Germany has to digest the energy shock that the SPD chancellor in particular has brought on. The dependence on Russia’s potentates is now being repeated in China. It’s just that the tit-for-tat this time won’t come for a few decades.
Olaf Scholz was elected to the highest government office, not because he was so great, but because the other two candidates could not convince. And if the SPD assumed that they could now fill the chancellor’s office permanently, they were wrong, because the “old aunt” is stubborn, not able to learn and Mr. Scholz cannot be re-elected for me.
The Federal Republic is currently having to digest the energy shock that the SPD chancellors in particular have brought it since the 1970s. The dependence on Russia’s potentates, whom Gerhard Schröder, who has still not been kicked out of the party, once called a “flawless democrat”, is now being repeated in China. Except that this time the tit-for-tat response won’t come in a few decades, but in this election period.
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Xi Jinping has made it clear more than once that he will continue his ethno-nationalist macho course, including the genocide of the Uyghurs. Around the time of the Hamburg Port Decision, it became known that the People’s Republic was using its police state to commit crimes in Europe.
Beijing sends its thugs to the free world to intimidate dissidents and keep them cold. It’s perfectly clear that Xi doesn’t care about international law and treaties. A phone call to Hong Kong would have been enough, but Mr. Scholz is reluctant to be lectured.
In such a mixed situation, you can really no longer do business with the People’s Republic. In Xi’s speech at the 20th party congress, where he was proclaimed president for a third time, the word war appeared 55 times and the word security 91 times. Forgotten are the terms of reform and modernization, which were so popular among his predecessors.
“Trade through change” is no more. Germany’s allies have grasped what became apparent in the decision to stop awarding contracts to Communist Party-controlled communications giant Huawei. Under the grand coalition, Germany hesitated for a long time and looked at Washington, London and Paris with a certain condescension.
Berlin’s partners were right: Like all New Silk Road projects, China’s actions in Hamburg are politically motivated. The party explicitly demands that all projects into which Chinese investments flow can also be used militarily if the worst comes to the worst.
In Sri Lanka it becomes clear what that means. The port of Hanbomtota has now been in Beijing’s hands for 99 years, right on the doorstep of India, the People’s Republic’s archrival.
The fact that SPD party leader Klingbeil jumps in to help his boss and says that the Port of Hamburg is not a critical infrastructure can only cause a shake of the head and a bit of sadness given the facts, because it makes it clear that the new generation of Social Democrats is also keeping both eyes open is blind when it comes to crystal-clear potentates.
In any case, Olaf Scholz is very happy that the deal was a success: against the will of his coalition partners, against the Council of the EU and against the warning that the inner voice, the conscience, should have uttered.
But this is how Mr. Scholz can shine during his visit to China at the beginning of November; and may hope for an economic reward for the obedience he has shown to Xi.
After his time as chancellor, maybe he’ll get a job like his disconsolate SPD predecessor in office, Gerhard Schröder. Then the SPD will have to bear the mortgage of “Gas Gerd” and “Xi Olaf” equally, while the Germans will have to suffer from their security being sold out to the Beijing dictatorship.
