April 13, 2023

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock began her three-day visit in North China's Tianjin on Thursday, as Europe is having a major debate in recent days on how to deal with China, after French President Emmanuel Macron's call for Europe to reduce its reliance on the US drew ire from the US while winning support inside Europe. 

The German foreign minister's visit, which comes amid intensive China-EU interactions, signaled a major recalibration of China-EU high-level exchanges, and could pave the way for further resumption of cooperation in politics, economy as well as people-to-people fields, some experts said. 

Given that Baerbock has long advocated a tough approach toward China, Chinese experts believe that it's unrealistic to expect the German official to have the same positive attitude toward China as Macron holds, but "it's important to have in-depth and face-to-face communication to help dispel some misunderstandings and find common ground, especially when China-Germany cooperation has a solid foundation in the business and trade fields." 

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