German Chancellor Friedrich Merz traveled to China’s technology hub Hangzhou on Thursday with a group of entrepreneurs, hoping to win new contracts a day after meeting with President Xi Jinping and sealing the Airbus deal.
Merz’s first official visit to China comes as Berlin and China seek to build on decades-old economic ties to weather global uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive and erratic foreign policy.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, overtook the United States last year to become Germany’s largest trading partner. At the same time, Berlin views the Communist Party-run state as an organized rival to the West.
The German leader is being accompanied to China by a large delegation of business leaders, including executives from car giants Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes.
Merz visited the Mercedes factory in Beijing on Thursday and was shown a demonstration of self-driving cars.
They will then depart for Hangzhou, where they will visit the bases of Germany’s Siemens Energy and Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree.
The eastern city is home to several other major Chinese technology companies, including AI unicorn DeepSeek and e-commerce giant Alibaba.
European business leaders, widely frustrated that China is flooding the EU market with cheap products, are calling on Chancellor Merz to make serious trade imbalances a top priority.
Germany’s trade deficit with China reached a record high of 89 billion euros ($105 billion) last year.
– “New Level” –
After meeting with Xi and other top Chinese leaders in the capital on Wednesday, Merz said China had “agreed to purchase up to 120-inch Airbus aircraft,” adding: “It demonstrates how valuable this kind of travel is.”
Other deals are in the works, Mertz added.
Merz and Xi underlined their determination to develop close strategic ties, and the German leader said he saw the visit as a “great opportunity” to strengthen economic ties.
Mr. Xi told Mr. Merz that he was ready to take relations to a “new level.”
Merz said he also touched on the sensitive topic of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and has not ruled out annexing it by force.
Merz said “reunification” must occur peacefully.
Xi also discussed the war in Ukraine and said diplomacy was “the key to this issue,” according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
Mertz is the latest in a string of Western leaders to court Beijing in recent years.
He follows Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Mark Carney, who are also scheduled to visit from March 31, to push back against the capricious policies of President Trump.
Bamya/DHW/MJW
