‘I’m a realpolitik man’
What does the possible successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel think about China? Armin Laschet gave his first major foreign policy interview as CDU leader to Reuters correspondent Andreas Rinke for the political magazine „Internationale Politik“. „We have an ambivalent relationship with China,“ according to Laschet. On the one hand, he said, China must be seen as a „geostrategic challenger„, a competitor within global systems and human rights violations must be „clearly highlighted and criticized,“ which he, Laschet, also does „regularly.“ At the same time, he said, trade with China and the „very intensive scientific exchange“ is also a development „of great importance for our export-oriented economy“. From his point of view, Laschet said, it was „always a matter of safeguarding our own interests“.