BEIJING: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accompanied entrepreneurs to the Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou on Thursday, hoping to land new contracts a day after meeting President Xi Jinping and sealing an Airbus deal.
Merz’s first official visit to China comes as Berlin and Beijing seek to build on decades-old economic ties to weather global uncertainty sparked by US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz and erratic foreign policies.
China, the world’s number two economy, overtook the US last year to become Germany’s biggest trade partner. At the same time, Berlin regards the Communist Party-run state as a systemic rival to the West.