Germany’s Scholz makes difficult visit to assertive China

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz is making his first visit to China as German leader this week, a diplomatically delicate trip while Germany and the European Union work on their strategy toward an increasingly assertive and authoritarian Beijing. Scholz’s messages will face close scrutiny. While his nearly year-old government has signaled a departure from predecessor Angela Merkel’s firmly trade-first approach, he is taking a business delegation and his trip follows domestic discord over a Chinese shipping company’s investment in a German container terminal. The leader of Europe’s biggest economy is to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during Friday’s one-day visit.