It's Washington that is dividing global market: China Daily editorial

On Friday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China with a large business delegation. The Wall Street Journal reported on his visit with the headline, "Germany's Olaf Scholz puts business first in Beijing visit."

That is the right thing to do. Every nation's leader should try to improve good business relationships with partners all over the world, so as to create more opportunities for their countries' companies and improve their people's livelihoods.

Germany's economic growth rate fell by 2.7 percent in 2021, and its estimated growth rate for this year has been lowered to 1.5 percent by the International Monetary Fund.

At a critical time when the world faces uncertainties because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the importance of overseas orders and markets cannot be overestimated. A responsible leader won't sacrifice the interests of his or her people just because an "ally" does not want it to do business with certain countries.

Yet that is what the Joe Biden administration is trying to do. The WSJ report cited an anonymous US official as saying that "China's agenda is to divide through commerce". Given the administration's actions aimed at excluding China from global supply chains that is just the thief yelling thief.

Unlike that nameless official's claim, China's stance is to cooperate with all countries for mutual benefits. Its stance on business cooperation with Germany was made clear in a Foreign Ministry spokesperson's remarks on Oct 3, namely that China and Germany are friends not foes, and both benefit from each other's development and sincere bilateral cooperation. The two countries have more consensuses than divergences and together they make the world better.

It is the US that is distancing itself from its "allies", not China. The WSJ report quoted a US official as saying that the Biden administration wants Germany to send a strong message to China.

That reflects the Cold War mentality that continues to fester in Washington and its practice of placing ideology above everything. Ever since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February, the US has been hyping up the "China threat theory" again as if the world had gone back to the confrontational days between the two camps. It advocates "decoupling" from China, calls for "less dependence" on China, and tries to prevent European countries from having contact with China.

Behind that ideology, the US has been making a profit of $100 million from each ship of liquefied natural gas it transports to Europe.

Meanwhile, other countries are expected to sacrifice their interests to its schemes and stratagems to suppress China and Russia.

China never asks any nation to take sides. It is the US that always says "either China or us".