Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have expressed their desire to deepen economic ties between their countries during the German leader’s inaugural visit to Beijing, China’s state broadcaster reports.
During a meeting with Merz, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday on a visit focused on resetting trade relations and deepening cooperation, Xi told the German leader their two countries should be “reliable partners that support each other” and be “defenders of free trade”, CCTV reported. China supported Europe’s self-reliance, Xi said, adding that China hoped Europe would work with China in the same direction and uphold their strategic partnership.
CCTV reported that Xi and Merz also discussed Ukraine amid concerns in Berlin and elsewhere in Europe over China’s support, tacit or otherwise, for Russia.
Merz told reporters after the talks that he asked the Chinese government to use its influence to end the war in Ukraine.
“We know that signals from Beijing are taken very seriously in Moscow. That goes for words as well as deeds,” he said.
He added that he would “like to expressly welcome China’s commitment to peace in the region, which I heard today”.
Xi told Merz that China supports a political solution to the conflict in Ukraine. “The key is to persist in seeking solutions through dialogue and negotiation,” he said.
But the Chinese president emphasised that talks would have to “address the legitimate concerns of all sides” and have “equal participation of all parties”, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Merz said that in his meetings he also touched on the issue of Taiwan, the self-ruled island China regards as part of its territory, saying any “reunification” must be done peacefully.
After the meeting, the two sides released a joint statement saying they supported efforts to achieve a ceasefire and lasting peace in Ukraine based on the United Nations Charter and principles and both sides were willing to resolve any concerns through frank and open dialogue, Xinhua reported.
The joint statement also emphasised the importance of fair competition and mutual market access and said China and Germany were willing to continue dialogue on climate change and the green transition.
‘Challenges’ acknowledged
Merz – who was accompanied by a large business delegation, including executives from BMW and Volkswagen – told Xi that he wanted to deepen Germany’s decades-old economic ties with China, Germany’s largest trading partner last year, while acknowledging “challenges”.
“There are challenges, which we should talk about today, but the framework in which we operate is exceptionally good, and we have worked together very well over the past decades,” he said.
Xi welcomed Merz’s comments, saying, “The more turbulent and intertwined the world becomes, the more China and Germany need to strengthen strategic communication and enhance strategic mutual trust.”
After the talks, Merz told reporters that China had agreed to buy “up to 120” aircraft from European aviation giant Airbus, adding that it “demonstrates how worthwhile such trips can be”.
In a meeting earlier on Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Merz said Berlin had “very specific concerns regarding our cooperation, which we want to improve and make fair,” in an apparent acknowledgement of the strain faced by Germany’s manufacturing sector from Chinese competition.
Merz urged Chinese firms to step up investment in Germany but also called on Beijing to reduce market distortions.
Merz told reporters that Chinese exporters had built massive trade surpluses with Germany, amounting to 90 billion euros ($106bn) last year – a deficit that had increased fourfold since 2020. “This dynamic is not healthy,” he said.
‘Great potential for further growth’
Li, who met Merz shortly after his arrival in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, called on both sides to work together to safeguard multilateralism and free trade in a reference to United States President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, which has upended the global trading system.
“China and Germany, as two of the world’s largest economies and major countries with important influence, should strengthen our confidence in cooperation, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and strive to build a more just and fair global governance system,” Li said.
During the meeting, representatives from both sides signed several agreements and memorandums, including on climate change and food security.
“We share responsibility in the world, and we should live up to that responsibility together,” Merz said, adding that there was “great potential for further growth”.
He said open channels of communication were essential as he announced visits by several ministers in the months ahead.
‘More equal playing field’ sought
Reporting from Beijing, Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride said the visit was important for both Beijing and Berlin, the world’s second and third largest economies, respectively.
Alongside the signing of deals with Chinese companies, a key focus of Merz’s visit was “looking for a more equal playing field when it comes to trade”, he said.
“There is a real concern in markets like the European Union about cheaper, sometimes subsidised Chinese products that are looking for markets other than the US suddenly flooding other marketplaces such as Germany, … undercutting many domestic manufacturers there,” McBride said.
Germany’s imports from China increased 8.8 percent to 170.6 billion euros ($201bn) last year while its exports to China dropped 9.7 percent to 81.3 billion euros ($96bn).
McBride noted Beijing was seeking to pitch itself as a “responsible advocate of free trade compared to the sometimes unpredictable and chaotic tariffing policy of the US”.
He said the visit would also include visits to German companies with strongly established presences in China, such as Siemens and Mercedes-Benz.
Western leaders court Beijing
Merz is the latest in a string of Western leaders to visit Beijing in recent months, including the United Kingdom’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Mark Carney, amid the fallout from Trump’s tariffs on long-established trade partners.
The chancellor said on Friday that he was going to Beijing in part because export-dependent Germany needs “economic relations all over the world”.
“But we should be under no illusions,” he said, adding that China, as a rival to the US, now “claims the right to define a new multilateral order according to its own rules”.