Germany’s chancellor heads for China amid public concern about growing dependence

Even before the German chancellor’s plane took off, the timing of this trip to China had become a topic for debate and criticism both inside and outside Germany. Olaf Scholz, accompanied by a business delegation, is the first G7 leader to visit Beijing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is also the first to meet President Xi Jinping since he tightened his grip on power and secured an unprecedented third term. Amid intense scrutiny in Berlin, Paris, Brussels and further afield, the chancellor has written editorials in Politico and the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung defending his decision…