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Friedrich Merz at the CSU party conference in Augsburg: "No predecessor in office would have done it like Scholz"
Photo: Christof Stache / AFP
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz to meet former Chinese President Hu Jintao on his trip to China.
It was wrong that this was not planned, said the opposition leader on Saturday at the CSU party conference in Augsburg.
Merz also said this in view of the recent events at the Chinese Communist Party Congress.
There, Hu had been taken away on the open stage.
"That would have been important, that would have been attitude," said the CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader at a meeting with Hu, from whom it is not even known whether he is still alive.
Merz: "No predecessor would have done it like Scholz"
The opposition leader accused Scholz of leading Germany to become dependent on China after becoming dependent on Russia.
He criticized the permission for the Chinese state shipping company Cosco to enter the operating company of a terminal at the port of Hamburg.
This is a morning gift for the Chinese leadership before the Chancellor's visit.
Merz also accused Scholz of giving President Xi Jinping a propaganda success with the first trip by a Western head of government after the Communist Party Congress.
"No predecessor in office would have done it like Scholz."
Head of the security conference: Russia should be on the agenda
The head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, called for pressure to be put on Russia in Beijing.
It is right to talk to China's President Xi Jinping and other participants about the summit agenda before the G20 summit, Heusgen told the RND newspapers on Saturday.
The point is that Russian President Vladimir Putin, "who is likely to attend the summit, must not get away with it scot-free."
The heads of state and government of the G20 countries will meet on the Indonesian island of Bali in mid-November.
The chancellor plans to travel to Beijing with a business delegation next week.
Referring to Beijing's role in the Ukraine crisis, Heusgen said: "But the hope of getting China out of the Russian field is an illusion." Russia is a very important supplier of raw materials for China.
Due to its self-isolation from Europe and North America, Moscow has become more dependent on China.
"That suits President Xi Jinping." Russia is increasingly slipping into the role of a "Chinese gas station," says Heusgen.
fok/Reuters