BERLIN, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Germany needs a more open discussion on how it can reduce its over-reliance on China in many areas as the COVID-19 pandemic has increased its economic dependency on Asia’s resurgent giant, acting Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Wednesday.
“We have experienced and had to experience how dependent we have become on China,” Spahn said at an economic conference organised by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung
“This alone would be worth discussing on an economic summit on its own, the question of how we can at least become a bit less dependent on China again in the 2020s,” Spahn added.
Spahn, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, said that Germany was too dependent for example on imports from China in areas such as face masks and medical precursors. It should also do more to diversify its export markets.