Conservative wing of Germany's SPD calls for more pragmatic China policy

BERLIN, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The conservative wing of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) is calling for a more pragmatic China policy, Spiegel magazine reported on Friday.

There should be "no one-dimensional German foreign and economic policy toward China," according to a position paper written by the Seeheimer Kreis (Seeheim Circle), an official internal party grouping, seen by Spiegel.

With 93 members, the group accounts for almost half of the SPD's parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the federal Parliament.

"An abrupt end to trade relations with China would be an economic disaster," the Seeheimer Kreis warned.

With 250 billion euros (275 billion U.S. dollars) per year, the volume of trade between Germany and China is more than four times as large as that with Russia before the Ukraine conflict, the grouping recalled.

"In this respect, a coherent China strategy must logically not be an 'anti-China' strategy," it said.

According to Spiegel, the appeal was primarily directed at the Green Party ministers in the German governing coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).

The Seeheimer Kreis praised Chancellor Scholz for cultivating dialogue with China and making closer cooperation a guiding principle of foreign policy. Seclusion must not be "a maxim of the new era," Spiegel quoted the document as saying.

Meanwhile, SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Muetzenich argued for more independence from the United States.

Regarding the Taiwan question, Europe should "try to formulate an independent role if possible and not appear as an appendage of the United States in the region," the politician, who is part of the party's left wing, told public broadcaster ARD earlier this week.

Muetzenich made the statement to back French President Emmanuel Macron, who promoted Europe's independence from the U.S. last week after his trip to China.