Calculation Of Interests:Study On Merkel Government's Economic Diplomacy Towards China

Germany has always lacked traditional diplomatic resources.After the second world war,Germany's “attractive power” was achieved by the strong mark,perennial high level of exports and comprehensive economic strength.After Germany's reunification,Germany has even spilt its economic and financial strength into other foreign policy areas.Germany took this opportunity to promote European Union,world trade liberalization and multilateralism,and expressed its intention to ease the north-south conflict and jointly create development opportunities for developing countries.As the world's second largest economy,China is increasingly stepping onto the world stage and playing an increasingly important role.Therefore,how to develop good diplomatic relations with China and seek common development has become an important task that cannot be ignored in Germany's internal affairs and diplomacy,in which economic diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role.This thesis,from the perspective of international relations,synthesizes the neo-realistic “power state”,neo-liberal institutional “trading state” and constructivist “civilized state” theories,analyzes and studies the Merkel government's economic diplomacy towards China.First of all,this paper makes a historical review of the economic diplomacy of successive German governments towards China after the second world war.It includes not only the economic diplomacy towards China of the democratic republic of Germany and the federal republic of Germany during the period of division,but also the economic diplomacy towards China of the Kohl government and the Schroeder government after the reunification of the two countries.This paper has sorted out and integrated the ideas,implementation and benefits of the economic diplomacy with China of the successive German governments before Merkel.Secondly,it analyzes the idea of Merkel government's economic diplomacy towards China.As the international environment faced by Merkel government has changed compared with that of her predecessor,the principles and objectives of her economic diplomacy towards China have also changed while continuing and inheriting the previous government.In other words,while insisting on taking economic interests as the core,we should strengthen the emphasis on values.Then,based on the idea of Merkel government's economic diplomacy with China,this paper focuses on the two forms of Merkel government's economic diplomacy with China: cooperative economic diplomacy and regulatory economic diplomacy.On the one hand,Merkel government uses its attractive power to carry out cooperative economic diplomacy with China in order to gain benefits.On the other hand,out of consideration of the value factors,Merkel government uses the rule system to carry out regulation-oriented economic diplomacy with China.Finally,this paper analyzes the benefits obtained by the Merkel government through the above two forms of economic diplomacy,namely huge economic benefits and various political benefits,and also analyzes the negative effects brought by the regulative economic diplomacy with China.This paper argues that the Merkel government's economic diplomacy towards China include the assessment of the opportunities and challenges brought by China's rise,the consideration of economic interests and value factors,and the constant balance between the interests of Germany and the interests of the EU,which are all calculations of interests.Merkel government's economic diplomacy towards China is actually one of the important diplomatic means to realize its national and regional economic and political interests.