Last week, I visited Germany at the invitation of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The five members of the delegation -- two representatives from ASEAN countries, one from India, one from Pakistan, and me [ROK]-- had the chance to join focused discussions with a variety of figures including political leaders, high-ranking officials in the areas of foreign policy and national security, think tank researchers, and members of the press. The topic was Germany's strategy [sic] on China.

We tend to think of Germany as being a logical, methodical and meticulous country, but these discussions turned out to be quite chaotic. I noticed varying perceptions of China even among members of Germany's leadership as well as major differences in their desired approach.

Those differences were also evident in the German government's first report on its national security strategy [sic], which was published on June 15. That report defines China as playing three roles: partner, competitor and systemic rival.

ECFR: [EC Pres. Ursula] Von der Leyen dispensed with the EU's established triad

But groups that are friendly to China have a strong tendency to treat China as a partner, neutral groups tend to see it as a competitor, and hostile groups regard it as a systemic rival.
[...]
First, let's look at Germany's economic policy on China. Germany seems to have written off some aspects of the US' strategy of "decoupling," which is aimed at removing China from capitalism's international division of labor. But Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is head of the Greens (which is in coalition with the ruling Social Democratic Party), strongly prefers a policy of "de-risking" with China because of human rights issues. De-risking, which means moving away from China in risky areas of the economy, doesn't seem to be that different from decoupling.
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