China speaks with Anne Weil: Nouribur criticizes the mayor of Hamburg

Opinions differ on the subject of China, as Anne Weil has explained. In Focus: The Hamburg Harbor Deal and the Chancellor’s Trip to China.

Hamburg Mayor Lord Peter Chencher justified the planned participation of a Chinese company in a terminal in the port of Hamburg in “Ann Weil”. The head of Green Nouripour wasn’t the only one in the studio who blew his collar.

The chancellor’s recent visit to China has inflamed tensions and caused political disagreements. Anne Weil Sunday night was about the question: Get rid of autocrats — how serious is Chancellor Schultz about the tipping point?

• Omid Nouripur, co-chair of Alliance 90 / The Greens
• Peter Chencher, SPD, first mayor of Hamburg
• Stormi-Annika Mildner, Director of the Aspen Institute in Germany
• Norbert Röttgen, CDU, Member of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee
• Melanie Aman, Head of the Capital Bureau “Der Spiegel”

CDU politician Röttgen criticized the meeting with President Xi Jinping as a “turning point rejection” and referred to “business as usual”. Although it is good that Xi Jinping has now explicitly warned Russia against the use of nuclear weapons, that was not surprising.

After all, China itself has no interest in escalating the conflict, according to Röttgen. His credit was clearly negative: “Scholes’ solo trip” “cost confidence” and caused “more damage to foreign policy,” explained Röttgen Lowell.

The first mayor of Hamburg, Peter Chencher, saw things differently. He said that the trip worked to address several critical points. There must be someone out there looking for a direct conversation. “Schulz did it,” said the SPD man.

“It is always good for heads of government to speak,” said Green Party leader Omid Nouripur. Green said it would have been nice if French President Emmanuel Macron was also present. However, he assured Schulz’s direction: “I think it’s right that he drove the car.”

Nouribur was less sympathetic to the recent censure that SPD deputy faction Rolf Mutzenich had directed at fellow party member Annalena Barbock. Among other things, Mutzenich described the chancellor’s reminder of the new China strategy as “rude and undisciplined.” Green Party chief Lowell made it clear that he could not understand many things his “friend Rolf” had said in the past few days.

The debate arose on Sunday evening when it came to the planned participation of the Chinese state-owned company COSCO at a terminal in the port of Hamburg. Despite the opposition of six ministries, he approved of Schultz prior to his visit to China.

This is problematic because China is pursuing a strategy of global maritime dominance, explained Melanie Aman, head of the capital’s office, Spiegel. By participating in the port of Hamburg, China will have “access to critical infrastructure.”

According to the journalist, Schultz’s decision on COSCO also had a “tremendous symbolic effect” with regard to companies that were “in a state of exit from China”. Röttgen also criticized the planned engagement. It contradicts US policy and reveals the “weakness of Germany,” according to the CDU man. “But we will not achieve anything with China unless we agree,” he said.

The first mayor of the Hanseatic city represented a different view of Cusco’s involvement in the port of Hamburg. Tschentscher explained that it is wrong to say that China is buying critical infrastructure. The company leases the terminals for a limited time only, but the operation of the port remains 100% the responsibility of the city.

Chencher emphasized that before the decision was made, the port of Hamburg had “negotiated hard” with China. It was ascertained that the state-owned company had no additional rights. The mayor made it clear that the commitment to Cusco is important for Hamburg so that it is not “detached” from other major European ports. Will von Chincher wanted to know how it happened that more than two-thirds of Germans refused Cusco’s participation.