Photo: AFP/DPA/Michael Kappeler
Eurasia
15/04/2024 18:28
Scholz is being accompanied by senior representatives of a number of renowned German companies, including Siemens, Bayer, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Zeiss, Xinhua added, remindig that more than 5,000 German companies are operating in China -- which has been Germany's largest trading partner for many years.
The German chancellor started his trip on Chongqing on Sunday. He visited a Sino-German joint venture and a Sino-German cooperative scientific research project on water monitoring, among others. At the joint venture Bosch Hydrogen Powertrain Systems (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., Scholz learned about the hydrogen powertrain products and fuel cell powertrain solutions, and experienced the assembly of hydrogen fuel cell power modules, Xinhua wrote.
Scholz said that he is impressed by the cooperation between German and Chinese enterprises in the field of hydrogen technology, and Germany is willing to continue to deepen friendly exchanges with China and push bilateral cooperation to a new level.
The German chancellor and his delegation arrived in Shanghai on Monday. He took part in a dialogue with students at Tongji University's Jiading Campus and visited German company Covestro's Asia-Pacific Innovation Center. Scholz said he saw China's recent development changes and Germany-China cooperation are of vital importance to the world's future.
"At some point there will also be Chinese cars in Germany and Europe. The only thing that must always be clear is that competition must be fair," Scholz told students at Tongji University, according to Reuters. "In other words, that there is no dumping, that there is no overproduction, that copyrights are not infringed," Scholz said, adding it was important to allow companies to set up production facilities locally without bureaucratic hurdles. However, when asked later about calls by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the bloc to protect itself from Chinese overcapacity, Scholz expressed reservations.
Olaf Scholz is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.
