China watching uneasily as Germany picks Angela Merkel’s successor
- Norbert Röttgen, a fierce China hawk in Germany’s parliament, has entered the contest to be the ruling CDU party’s next chairman
- Surprise candidacy potentially turns Berlin and the European Union’s leading economy into a foe for Beijing
When China’s president Xi Jinping attends a special summit in Germany this September, will Angela Merkel still be the familiar face at the chancellery?
The question is by no means the toughest that Chinese diplomats will face in the weeks and months to come. On Tuesday, Norbert Röttgen, one of the fiercest China hawks in Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, entered the contest to be picked as the ruling CDU party’s next chairman, potentially turning Berlin and the European Union’s leading economy into a foe for Beijing.
For months, Röttgen, head of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, has led a campaign of intense activism against a bid by Chinese telecoms supplier Huawei Technologies to capture a major role in next-generation 5G mobile networks in Germany.
Two sources have told the South China Morning Post that Chinese diplomats in Berlin and Brussels were astonished when Röttgen announced his surprise candidacy to succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer – Merkel’s former protégé – who has said she would not stand as chancellor in the next election and would give up the CDU party chair.
Merkel’s own political future is now thrown into uncertainty, with many doubting she can achieve her goal of clinging to the chancellor’s post until 2021.