BEIJING,
July 6 (Xinhua) -- Beijing and Berlin, though thousands of miles apart, are
defying their geographical distance to forge ever closer ties.
The fatigue
of nearly half-day flight between the two capitals cannot prevent Angela Merkel
from embarking on her seventh trip to China as the German chancellor this
weekend.
During her
four-day stay, Merkel will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li
Keqiang, both of whom have paid a visit to Berlin since they took office last
year.
The
frequency of high-level mutual visits is a clear indicator of the closeness
between Beijing and Berlin and the level of importance that both countries have
attached to each other.
It is fair
to say that China-Germany relations are at their best in history, which have
been strongly underpinned by the pragmatic cooperation between the two economic
heavyweights.
For
starters, it is worth noting some basic figures. Germany is now China's largest
trading partner in Europe, while China is Germany's biggest in the Asia-Pacific
region. Two-way trade stood at 161.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, accounting
for nearly one-third of the grand total between China and the European Union
(EU).
One fact
that lies behind those remarkable figures and stays barely noticed is that both
China and Germany are manufacturing powers and world' s leading exporters, but
they for the most of the time managed to avoid a trade war and stood together
for free trade.
Merkel
earned applause from China last year for her opposition to the EU trade
investigation into Chinese mobile telecommunication equipments.
The unusual
co-action between the two exporting powerhouses is deeply rooted in their
economic complementarity.
As Xi put
it during his visit to Berlin in March, the China-Germany cooperation is a
perfect blending of Chinese market and German technology and an alliance
between Chinese speed and German quality.
When German
companies are eager to sell their sophisticated products to the fast-growing
Chinese market, China is equally keen to learn from Made-in-Germany for its own
economic upgrading.
The visit
saw Merkel accompanied by a high-profile business delegation including
executives of Siemens, VW, Airbus, Lufthansa and Deutsche Bank, all familiar
brands to the Chinese.
There is
high expectation that the German chancellor will find her ongoing trip as
fruitful as ever and bring her country one step closer to China.
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