Back to Business with China? Scholz’s Bet on Normality in Beijing

As war spreads across the Middle East and Europe tightens its stance on Beijing, Olaf Scholz’s China trip raises a blunt question: is Germany quietly returning to business as usual?

Dear Reader,

Olaf Scholz can’t have been too far away from the action when Iran started its drone assault on Israel last Saturday. 

Unlike Joe Biden, who cut his holiday short due to the impending attack, Scholz went ahead with a three-day visit to China. His flight was somewhere in the air halfway between Berlin and the city of Chongqing when Teheran sent out wave upon wave of drones and missiles.

With the chancellor’s plane having to avoid Russian airspace, the flight must have passed very close to the borders of the Islamic republic.

My guess is that the pilot threaded the eye of a needle by passing over Azerbaijan with Russian to the north and Iran to the south. The plane would have been there, or thereabouts, when the Iranian attack started.

“It wasn’t necessary to change the itinerary due to the situation in the Middle East,” Scholz’ spokeswoman assured me.

“However, the airspace over Russia is closed to Western aircraft, making a longer itinerary necessary. Please understand that, fo…