Takeaway from Sino-German economic relations for Brussels

When Germany's Economic Affairs and Energy Minister Katherina Reiche arrived in Beijing this week with a 40-member business delegation, she carried a message Brussels would do well to heed before its Friday debate on new trade restrictions targeting China's alleged "overcapacity".

Germany, Europe's largest economy and its industrial engine, understands something increasingly lost in Brussels' geopolitical rhetoric: Europe's prosperity is deeply intertwined with China's market, supply chains and innovation ecosystem.

The European Union cannot safeguard against what it deems "unfair practices" by damaging its own export industries or blocking channels of cooperation with the world's second-largest economy. It is arithmetic. China and Germany conducted roughly 250 billion euros ($290.20 billion) in goods trade in 2025 — accounting for about 33.2 percent of China-EU trade that year, with China remaining Germany's largest trading partner for several consecutive years. Around 5,000 German companies operate in China. German investment in China exceeded 7 billion euros in 2025, reportedly up nearly 50 percent from the previous year and the highest level in four years. At the same time, Chinese investment projects in Germany surpassed those from the United States. These are the numbers of two major economies adapting to a more competitive but still mutually beneficial relationship.