Gerhard Schröder makes a surprise appearance at Forum in China

At the side of China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Schröder walked into the ballroom with guests of honor at the opening ceremony in the socialist model city of Xiong'an and took a seat in the front row. Schröder's wife Soyeon Schröder-Kim sat one row behind her husband. The former Federal Chancellor did not give a speech at the opening ceremony.

Schröder recently drew criticism from his party with his alleged visit to Russia's ruler Putin. There were new calls in the SPD for a party expulsion process.

Schröder was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005. The 82-year-old is close friends with Putin and has been criticized for years because of this close connection and his commitment to Russian energy companies. Since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Schröder has met with Putin repeatedly.

It is unclear whether further meetings will follow

However, little is known about Schröder's trips to China. It was initially unclear who else Schröder would meet. China's state and party leader Xi Jinping was not in Xiong'an and had his foreign minister send a greeting to the guests.

The Global Governance Forum follows on from the Global Governance Initiative that Xi announced a year earlier. China and Russia have long been calling for reform towards a multilateral world order. With its vaguely formulated goals, the initiative stands for an expansion of multilateralism and a fair global balance of power.

China wants to help shape a world order in which Beijing currently sees unfair dominance, especially by the USA. The initiative is seen by many as an improvement on the existing international system, Wang said. Once again he drew attention to unprecedented change in a century, as well as an increase in harassment and go-it-alone policies. Although Wang did not name a country, Beijing has made similar comments to Washington in the past.