German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned German companies to avoid one-sided dependencies on Chinese buyers or suppliers and to reduce such dependencies where they exist.
Germany must focus more on its economic security and avoid the risk of being overly reliant on China, Baerbock said at an event in Berlin on Thursday following the release of the German government’s new 61-page China strategy.
“And that means, above all, minimizing cluster risks that affect not only individual companies but an entire economy.
“Therefore, companies that are highly dependent on the Chinese market will have to bear more of the financial risk themselves in the future,” the foreign minister said.
Baerbock insisted that Germany’s policy toward China must change as China itself changes.
“For Germany, China remains a partner, a competitor, a systemic rival. But the aspect of systemic rivalry has come more and more to the fore in recent years,” she added.
Germany is investing in other global partnerships in order to become less reliant on China, she maintained, citing new raw materials partnerships in Africa, Latin America and the Indo-Pacific region as examples.
Nonetheless, she said, Germany also wants to further expand its cooperation with China – “because we need it.”
Baerbock pointed in particular to the global fight against climate change.
The world’s second-largest economy is responsible for almost a third of global CO2 emissions but is also rapidly developing renewable energy sources and now produces more solar energy than the rest of the world combined.
“It is clear that without China we will neither succeed in effectively containing the climate crisis nor in achieving more fair prosperity in the world,” said Baerbock.
