"Closer economic cooperation with China" - German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on a visit to Beijing
China and Germany want to deepen cooperation, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Beijing, as Merz began a visit aimed at restoring ties against the backdrop of a widening trade imbalance.
Merz said that Germany attached great importance to maintaining and deepening intensive economic exchanges with China, its largest trading partner last year, while emphasizing the need to ensure fair cooperation and open communication.
"We have very specific concerns about our cooperation, which we want to improve and make fair," said Merz, who faces a difficult balancing act of redefining an economic relationship that is increasingly unfavorable to German interests.
Li called on both sides to work together to defend multilateralism and free trade, referring to US President Donald Trump's trade war, which has upended the global trading system.
"China and Germany, as two of the world's largest economies and major countries with significant influence, should strengthen our confidence in cooperation, jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade, and strive to build a more just and fair global governance system," Li said.
China is seeking to present itself as a reliable economic partner, in contrast to the United States, while Europe struggles to address weaknesses in its supply chains and worries about growing dependence on China.
Merz, on his first visit to China, becomes the latest European leader to seek to restore ties with China after Britain's Starmer and Canada's Carney earlier this year, as Beijing extols the benefits of engaging with its massive consumer market and advanced manufacturing base.
The engagement between Europe's largest economy and China could pave the way for EU-China relations this year. Merz is accompanied by a delegation of 30 companies. Germany's economy, largely based on manufacturing, has been hit particularly hard by competition from Chinese manufacturers.
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