Merkel: "We Must Not Sever All Relations with China"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently stated that "total decoupling" in the increasingly tense relations with China is not right and would harm Germany.

In an interview with major media on the 17th (local time), Chancellor Merkel said, "We may have been somewhat naive at first in cooperating with China, but recently we have taken a more serious view of the matter," emphasizing that despite rising tensions, all relations with China should not be severed.

Merkel has shown a conciliatory stance toward China, Germany's largest trading partner. Since 2016, China has become Germany's largest trading nation, and it is also the biggest market for many German automakers such as Volkswagen and BMW.

With these intertwined economic interests, Merkel has maintained a dialogue with China despite controversies over unfair trade practices and industrial espionage by the Chinese government.

However, some critics argue that the German economy is overly dependent on China and that Germany has not actively voiced concerns over human rights violations in China's Xinjiang region.

In response, Merkel explained that since taking office in 2005, she has officially visited Beijing 12 times over 16 years, raising human rights issues each time, and has been continuously negotiating the protection of intellectual property rights and patents for German companies operating in China and German-Chinese individuals.

Merkel also stated that national support will be necessary to fund the next steps in semiconductor chip development, cloud and quantum computing, and battery manufacturing.

She cited South Korea, Taiwan, and the Biden administration's stimulus packages as examples, saying, "The state must play an important role," and added, "The cases of South Korea and Taiwan show that competitive semiconductor chip manufacturing at the 3nm (nm = one billionth of a meter) or 2nm level is fundamentally impossible without government subsidies."

Although Merkel's official term ended on the 26th of last month, she continues to lead the cabinet in a caretaker capacity until the next coalition government is formed.

The coalition negotiation team led by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), a center-left party negotiating to form the next coalition government, expects to present a coalition agreement as early as next week.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.