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China-EU relations
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China-Germany relationship to hit new heights, says Chinese Premier Li Qiang after meeting SDP delegation in Beijing

  • Li, who will travel to Berlin this month, says China hopes the SPD will exert its influence in Germany, and in Europe
  • Delegation leader Lars Klingbeil says Germany appreciates China’s continued opening-up and ‘decoupling’ is not an option for the two countries

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets a delegation of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), led by Lars Klingbeil, the head of the SPD, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday, June 5, 2023. Photo: Xinhua
Cyril Ip
Beijing stands ready to propel its strategic partnership with Berlin to new heights, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said during a meeting with a delegation from the ruling German Social Democratic Party two weeks before his visit to Germany.
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Li welcomed representatives from the centre-left SDP, the largest party in Germany’s coalition government, to Beijing on Monday, while calling for stronger exchanges and expressing hopes it would maintain a policy of “rationality, dialogue and cooperation”.

“China attaches great importance to its relations and cooperation with Germany, and it is important for the two major influential countries to stay true to their original aspiration of cooperation, and strengthen dialogue and coordination to bring more stability and certainty into the world,” Li said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

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The meeting was one of several in preparation for Li’s trip to Berlin on June 20 and his first since being promoted to premier in March. Last week, China’s foreign policy chief Wang Yi and foreign minister Qin Gang met the German foreign and security policy adviser, Jens Plotner.

Li said trade and economic cooperation was an important foundation for bilateral relations and highlighted Beijing’s readiness to work with the German party to “better safeguard the overall interests of bilateral cooperation and the interests of the two peoples”.

“China welcomes more German companies to come to China, and China will continue to expand market access, strengthen intellectual property rights protection and foster a market-oriented, law-based and internationalised business environment,” Li said, in response to Berlin’s long-time request for its companies to have more access and legal certainty in China.

The Marxist-influenced party, which established relations with the Communist Party nearly 40 years ago, is where German chancellor Olaf Scholz started his career in politics. Scholz was the party’s candidate for the 2021 federal election, which he won and formed a coalition government with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party.

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