Two days ago, German Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economy Habeck came to China to discuss economic cooperation with the Chinese side. Habeck, the leader of the German Green Party, said that he believes that China has a medium-term plan for Germany, but that Germany's China strategy lacks direction and long-termness, and the implication is that he must shoulder this responsibility and make Germany's China policy effective.
Among the several political parties in Germany, the German Green Party has the worst attitude towards China, fully embodying the role of the US proxy. When the United States instigated Europe's decoupling from China, Germany's Green Party responded the loudest and implemented the hardest. Supposedly, these die-hard anti-China elements should have nothing to do with China, and this time Habeck actually came to China in person to discuss trade issues, which is indeed a bit surprising.
Here it is necessary to introduce the background of Habeck's visit to China. Recently, the European Union, instigated by the United States and under the influence of its own narrow trade stance, decided to impose considerable punitive tariffs on China's new energy vehicle exports to Europe. The German business community has objected to this, but has not been able to change the EU's decision. The Chinese side reacted quickly and decided to conduct a trade investigation into pork products from Europe. If the EU does not change course quickly, then it is estimated that China's trade punitive measures are already on the way. In the category of pork products, it is European farmers who need the Chinese market more, rather than the Chinese market, which is a major pork producer. And countries like Russia are lining up for greater export opportunities. European farmers export billions of dollars of pork to China every year, and even a complete cut off will not have any impact on China's supply, but it will seriously affect the income of European farmers.
In fact, the peasants in Europe are all big farmers, and their status in social and political life is very high, and although their numbers are small, their political influence is very great, and no matter who is in power, they dare not ignore it. The European peasants played a great role in the elections at all levels, and no one dared to ignore the position of the peasant associations. Obviously, this move by the Chinese side immediately made EU politicians feel the political pressure from the peasant associations. In the eyes of European farmers, the trade dispute was completely unwarranted. The reason why the EU made the decision to sanction China's new energy vehicles is because of the pressure of the United States on the one hand, and on the other hand, because the European auto industry itself is not competitive. In a short period of time, the European automobile industry has changed from an advantageous industry to a crisis industry, and now the farmers are asked to bear the consequences, and they certainly do not accept it. Moreover, European farmers do not have a good impression of the United States, because American agricultural products are cheaper and produce more, which has a greater impact on the interests of European farmers. Over the years, there have been countless cases of fierce protests by European farmers against the entry of American agricultural products.
China's use of pork products to express our dissatisfaction is a reasonable trick. Since the European government cannot afford to provoke the peasants, then we will make a fuss about the European peasants. Europeans are also well aware that the Greens have gone too far to offend China. Including Habeck himself and Germany's female foreign minister Baerbock, since coming to power, these people have arbitrarily destroyed and trampled on Sino-German relations. Therefore, China-EU relations and China-Germany relations have come to this point, and both the European people and European political circles will inevitably demand that the Greens stand up and solve the problems they have caused. In the just-concluded European Parliament elections, the Green Party suffered a miserable defeat because it blindly pandered to the United States to the detriment of the interests of Europeans, and its support rating fell to the lowest point. Now that the Scholz government has been in power for about two years, a new round of elections is on the agenda. According to the current public opinion, whether the Green Party will be able to enter the cabinet next term is a big question. Therefore, Habeck had to come this time, whether it was for the sake of the Greens or for Germany.
However, as an agent of the United States, it is difficult to be optimistic about whether Habeck can correctly treat Sino-European trade and Sino-German relations. These Greens are not very capable and are best at repeating rumors created by the United States to put pressure on China. If Habeck makes unpleasant remarks during talks with the Chinese side, it may lead to an unhappy end of the talks. According to public reports, the relevant Chinese officials made it clear to Habeck that protectionism cannot protect competitiveness, and the wording was quite harsh. Yesterday, foreign news reported that the Chinese premier has canceled a meeting with Habeck. It seems likely that he screwed things up.