![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7dea42e5-1e77-4944-9dfe-46b5a37c9c25.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Screenshot from DawnNews English Youtube account <\/p>\n
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will start his first official visit to China on Monday, and he said, before boarding his plane for the trip, that direct engagement with China has become \u201cirreplaceable\u201d amid rising global tensions. Freedom, security and prosperity in Germany and Europe are \u201cclosely linked to China,\u201d he said, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
Wadephul will visit China from Monday to Tuesday at the invitation of Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese Foreign Minister, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced, Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
In a video released by DWS News, Wadephul was shown speaking to a group of people in front of a plane in Germany, with the English interpretation saying that \u201cfreedom, security and prosperity in Germany and Europe are closely linked to China, especially in times of growing tensions and geopolitical upheaval. We must continually explore how we can work together with China to find solutions to pressing challenges, even though our perspectives sometimes differ greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to maintain direct contact with China, which is irreplaceable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, he also claimed he would address \u201ctrade, restrictions and overcapacity\u201d during his visit, according to the DWS News video.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Wadephul will visit the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, per Reuters.<\/p>\n
Wadephul\u2019s trip to China is an important step toward restoring China-Germany relations. German businesses have long criticized the German government for its \u201cignorant\u201d China policy, and that pressure from the US has further pushed Berlin to recalibrate its approach to China, Zhou Hong, director of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zhou noted that Wadephul\u2019s visit should be viewed with a measure of caution, saying his remarks would need to be considered alongside how he follows through in practice.<\/p>\n
According to DW on Saturday, Wadephul, a member of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), originally planned his first trip to China for October 26. But the trip was canceled at short notice, DW reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following news of Foreign Minister Wadephul’s postponed trip in November, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil embarked on a visit to China on November 16 to take part in the fourth China-Germany High-Level Financial Dialogue, and became the first minister of the new coalition government to travel to China.<\/p>\n
Some Chinese analysts saw as Klingbeil\u2019s visit as an “ice-breaker” for bilateral relations but also noted that Berlin needs to break out of its clich\u00e9d pattern of treating China as a competitor while professing the importance of stable ties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Screenshot from DawnNews English Youtube account German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will start his first official visit to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-619345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115682139078779316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}