German Chancellor Scholz lands in Beijing for one-day visit

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BEIJING — The plane carrying German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and a delegation of business leaders landed in Beijing on Friday morning, according to flight-tracking website RadarBox, kicking off a leader’s first visit from a G7 country to China in three years.

China’s strict zero COVID policy and growing tensions with the West have made it impossible for major Western power leaders to travel to China, while Chinese President Xi Jinping has only just resumed trips to China. foreign.

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But amid economic pressure on Germany, primarily caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Scholz will seek to stress the need for continued cooperation with China, analysts say.

Scholz will meet with Xi and outgoing Prime Minister Li Keqiang, where he is also expected to raise contentious issues such as human rights, Taiwan and the difficulties German companies face in accessing the Chinese market, according to government sources.

In the run up to the visit, the visit had been criticized within the EU and the German governing coalition, mainly from the Greens and Liberals. (Reporting by Andreas Lanke, Ryan Woo and Eduardo Baptista; Writing by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kim Coghill)