German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz will arrive in China on Saturday for a three-day visit, during which he is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced today, AFP reported, quoted by BTA.
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This will be Scholz's second visit to China since he assumed the chancellorship at the end of 2021, the spokesman specified at his regular press conference.
The program of the visit has not yet been fully specified, but the date of the meeting with Xi will be next Tuesday. A meeting of Scholz with the Chinese Prime Minister is scheduled for the same day, Hebestreit added.
Before that, on Sunday, Scholz will visit the major central city of Chongqing in southwest China, often described as the largest city in the entire world with its population of 33 million.
Scholz's program also includes a visit to a production site of a German company specializing in the production of hydrogen engines.
On Monday, Scholz will be in the city of Shanghai to visit a plant of a “German plastic manufacturer” and will “give a speech at a Chinese university”, his spokesman announced.
Scholz's previous visit, in November 2022, was criticized because of the close relationship between Beijing and Moscow, as well as because of alleged human rights violations in China, AFP recalls.