German leader Friedrich Merz has the chance to take advantage of his country’s reversal of fortunes with China.
Federal Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a meeting during the Munich Security Conference, February 14, 2026 in Munich, Germany. Credit: Chinese Foreign Ministry
How the tables have turned.
Siemens' first permanent office in Shanghai, China, was set up in 1904. Credit: Siemens
For decades German industrial firms have been the key industrial "Lehrmeister" (teacher) for their counterparts in China. When German giants such as Volkswagen entered the Chinese economy in the wake of Deng Xiaoping's opening-up reforms in the early 1980s, they were building on an already long history of Sino-German industrial relations. Those had started in the late 1
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