated allegations that Ukraine was planning a false-flag attack involving a radioactive dirty bomb that it would try to pin on Russia.

Ukraine has vehemently rejected the allegation, which its Western allies dismissed as “clearly wrong”. Ukraine has argued that Russia may have made the accusation as a cover for a possible plot to detonate a dirty bomb.

Scholz is the first leader of the Group of Seven industrialized nations to meet with Xi since the COVID-19 pandemic was first discovered in China in 2019, and the first European leader to visit China since Russia invaded Ukraine, which Germany strongly opposes .

The diplomatic subtlety comes as Germany and the European Union formulate their strategies against an increasingly assertive and authoritarian China.

Meanwhile, G7 diplomats met in Germany on Friday to garner support for Ukraine and rally around doubts about China’s growing assertiveness amid a series of global crises.

Beijing has provided Moscow with diplomatic support by repeatedly calling for peace talks, while refusing to support U.N. measures criticizing the Russian aggression.

It also accused the United States and NATO of instigating the attacks, and sharply criticized the economic sanctions imposed on Russia.

In his opening remarks, Scholz made a direct reference to the conflict that has created millions of refugees and upended the world’s food and energy markets, saying: “We have come together at a very tense time.”

“In particular, I want to highlight Russia’s war against Ukraine, which raises many questions for our rules-based world order,” Scholz said.

Scholz also addressed important issues such as global hunger, climate change and developing country debt.

At a subsequent news conference, Scholz said he told Xi “it’s important for China to exert influence over Russia.” He did not elaborate on exactly what the West wanted China to do.

“President Xi and I agree that the nuclear threat is irresponsible and highly dangerous. By using nuclear weapons, Russia will cross the lines drawn by the international community,” he said.

Scholz also said he referred to human rights and market access, telling Xi that any change in the status of autonomous Taiwan “can only happen peacefully and by mutual agreement.”

China claims the island republic as its own territory and will bring it under its control by force if necessary.

Scholz, apparently referring to European lawmakers and the Baltic state of Lithuania, with which China has banned and boycotted ties with Taiwan, said: “It is also important to be clear that economic measures targeting individual EU member states are targeted at the EU as a whole. Single market, Sanctions against EU lawmakers are unacceptable to us.”

Scholz was criticized for visiting China shortly after Xi’s victory at last month’s national congress, where he promoted support for his tighter control of society and the economy and a more confrontational approach to the West. attitude of allies.

The visit also comes amid escalating tensions in Taiwan after a United Nations report said China’s violations of the human rights of Uighurs and other ethnic groups in the Xinjiang region could amount to crimes against humanity.

Schultz was also accompanied by a dozen top German business leaders, including the chief executives of Volkswagen, BMW, BASF, Bayer and Deutsche Bank, most of whom have operations in China.

Scholz will also meet with company representatives in Beijing.

That has some German observers questioning whether the country is overly dependent on the Chinese market, as it has done with Russia for energy supplies.

Ralph Brandstadt, head of Volkswagen China, said in a statement that Scholz’s visit was very important during “such politically and economically challenging times.”

China is Germany’s most important trading partner. There are 5,000 German companies active in China, and hundreds of thousands of German jobs are related to the Chinese market.

Brandstatter said more than 14 million jobs in China depend on doing business with European companies.

Scholz also met with Premier Li Keqiang, who is nominally in charge of the Chinese economy.

In an article in German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Scholz said he would travel to Beijing “precisely because business as usual cannot be done under these circumstances”.

Scholz’s message will be closely watched, especially at home, where he has been criticized by some for normalizing China’s behavior.

His visit is a major domestic investment by a Chinese shipping company in a container terminal in the key German port of Hamburg, even though his nearly one-year-old government has signaled it will deviate from his predecessor Angela Merkel’s steadfast trade-first approach The resulting disagreements occurred afterward.

His delegation is entering the anti-virus bubble, getting tested and not spending the night in Beijing, as China is still imposing strict restrictions on COVID-19.

At just 11 hours, it was the shortest trip to China ever made by a German leader. The crew that brought him to Beijing flew to South Korea to wait out the visit to avoid being quarantined.

German officials said the trip was aimed at exploring the direction of China’s development and possible forms of cooperation. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)