00:00Joachim Bitterlick is Germany's former ambassador to NATO and government advisor.
00:06When you look beyond the US, in Europe, 20 months, Germany is for the Chinese the number one.
00:16And this in a moment of crisis for both sides, when you look at Germany, when you look at the
00:22German economy,
00:23when you look at the exports, and it's a crucial moment for both sides, for the Chinese too.
00:29Because they have to see exactly where to go from now on with the Germans and probably with other Europeans.
00:37Because there has been a real procession, a sort of procession, let's call it, of Western leaders to Beijing.
00:45Kanye has been there, Stama there, Macron, and now Merz.
00:50And this is for the Chinese, let's say, a real test where to go with the Europeans.
00:57What does China get out of this visit?
01:02Well, China is, Merz will be accompanied by about 30 personalities from German business.
01:10And they describe the situation, actually, the situation in China is complex, it's rather difficult.
01:17On the other hand, they close factories, but they open other factories.
01:23Merz will visit one of the German factories of robotics in Huangshu, as an example.
01:31It's still going on, but when you look at the pure figures, China is the number one for the Germans.
01:39When you look at trade, 250 billion euro last year.
01:46But imports from China are rising, and exports to China are shrinking.
01:55This is the situation Merz is now confronted.
02:00The German export model is in a certain crisis.
02:04And China has become, in the last years, not only, let's say, the cooperation partner,
02:12China has become more and more a competitor and a rival.
02:15For Germany, what would a good visit look like?
02:21It's interesting to see.
02:24The Germans have been telling to German industry since 23.
02:28Please, not decouple from China, but de-risk.
02:33Look at diversification of your origins of factories in the world.
02:39Go not only to China, go to Malaysia, go to Vietnam, go to Australia, go to other countries.
02:45Wherever you want.
02:46But it seems that the German industry is only partially listening to German politics.
02:54And what's interesting, when you look at these weird, strong areas of German business, car industry, mechanical engineering, robotics, electronics,
03:07and all the three are suffering.
03:09And what's, for me, the most interesting is, when I look at car industry, I do not understand why German
03:18industry has not understood the clear signal from China,
03:22that the Chinese, that the Chinese now prefer to buy a Chinese car instead of a more expensive German car.
03:31And the German experts are going down.
03:34And why the Germans have only lately understood the signals from China?
03:40And the German experts are going down.
03:40And the German experts are going down.
03:41And the German experts are going down.
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