The German Chancellor's trip to Beijing, the first Western leader to visit China since the re-election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the CCP

The German Chancellor's trip to Beijing, the first Western leader to visit China since the re-election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the CCP Next Friday, on November 4 2022, Olaf Scholz will be the first Western leader to rush to China after the re-election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and was confirmed as the country's undisputed leader. He shall be accompanied by executives from Germany's greatest businesses.

Chancellor Olaf Schotz already appears to have given his approval to the state-owned Chinese Cosco's stake in the port's container operator in Hamburg, as well as having approved of the sale of 24.9% of the port, despite the strong backlash. Since the election of Olaf Solz in the position of chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on December 8, 2021, Europe and the world have literally been turned upside down: • The Russian invasion of Ukraine which has continued at an unabated (on the contrary, it is becoming more and more crude) intensity since February 24, 2022 up until the present. • The sharp disconnection of Russia from the EU (decoupling) regarding the entire range of relations between them, including energy. • The NordStream blow-up. • The election of a far-right government in Italy and Sweden. • The triggering of rampant inflation and high prices. • The energy crisis and the consequent concern about the coming winter for households and industry. Etc. The German chancellor decides once again to follow the “German path” in dealing with the current deep crisis thus terrifying all partners in the European Union. There had already been a lot of criticism in Europe for the "German" plan to support German businesses and households with 200 billion from the German budget and the simultaneous German refusal of a corresponding more collective and communal, united European reaction to the given situation. Mario Draghi spoke of "dangerous and unjustified distortions of the internal market" adding that "we cannot divide ourselves according to our fiscal room for manoeuvre, we need solidarity" while EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said that a coordinated approach on the European level is "more critical today than ever"; this came as a response to the German ‘initiative’ referred to above. At the same time, Germany insists on: • fiscal discipline for the most vulnerable European economies, • the refusal of the Eurobond, • a limit of 1% of the European budget, • not revising the Multiannual Financial Framework, and refuses the creation of a new Fund to deal with the energy crisis. So Germany, with the Social Democrat Chancellor Scholz, follows the political tactics of Dr. Schäuble, Minister of Finance in Chancellor Merkel's Government, a source of trauma for Greece, but also for Europe; his famous phrase in a joint press conference with the Greek Ministry of Finance against the peak of the debt crisis in Greece in 2015 was: "if everyone sweeps their own yard the neighborhood will be clean”. Of course, Dr. Schäuble meant it for each Member State of Europe individually. But the reality for Germany, unfortunately, was different and has not yet been sufficiently noted. Germany’s own backyard is the European Union and there are doubts – to say the least - whether Germany has looked after its ‘backyard’ well. Germany has to accept that while it is big in the context of the EU, it is not so ... big in the global field. That is why the European house also needs to be clean and the European yard must be kept tidy. Unfortunately for Europe, Germany is following the same ineffective strategy, which does not accept the basic limitations that reality sets. Restrictions that are easier to deal with by exchanging more solidarity with the partners most exposed to the crisis, strengthening European cohesion which in turn will create the necessary size for Germany to negotiate on more satisfactory terms for German Industry and society. It is geography that is the only currency in international relations, especially in revisionist times like these, and alongside pure power which are the factors that will determine outcomes. It seems to be true that decoupling from China and Asia will be another big blow for the European economy, especially the German one. In this sense, the importance that Germany gives to China is understandable. However, between Germany and China/Asia is the Pacific Ocean which is controlled by the USA and Russia with which Germany and Europe have already been disconnected. The German autonomous state policy will be much more vulnerable without the European support of the European bloc of the EU. The logic of "save yourself" leads, in this particular case, everyone to a lower state. This is because the dependence of all the rest of the EU Member States on the substantial size of Germany's far larger and more competitive economy is mutual. And if “it is better with the EU than alone” applies to Germany, it applies even more so for the rest of the Member States. Unfortunately, social democracy seems, once again, to have no strategy, and to behave as a follower of the dominant ideology of neoliberalism. The social democracy that created the European model of the welfare state, regional cohesion and mitigation of income inequalities, environmental sensitivity, labor rights and European solidarity, the expansion of human rights, reveals that this democracy cannot guarantee the European model that in itself was created over the previous decades, particullarlly the end of the 20th century.

The aforementioned reality will take its toll on the social democratic electoral body; hence this fact will act in the benefit of all the other political groups, as it is now likely that even more citizens who look to the Social Democrats to provide them with a political solution to the crisis, will turn their backs on the Social Democrats thus sealing the future of Europe; a dubious future, indeed, one that is of concern for a great number of European citizens... Dionysis Pantis Lawyer appointed at the Greek Supreme Court – International and European Commercial Law – graduate of Panteio University of Political and Social Sciences – Geopolitical analyst