Olaf Scholz meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing

BEIJING, Nov. 4 (DPA/EP) –

Chinese President Xi Jinping received German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing on Friday, marking the Chinese president’s first meeting with a Western leader since securing a third five-year term last month.

Although Xi greeted the German leader without a mask, both refrained from shaking hands and sat down to talk at two long tables that kept them at a distance, according to the German agency DPA.

During Scholz’s inaugural visit to the country as German head of government, the two leaders are scheduled to hold talks on a range of issues in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, including bilateral relations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and tensions over the status of Taiwan.

Scholz has previously described the meeting as a “sincere” meeting with the country’s authorities with an eye toward improving bilateral relations

“The pursuit of national security and national autonomy will be more important for China in the future. And as the country changes, the way we deal with it must change as well,” he said.

Thus, he has admitted that the war in Ukraine has changed international relations, but has stated that, “even in these circumstances, China remains an important trade and business partner for Germany and Europe. “We do not want to disassociate ourselves from it (… .) but we can not depend either”, has riveted.

In this sense, he stressed that Germany will seek to end “unilateral dependencies” in relation to certain products or technologies, which includes Chinese investments in Germany. “We will differentiate based on whether that business creates or increases risk dependencies,” he explained in relation to the recent controversy raised as a result of the investment made by a Chinese shipping company in the port of Hamburg, in the north of the country.