On Wednesday afternoon Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed her Chinese guest, Prime Minister Li Keqiang, with military honours at the Federal Chancellery. This was followed by a first meeting with the Chancellor and several Cabinet ministers, which looked at foreign and economic policy matters. Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel attended the meeting, as did Federal Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Brigitte Zypries and Federal Research Minister Johanna Wanka.

In the evening Prime Minister Li closed the first day of his visit with dinner with the Chancellor.

The Federal Republic of Germany has maintained diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China since 1972. Since then, Germany, along with the other EU member states, has pursued a one-China policy. Today China is Germany’s most important trading partner, ahead of both France and the USA, with trade worth almost 170 billion euros in 2016.

Working together to generate more innovation

On Thursday (1 June) Prime Minister Li will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel again for a meeting with a smaller group. After their meeting the two heads of government are to sign a number of bilateral agreements. At a press conference the Chancellor and her Chinese guest will then answer the questions of journalists.

After this, the Chancellor and the Prime Minister will be attending a meeting of the Sino-German Forum. The motto of the meeting, under the aegis of Federal Research Minister Johanna Wanka and her Chinese counterpart Wan Gang, is "Shaping Innovation Together". Both the Chancellor and the Chinese Prime Minister will be giving keynote speeches.

Frequent two-way high-ranking diplomatic visits

At the meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers in February in Bonn and at the strategic dialogue held in Berlin at the end of April, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was the guest of Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel. The German Minister, for his part, was in Beijing for talks last week (23 May), focusing on the reform agenda, trade and investment, and electric mobility. But Sigmar Gabriel also broached the issue of human rights.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Brigitte Zypries, Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas, and Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller have also visited the People’s Republic of China recently for an exchange of views with the respective counterparts.

China’s President Xi Jinping will be coming to Germany to attend the G20 summit in Hamburg in July, where global trade and open access to markets in compliance with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will play an important part. "China and Europe both advocate an open world trade regime," stressed Sigmar Gabriel last week in Beijing.

Since 2004, Sino-German relations have been defined as a "strategic partnership in global responsibility". In March 2014 this was upgraded to a "comprehensive strategic partnership". Regular government consultations have been held between the two countries since 2011. A total of 60 bilateral dialogue forums are also in place, many of them at top government level. They include a rule-of-law dialogue and a human rights dialogue. They are intended to further consolidate relations between the two countries. During his visit to Beijing, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel launched the civil society "People-to-People Dialogue".