China’s leader, Xi Jinping, tried to sell Germany on a future less tied to the United States and anchored instead in Chinese markets and technology.
Mr. Xi pledged that China would continue to “share development opportunities with Germany and the wider world” in his meeting with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, who was on a visit to Beijing that seemed curated to highlight such opportunities. On Thursday, Mr. Merz tried out a new Mercedes-Benz in Beijing, then flew to the eastern city of Hangzhou to tour a Chinese robotics company.
But for all the pageantry, the visit has also laid bare the limits of that sales pitch.
Unlike other Western leaders who have met with Mr. Xi in recent weeks, Mr. Merz was publicly pointed. He paired pledges of cooperation with an accounting of how a flood of Chinese exports and an unfair playing field are harming German businesses and contributing to the loss of thousands of jobs in his country each month.
“Competition between companies must be fair,” Mr. Merz said in a statement after he met with Mr. Xi on Wednesday, describing what it would take for Germany’s relationship with China to succeed moving forward. “We need transparency, we need reliability, and we also need adherence to jointly established rules.”
Such demands show that Mr. Xi’s courtship of the West — an effort aided by President Trump’s alienation of U.S. allies — falls short of addressing the grievances that have long divided China and the West. Chief among them are an artificially weak Chinese currency; unequal access for foreign companies in China; state subsidies that make Chinese exports appear cheaper; and Beijing’s use of its dominance over critical minerals as leverage.
Even China’s sweeteners have been modest. Mr. Merz, who brought with him more than two dozen German business leaders, said China pledged to buy more Airbus planes. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said last month that China would slash tariffs on imports of Canadian canola products. Both moves amount to tactical gifts rather than real reforms.
China’s current playbook “drives a wedge between Washington and its allies without requiring Beijing to compromise on internal priorities,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Yet it does nothing to address the underlying frictions stoking Western frustration.”
If anything, Mr. Huang said, Mr. Xi is set to double down on his vision next month when he releases details of China’s 15th five-year plan. The plan is likely to pour even more state resources into the very industries — electric vehicles, robotics, clean energy — that are undercutting Western competitors, while tightening China’s grip on the supply chains they depend on.
“European leaders will continue to arrive with complaints and depart with narrow wins,” Mr. Huang said.
China has little incentive to change course. Exports are the only major engine keeping China’s economy growing as it struggles through a yearslong property crisis.
Beijing is pitching Germany on the idea that it can find prosperity by tapping into China’s growth, particularly in emerging fields like clean energy and robotics. In Hangzhou, Mr. Merz visited the humanoid robot start-up Unitree Robotics where he watched robots perform synchronized back-flips and other martial arts-inspired moves.
Mr. Xi, in his official statement, made no direct mention of Mr. Merz’s concerns. He said China would continue to provide economic opportunities, but urged Germany to view China’s rise “objectively and rationally,” and to adopt a “positive and pragmatic policy” — language that amounted to a request to stop treating Beijing as a threat.
Beijing’s ultimate goal is to pull Berlin away from Washington and weaken what China sees as a Western campaign to contain China’s rise.
This month, Chinese state media published editorials calling for Germany to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, arguing that the U.S.-led security alliance undermines Berlin’s autonomy. The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, said in an editorial that the only way for Germany to “de-risk” from global threats was to “de-Americanize.”
Mr. Merz, like other European leaders, has his own frustrations with the United States, such as over tariffs and support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia. But Mr. Merz said at a conference of his center-right Christian Democrats earlier this month that the trans-Atlantic alliance would likely endure because of shared values like freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of the press.
Even some Chinese analysts are skeptical that Beijing’s outreach will pay off.
Li Xing, the director of European studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, said he worried that President Trump would find new ways to punish U.S. allies that get too close to Beijing. (Mr. Trump has warned Canada and Britain that increasing trade with China was “dangerous.”)
“Trump’s trade war has caused many European countries a great deal of trouble, driving them to turn toward us,” Mr. Li said. “However, my concern lies in how much persistence these countries truly have. They come to China and speak in favor of us, but if Trump brandishes his trade stick, can these countries hold their ground?”
Siyi Zhao contributed research from Beijing.
David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades.
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