German chancellor Olaf Scholz once described his politics as “liberal, but not stupid”. As he prepares to welcome a large Chinese delegation to Berlin, a senior German official claims a similar characterisation applies: “On China you could say: we’re free traders, but we’re not stupid.”
That confidence, however, masks deep rifts within Scholz’s three-way ruling coalition, and among German businesses and Berlin’s international allies about what Europe’s most powerful nation should do about its economic dependence on China.
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