To prepare for his first trip to China, scheduled for Wednesday, February 25, and Thursday, February 26, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invited several of Germany’s leading experts on the People’s Republic of China to a meeting on February 17. Jörg Wuttke, who represented the chemical giant BASF in China from 1997 to 2024 and who serves as president of the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, was present that evening. “The chancellor wanted to know how to build a personal connection with Chinese officials. He is preparing for this trip very carefully. He has only been to China once, 20 years ago, so he does not have an intimate knowledge of the country,” Wuttke told Le Monde. Merz, traveling with a delegation of about 30 business leaders, will visit Beijing and then Hangzhou, a major hub for humanoid robotics.

The chancellor’s relative inexperience on Chinese affairs is unlikely to make things easier, especially as opinions in Germany diverge on how best to respond to the historic shift in economic relations between Germany and the People’s Republic of China. The complementary relationship that defined trade between the two countries for two decades no longer exists; the strong Chinese demand for German-made chemicals, vehicles and industrial equipment that enabled China’s industrial development and brought Germany remarkable prosperity in the 2010s has come to an end. “We are experiencing a brutal withdrawal,” said Wuttke.

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