On Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry criticized the German government’s first strategic document on cooperation with China, calling it “counterproductive”.

The document, which represents the views of the German government and its approach to China, “will only increase the division of the world,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference in Beijing, German agency DPA reports, citing Agerpres.

He also accused the German government of being overly protectionist over a strategy that calls for German companies to reduce their overdependence on Chinese suppliers or consumers.

Wang Wenbin also said that his country hopes that Germany will have a “full and objective” understanding of the events in China.

Germany’s China strategy, unveiled on Thursday, is the result of months of debate within the ruling coalition over how relations with China should be defined.

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The strategy calls for reducing Germany’s economic dependence on China, but states that Germany does not want to “disconnect” from the world’s second-largest economy.

China is a very important trading partner for Germany’s export-oriented economy.

In the document, the German government also accuses Beijing of a series of human rights violations and attempts to undermine international law with its aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific region.

The strategy calls for a “rebalancing” of Berlin’s relationship with Beijing, given that rising geopolitical tensions and intensifying business competition have defined the relationship in recent years.

The new strategy shows that “we are realistic, but not naive,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Burbok, on the occasion of the presentation of the strategy in Berlin.