Chancellor Olaf Scholz (65) has spoken out in favor of open car markets in Europe, including for Chinese vehicles, but called for equal competition. “The only thing that must always be clear is that the competition must be fair,” Scholz said on Monday in Shanghai during a discussion with students at Tongji University. “So that there is no dumping, that there is no overproduction, that no copyrights are impaired.” It is also very important that companies are allowed to set up production facilities and that this is not made more difficult by bureaucratic hurdles.
That’s why he’s pushing in China Always on a level playing field, i.e. a so-called level playing field, Scholz added with a view to German resistance to protectionist tendencies in Europe. “Of course we want our companies to have no restrictions. But vice versa, we behave exactly as we intend to here.”
Scholz opposed being afraid of competition. When Japanese and Korean cars came onto the German market, it was said that they would conquer the entire market. “Nonsense! There are Japanese cars in now Germany and German cars in Japan,” he said. And the same applies to China and Germany.
The Chancellor also wanted to discuss economic issues with the Chinese leadership in Beijing during the day. He will be accompanied by a business delegation including, among others, the CEOs of BMW and Mercedes belong.