The Federal Republic of Germany is alienating its most important trading partner at the behest of its Economics Minister Robert Habeck. Indeed, according to plans from the Federal Ministry of Economics, the German economy is to "become far more independent of China" - this is also to be achieved with tougher measures. This is reported by Die Welt with reference to a paper from the economics department. In it, "among other things, it is proposed to no longer flank German-Chinese projects politically, as the news portal The Pioneer reported on Thursday." In addition, Chinese firms are to be excluded from critical infrastructure contracts. German firms that are particularly exposed in China could be given separate notification requirements, the report added. The Ministry of Economics initially declined to comment when asked by Welt.
If the plans become reality, this could advance the much-discussed deindustrialization of Germany. China was Germany's largest trading partner in 2020 for the fifth year in a row. In 2020, the bilateral trade volume amounted to 212.1 billion euros (2019: 205.6 billion euros). This means that Germany accounts for more than one-third of the EU's total trade volume with China (around 586 billion euros).
The statistics show Germany's trade balance with China from 2004 to 2021. According to Statista, the trade balance refers to the value of goods exports minus the value of goods imports. A positive value means a trade surplus, a negative value a trade deficit. In 2021, Germany's trade deficit with China was around 39.4 billion euros, meaning that more goods worth 39.4 billion euros were imported from China to Germany than German goods were exported to China.
The value of German exports to China and German imports from China in the years from 2009 to 2021 was also record high. In 2021, goods worth around 103.6 billion euros were exported from Germany to China. The value of Chinese imports to Germany in the same period was around 143 billion euros.