German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is planning to visit China in the coming weeks, even as relations between the two countries sour over trade. It will mark the first official visit to China since 2018 for Steinmeier, a former Foreign Minister whose decade-long tenure as President ends in March next year. The visit will coincide with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s trips to Japan and South Korea this month. In Germany political power sits mainly with the Chancellor and the government, but President Steinmeier represents Germany abroad as President. The trip will be watched closely for signs of further cracks in the Sino-German relationship.
Germany has pivoted dramatically in recent weeks towards a more hardline approach to China on trade amid fears that its manufacturing heartland will be hollowed out by intense Chinese competition. In a speech last summer, Steinmeier spoke in favor of a carefully calibrated de-risking from China, even if it was couched in the language of partnership. “We want good relations with China, and we are working towards that. At the same time, we must continually readjust our relationship with China without slamming any doors. But we must insist on further reducing asymmetries – that is, differing levels of market access,” Steinmeier said. In the intervening year, however, mainstream German politics has shifted significantly. It has become common belief that the symbiosis between the two economies – whereby German manufacturers made the machinery to equip China’s factories – has worn off. These same factories have swiftly moved up the value chain to become fierce rivals of their erstwhile vendors.
A security thread runs through the relationship now as well. The German government blocked the sale of large parts of Hamburg logistics company Zippel to Chinese state-owned shipping giant Cosco because of security concerns. “The acquisition would have deepened dependencies and jeopardized the resilience of Germany’s and the EU’s supply chains,” the Economy Ministry said in a statement. While Steinmeier does not manage these policies, they are likely to be discussed when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping this month. It will mark the first major German diplomatic trip to China since Merz went there in February. Upon returning from stops in Beijing and Hangzhou, he told the Bundestag that he could envisage a free-trade agreement in the longer term with the People’s Republic of China. That moment, however, appears to have passed.
Last week, the South China Morning Post reported that Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had co-signed a paper calling for a new trade weapon that could see China or other trading partners deemed to be flouting the rules excluded from the EU single market almost immediately, the South China Morning Post reports.
