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| July 5, 2000 | atimes.com | ||
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China
German deals with China back on track By Yojana Sharma BERLIN - Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's stopover in Germany has shown that China is willing to put its anger over the Nato bombing of its embassy in Belgrade last year aside and push on with the business of doing business. The five-day visit to Germany, which ended on Monday, was Zhu's first to Germany since becoming premier in 1998. It followed two trips to China by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder last year. In April 1999, shortly after the bombing of the Chinese embassy, Schroeder was forced to put bilateral issues aside during his visit to Beijing and act, cap in hand, as an emissary of Nato. His second visit to Beijing in September 1999 may have been too soon after the first, according to officials here. For almost a year, European diplomats have been low-key about mentioning human rights in dealings with China. China's standard response has been ''what about the rights of those who were working in the Chinese embassy, and their families?'' Yet Germany has not been on the defensive during the Chinese premier's state visit. In particular the emphasis was on securing contracts to supply China with a fast-track train ''Transrapid'' - a project which has been shelved for use in Germany - while political issues were kept virtually off the agenda. On the eve of Zhu's arrival on June 29, the German cabinet Wednesday approved a human rights report including critical passages on China. In particular the report, delayed from last October, criticized the sentencing to ''inappropriately long prison terms'' of dissidents without fair trail. While this satisfied the Green party, which is in coalition with Schroeder's Social Democrats, and whose leader Joschka Fischer holds the foreign policy portfolio, it also meant that human rights had been ''dealt with'' before Zhu's arrival, and could be set aside for the duration of the visit. Fischer had insisted that human rights be mentioned during Zhu's visit, but officials note that, unlike Zhu's less-personable predecessor Li Peng, who was not afraid to express displeasure at ''interference in internal affairs'' whenever human rights was mentioned, Zhu barely reacted, to the cabinet criticism of China's human rights, preferring to see complaints about human rights as pro forma diplomacy and not something to get in the way of doing business. More surprising perhaps is that in an era of Fischer's ''ethical foreign policy'' Zhu's visit was more reminiscent of the previous conservative governments' emphasis on foreign economic relations and securing German investment in China, according to business leaders and officials. During Zhu's visit, Schroeder spoke of ''good relations'' between China and Germany which above all in the economic area are ''close and trusted''. ''Basically he (Schroeder) is continuing the China policy of the Kohl era,'' noted Juergen Heraeus, head of the Federation of German Industry's working group on China, in an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper. Like Chancellor Helmut Kohl before him, who saw business relations as paramount in dealing with China, Schroeder has taken over the China portfolio from the Foreign Ministry, and is able to distance himself from the emphasis on human rights preferred by Fischer. Germany is China's most important trade partner in Europe. German investment in China has grown 29 percent in the first five months of this year, as German industry positions itself to take advantage of Chinese entry to the WTO, agreed this year. ''Schroeder wants to maintain that momentum for German business,'' said one official. For business, the WTO deal is seen as giving them more leverage for securing better investment protection within China. It means that ''trade partners and investors can demand rights without China being able to brush them off as intervention in internal affairs,'' according to Heraeus. Zhu prominently held talks in Berlin with the heads of major German industrial concerns such as chemical companies BASF and Bayer, carmaker BMW and Ruhrkohle, a heavy industrial firm. But in particular he took time to visit the test track of Germany's magnetic fast speed railway ''Transrapid'' near Hamburg, which Germany is keen to sell to China. During Zhu's five-day visit, Germany and China agreed on a feasibility study for a test track in Shanghai to link the city to its new international airport. Transport minister Reinhard Klimmt last week promised China financial assistance for the planned study. This could be the start of a deal which could lead to the lucrative contract for the fast-train link between Beijing and Shanghai, worth some $30 billion. Germany is in direct competition with France's TGV. However, the planned sale by Paris of a satellite system to Taiwan, which could also enable Taipei to spy on China has angered Beijing - Paris is not on Zhu's two-week European agenda. ''In time-honored fashion, Zhu is using business deals as political weapons, attempting put pressure on Paris by playing off Transrapid against TGV,'' said one Asian diplomat. Zhu notably took the opportunity to praise Germany for sticking to a one-China policy although Taiwan had not been mentioned by Schroeder. Zhu praised Berlin as being a ''model'' for other countries who ''say the same but practice something else'' - a clear jibe at France. But Zhu has also shown that he does not put politics above good business sense. Germany is not merely competing with France over the fast train project but also against Japan's bullet train which reaches speeds of up to 500 kilometers an hour compared to Transrapid's top speed of around 400 kilometers per hour. Perhaps that's why Zhu noted, after his trip on the Transrapid test track ''a slight feeling of dizziness''. Whether or not Transrapid secures the contract, businessmen here have applauded Schroeder's handling of China relations. ''We do not expect that the Chancellor gets involved in business. But when two governments are able to get on well then it always benefits business, particularly in a country like China where business is state-controlled. In the same way political dealings can burden economic relations, when the parliament continues to criticize human rights,'' noted Heraeus. Members of the Green party say privately they are powerless to push relations with China in a more ''ethical'' direction. ''We are barely consulted,'' a foreign ministry official admitted, referring to Schroeder's preparations for Zhu's visit. (Inter Press Service) |
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