‘Detach from dependencies, but not • Table.Briefings

ZEW President Achim Wambach, Copyright Anna Logue Photography

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also calls Germany’s economic ties to China into question. Xi Jinping rules in a similar authoritarian manner to Putin. But decoupling from China would hurt the German economy more than Russia’s. And so Achim Wambach argues for more free trade. The Head of the ZEW economic research institute explains why in today’s interview conducted by Felix Lee.

Mr. Wambach, Shanghai’s lockdown to fight the pandemic was supposed to last four days. Now it’s been more than two months – while life in the rest of the world is returning to normal. How big is the damage to the German economy?

‘Detach from dependencies, but not from China itself’

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