“Increasingly China is a rival when it comes to the very fundamentals of how we live together in this world,” according to Germany’s foreign minister.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s been tightening its friendship with Russia. While Germany has aligned with other Western countries working to stop the war.
In the past, Germany relied heavily on Russian gas. After the invasion, Putin ordered the shut off of gas taps in Europe.
“In Germany, in my country, we’ve learned, I must say, painfully how vulnerable our one-sided dependencies on Russia’s energy imports made us and we don’t want to repeat that mistake again.”
Germany’s trade partnership with Beijing is also setting off alarms.