SIEMENS AG 
On Monday, numerous business leaders from both countries want to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Berlin. On Tuesday, an economic forum is planned as part of German-Chinese government consultations with the participation of Li, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Economics Minister Robert Habeck. The main focus will be on sustainability. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Wei Duan, head of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Germany, referred to the high level of interest: "We have a delegation from China almost every week."
Li Qiang is in Germany from Sunday to Wednesday, which is seen as a clear signal on his first trip abroad that Beijing is interested in good relations with Germany despite geopolitical tensions. Li will first meet Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday and then Chancellor Scholz in the evening. He plans to travel to Munich on Tuesday. Scholz had welcomed the government consultations with Beijing, even if there are debates about how this fits in with the recently published National Security Strategy, in which China is primarily described as a rival and competitor and only then as a partner. Wolfgang Schmidt, Head of the Chancellery, said that the German government would address many issues at the consultations next week. Fair competitive conditions are needed in terms of subsidies and dealing with state-owned companies. German companies must be given a fair chance.
According to the German government, it is still unclear who will be coming to Berlin from the Chinese side. Foreign Minister Qin Gang, for example, has canceled his participation at short notice. Although Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) will speak to him on the phone, she will only meet his deputy in Berlin. The counterpart of Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) is also not coming. There is talk in German government circles of possible political motives: Baerbock is said to be responsible for the security strategy critical of China; Stark-Watzinger had visited Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province.
LEADING BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES MEET LI
According to the companies, the heads of Mercedes-Benz, SAP and Siemens Energy will take part in the business meeting with Li. The head of Audi will also attend, said an insider. A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz, which counts the Chinese Beijing Automotive Group and Geely Chairman Li Shufu among its main shareholders, said that the meeting would focus on Mercedes' involvement in China and the ongoing opening of the Chinese market following the coronavirus pandemic. Siemens CEO Roland Busch, who is also Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business (APA), will also take part, it was reported. "The motto must be: Overcome one-sided dependencies, but not by doing less business with China, but by doing more business with other countries," Siegfried Russwurm, head of the industry association BDI, had said in May.
Bernhard Bartsch, a China expert at the Merics Institute, described the country as "more insecure and less predictable" than in the past. "For companies in particular, China is no longer the market of the future, but the cluster risk of the future," he added, alluding to the efforts of Western countries to become more independent from China. On the other hand, Wei Duan, Managing Director of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Germany, called for closer relations and spoke of the "mutual dependence" of German and Chinese companies. "We have a delegation from China almost every week," he told Reuters. The interest in German investors, partners and locations for factories is very high. However, many Chinese companies are concerned about the German public's more critical image of China.
This coincides with relatively weak growth in the Chinese economy: four major Western banks have lowered their forecasts for growth in the People's Republic following recent disappointing economic data. According to the forecasts of UBS, Standard Chartered, Bank of America and JPMorgan, the gross domestic product of the second-largest economy after the USA is likely to grow by between 5.2 and 5.7 percent this year. The previous range was 5.7 to 6.3 percent.
(Report by Andreas Rinke, Ilona Wissenbach, Hakan Ersen, Christoph Steitz, Ludwig Burger, Rene Wagner and Christian Krämer; edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).
