Friedrich Merz to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing, with goods worth €251bn traded between two countries in 2025

Friedrich Merz to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing, with goods worth €251bn traded between two countries in 2025

China has overtaken the US as Germany’s top trading partner, figures have shown, as the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, prepares for his first visit to Beijing since taking office.

Merz will head to China on Tuesday and will be welcomed with military honours on Wednesday in Beijing by the prime minister, Li Qiang, before later meeting the president, Xi Jinping, for talks over dinner, his spokesperson Sebastian Hille said.

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office released figures on Friday showing that China was back on top as the country’s most important market with €251bn (£219bn) in trade in 2025, up 2.2% on 2024, when the US was the country’s leading export destination.

  • redlemace@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    7 hours ago

    …tariffs…tariffs…tariffs…tariffs… like a broken record. Comply and new tariffs await you when he … oh, he’ll just find something. But sure, go ahead, punish the Americans. Most of the world will continue to turn to stable, reliable, trusted and respected partners to trade with.

  • panda_abyss@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    6 hours ago

    I for one am excited to see the Supreme Court manage the argument that if it’s an “official act” it can’t be a crime, yet that he’s in contempt of court over these tariffs.

      • panda_abyss@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        I don’t actually know much about him, so would you mind enlightening me, even if it’s just a sentence of some awful thing he did

        • CandleTiger@programming.devEnglish
          3·
          5 hours ago

          Hm, I was thinking about the well-known quite “Justice Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”

          But I looked it up and it a) came from a case that is way more nuanced and complicated and b) appears to be a made-up quote in the first place