The German climate correspondent goes to Beijing and is snubbed. So Baerbeck learns to call Xi Jinping “Dictator”
German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan was snubbed during her trip to Beijing this week, in what sources say was retaliation for comments by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator .
Morgan got just one meeting with a government official, China's climate envoy Xie Zhenhua, in three days in the capital. A real flop, as the SCMP reports . His requests to meet with other ministries went unheeded, according to people familiar with the trip. She was informed that senior officials were too busy to meet her, in what is seen as a sign of displeasure over Baerbock's comments earlier this month.
Morgan is seen as close to Baerbock, who chose her as head of German climate policy last year, after poaching her from her role as director of Greenpeace . In a video on the German government's WeChat channel, Morgan said he had had "an excellent three days here in Beijing, in discussions with the Chinese and other international partners about how we are all working to have economic, energy and climate security, and achieve this Together". In addition to meeting Xie, he attended the High-Level Dialogue of the Friends of the Paris Agreement at Tsinghua University and met with Chinese experts and NGOs on climate change.
The cooling of relations comes at a time when Berlin wants to rebalance its economic relationship with Beijing, remove Huawei from its cellular network and prevent the sale of a German company to Chinese buyers. The two countries will resume financial talks in Berlin on Sunday, with Chinese Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng and German Finance Minister Christian Lindner chairing them, China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. In London on Wednesday, Germany's Asia Pacific chief Petra Sigmund said it was essential to continue talking to China despite growing problems. “We are not militarizing the dialogue. We don't think that would be wise because it's important to be in constant conversation with them,” Sigmund said. “It's important for them too, they want to sit with us. They want to have those dialogues with us for now,” he added, stressing that due to the new strategy on China, the nature of the dialogue was changing.
However, Beijing knows that it is in a strong position in the negotiations with Berlin, with German companies that have heavily invested in China and which therefore can be "taken hostage" by the government, without considering that Chinese exports are now necessary for German industry, especially in the rare earth and solar panel sectors. The Berlin government risks severe retaliation if it is too clever, and this failed meeting is an example of this
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new Economic Scenarios articles.
The article German climate correspondent goes to Beijing and is snubbed. So Baerbeck Learns to Call Xi Jinping “Dictator” comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/linviata-per-il-clima-tedesca-va-a-pechino-e-viene-snobbata-cosi-la-baerbeck-impara-a-chiamare-xi-jinping-dittatore/ on Fri, 29 Sep 2023 08:00:00 +0000.