German Chancellor Angela Merkel conducted her 12th visit to China from Sept 6 to 7. Since taking office in 2005, Merkel has visited China almost every year, but this visit seemed to be particularly important, considering the current world situation, so full of uncertainties.

Despite the uncertainties, the two countries are interacting closely, charting the direction for medium-and long-term cooperation, and carrying out two-way opening-up to strengthen bilateral ties, which has also exerted a far-reaching influence on the international situation.

The trade volume between China and Germany reached 19.3 billion euros ($21.4 billion) in 2018, making China Germany's largest trading partner for the third consecutive year.

China has fulfilled its promise of expanding market access, and Germany has been among the first to benefit from its new round of opening-up. For example, German automaker BMW has become the first foreign car company holding more than half the shares of its joint venture in China. Also, Germany Allianz Insurance Group has been the first approved foreign-owned insurance company to set up office in Beijing and Chemical giant BASF has invested $10 billion to establish a wholly-owned integrated project factory in Guangdong province.

With China's financial, insurance and service industries to open further in the future, Germany is also looking forward to sharing more opportunities. In the first half of 2020, the sixth round of Sino-German government consultations will be held in China. At that time, the two sides will further commit themselves to opening up to the other and creating more opportunities for bilateral cooperation.

However, as Germany has tightened its review of overseas-invested mergers and acquisitions in recent years, China's investment in Germany has declined. In fact, Merkel said on this trip that China's investment in Germany is still lower than Germany's investment in China. At the German-Chinese Economic Advisory Committee meeting, she explicitly invited Chinese companies to increase investment in Germany.

During the visit, Merkel signed 11 cooperation agreements covering many fields, signaling that the two countries will further strengthen cooperation in emerging technologies, such as autonomous cars, intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence and digitization, and discuss and formulate relevant international standards, and jointly cultivate and develop future markets.

Some in the German media have exaggerated the challenges brought by intensifying competition between China and Germany on German companies. But Merkel acknowledged that benign competition accelerates innovations and benefits both countries. In some emerging fields, such as electric vehicle batteries and artificial intelligence, Chinese companies have actually taken the lead. Germany has realized that it is technologically beneficial to strengthen ties with China. Merkel's visit has also released two important signals to the world.

First, Germany has expressed its willingness to lead the future development of Sino-European Union ties and also encouraged the EU to cooperate with China in a more rational and pragmatic manner. China hopes that Germany will play the role of "leader" and "stabilizer" in Sino-EU ties. Germany also expects China and the EU to sign an investment protection agreement as soon as possible. Given EU's rotating presidency, Germany will convene the China-EU Summit during the second half of 2020 and the signing of the China-EU Investment Protection Agreement could be one of the highlights of the summit. The Agreement, if arrived at, will lay the foundation for Sino-EU free trade negotiations and help raise Sino-German and Sino-European trade to a new historical high.

Second, together with China, Germany has raised its voice against isolationism and protectionism to jointly safeguard and maintain a free trade system based on multilateral rules. The trade hegemony pursued by the US government has shaken the foundation of the global trade order and Merkel said it had adversely affected Germany too.

Merkel has explicitly opposed the use of punitive tariffs to resolve trade disputes. In her speech at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, she underlined that rather than unilateralism multilateral thinking and action are needed more than ever before. "We need globalism rather than nationalism, and cosmopolitanism rather than isolationism; in short: cooperate instead of working alone," she said.

The deepened Sino-German economic and trade cooperation will inevitably bring differences, problems and even frictions. However, the maturity of Sino-German bilateral ties, also strengthened by the deepened ties, can not only withstand these pressures, but also support the two sides solving problems through communication, dialogue and negotiation in line with commercial principles and market rules.

For example, disagreements over issues such as cybersecurity, overcapacity and equal market opening have been recognized and will not hinder communication between the two countries.

However, one should be wary of some people in Germany who do not want to see China's development, nor good ties between China and Germany. They often ignore the realities, speculating on human rights and other issues, and even render institutional competition and meddle in China's internal affairs.

This has cast a shadow on the development of Sino-German relations and requires German decision-makers to maintain their judgment, not to be tempted or reserved.

Facts prove that China's development is an opportunity, not a threat to the world; Merkel said that China has the same right to develop as other countries. Hindering China's development process is not the right choice to make. It is in the interests of all countries in the world to see Chinese people living a good life. Although there are differences in ideology, history and culture between China and Germany, the two sides can, and should, communicate through equality and mutual respect, through established dialogue mechanisms to increase trust and dispel doubts. Only in this way can China-Germany comprehensive strategic partnership be able to take it to the next level.

The author is director of the German Studies Center at Tongji University. T

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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