Germany does not want to upset China too much

It's China Day again in Frankfurt. At 5:45 a.m. a Boeing 777 from China Eastern from Shanghai-Pudong was on the flight plan. A good hour later, a China Airlines jet landed from Taipei. An Airbus A330 from Chengdu was expected in the afternoon. And early Friday morning Lufthansa flight LH 721 is supposed to hover in from Beijing.

Four large long-haul jets from China land at Germany's most important airport within 24 hours. The machines should be well manned, because there is a travel boom in China. The leadership in Beijing announced the end of its zero-Covid policy almost three weeks ago, lifting almost all restrictions, literally overnight. Many Chinese immediately booked flights to Europe.

That's a concern here. It is estimated that nearly 250 million people in China contracted the virus in the first three weeks of December alone. A new corona wave is rolling through the country. Some European immunologists fear that it could produce new variants. Dangerous mutations, which then enter the EU with the travelers.

Nevertheless, the EU countries have not yet been able to agree on a test requirement for travelers from China - but they are now recommending it.

As the Swedish Council Presidency announced late Wednesday evening after a meeting of health experts from the member states in Brussels, the EU countries are "strongly" urged to prescribe a negative corona test for all passengers from the People's Republic before departure, which is no older than 48 should be hours.

After initial resistance, Germany is now complying and will introduce compulsory testing, as Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on Thursday. According to the SPD politician, at least one rapid antigen test will be required in the future.

In addition, the EU experts – specifically: the IPCR crisis response group – recommend wearing a medical mask on board the aircraft. And they advise travelers from China to randomly test for Corona on arrival. But none of this is binding for the individual EU states.

Some countries may have hoped for more. Especially Italy. The government in Rome pushed ahead a few days ago and was the first to announce restrictions. Not surprising, considering that Italy had suffered particularly badly in early 2020 when Corona hit Europe.

The authorities test all passengers from China and quarantine those with a positive result. And that's not a few. At Milan-Malpensa Airport, for example, an infection was detected in almost every second passenger on some days.

France, Italy and Sweden also imposed measures, including tests, temperature checks and a mask requirement on planes. So far, Belgium has limited itself to examining the waste water from jets from China twice a week. The authorities want to track down unknown variants of the virus. Germany, on the other hand, refrained from doing all this for a long time and let the Chinese into the country unchecked.

In Frankfurt, the passengers from China lined up in the queues as usual, completely unmolested by corona controls. No one cared how many there were exactly. "We don't keep any statistics on this," said the federal police headquarters at Frankfurt Airport a few days ago.

There is also no trace of separate controls for people entering the country from virus variant areas, for which PCR tests are also mandatory in Germany - theoretically. If you had a corresponding instruction from the federal government, you would take measures together with the local health authorities, said a spokesman for Fraport. But so far there have been no instructions.

Apparently Berlin doesn't think much of the new rules for travelers from China. SPD, Greens and FDP recently spoke out against it. That seemed contradictory, after all, the corona measures in Germany are otherwise rather strict. For example, in contrast to many European neighbors, masks are still compulsory in long-distance transport. So why did the federal government allow thousands of Chinese to enter the country every week, just like that, without tests?

The Ministry of Health in Berlin recently said there was no evidence that China had to be classified as a virus variant area. New restrictions for travelers from the country are therefore not necessary.

But is that the only explanation? Economic considerations may also have played a role. Another reason for Berlin's stance, says a German lobbyist in Brussels, is that it doesn't want to strain economic relations with China any more than it already does.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently pursued a different China policy than Angela Merkel and wanted to distance himself more. That didn't go down well in Beijing. Perhaps Berlin did not want to aggravate the situation any further.

Important German business associations are skeptical about tough restrictions on travelers from China. "Measures such as quarantine requirements or even entry bans are very difficult for companies, especially small and medium-sized ones," says Ulrich Ackermann, head of the foreign trade department at the Association of German Machine and Plant Manufacturers (VDMA). "Customer visits, for example, are made extremely difficult."

For almost three years, normal business trips to China were impossible because of the rules there. Well, says Ackermann, this problem shouldn't be created the other way.

France, Spain and Sweden were in favor of strict measures, Germany against - and at the end of days of discussions in Brussels there are now only "recommendations". And no rules that would be binding throughout the EU. This brings back memories of the beginning of the pandemic, when restrictions in Europe varied from country to country and were difficult for travelers to keep track of.

Beijing may not be thrilled. The Chinese government had described the rules of France, Spain and Sweden as "unacceptable" and threatened "countermeasures". What happens if other states follow suit and also impose restrictions on their own? It is quite possible that the People's Republic will make life more difficult for travelers from Europe in the future.

The next few days will show how things will continue at Frankfurt Airport. Eleven long-haul jets from China are currently landing every week, according to Fraport. In addition, there will probably be significantly more tourists and business people arriving via another hub such as Dubai.

Everything indicates that the number of arrivals from the world's largest corona hotspot will increase in the coming weeks. The airline industry has been longing for the recovery of the lucrative China business for a long time.

Lufthansa currently only flies once a week to Beijing and three times a week to Shanghai - and of course also with travelers back from there. According to the airline, an adjustment to the flight plan is currently being examined. China Day could soon be more frequent in Frankfurt.

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