Visit marks Berlin's return to pragmatic diplomacy

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to China last week was a deliberate step to stabilize and deepen a relationship of central importance to both countries. It signaled a return to a style of German diplomacy that had, in recent years, seemed to fade — measured in tone, pragmatic in substance and firmly anchored in economic cooperation.

The composition of the delegation alone conveyed this message. It was the largest business delegation to accompany a German chancellor since the era of Angela Merkel, bringing together leading representatives of the automotive industry and sectors such as mechanical engineering, chemicals, energy technology and the digital economy. Their presence underscored the reality that Germany and China remain deeply interconnected industrial economies whose prosperity depends on stable and predictable cooperation.

Equally important was the manner in which the visit was conducted. Difficult issues were not ignored, but were addressed in the appropriate diplomatic setting in the spirit of mutual respect. Publicly, the emphasis lay on dialogue, partnership and shared responsibility. The chancellor's Spring Festival greetings to the Chinese people, delivered with visible sincerity, were a gesture of goodwill and cultural awareness.

A key practical outcome was the agreement to resume regular German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations. This restores an essential institutional framework that had weakened in recent years and will bring multiple German Cabinet members to China later this year.

The visit to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, including a meeting at Unitree Robotics, offered a glimpse into the future of industrial cooperation. China's remarkable advances in robotics and artificial intelligence — already visible to a global audience during the Spring Festival Gala — opened new possibilities for joint innovation. German strengths in precision engineering, industrial software and system integration complement China's speed of technological deployment and scale. Co-innovation in these fields is the practical pathway to higher productivity, greener industry and shared technological progress.

Some commentators in Germany noted that during the visit, certain labels of recent years were conspicuously absent from the chancellor's vocabulary. More telling than terminology, however, was the tone — respectful, realistic and oriented toward solutions. A leading German policy news-letter spoke of the "disappearing" systemic rivalry, capturing a shift from rhetorical confrontation to practical engagement — a recognition that cooperation and competition can co-exist within a rules-based framework.

Germany and China, as two of the world's largest manufacturing nations, bear a particular responsibility for the stability of global supply chains and for the success of green and digital transformations.

Their collaboration in energy technology, advanced manufacturing and sustainable mobility contributes not only to national prosperity, but also to the wellbeing of people far beyond their borders.

Economic diplomacy, when practiced with patience and strategic clarity, builds bridges instead of barriers. The recent visit showed that such diplomacy remains possible. It requires listening as much as speaking, continuity as much as initiative and, above all, the willingness to seek common ground without abandoning one's own principles.

At the close of his visit, Merz spoke modestly of returning "with good impressions and many tasks ahead". No grandiloquence, no posturing, just an honest assessment.

Structural issues cannot be resolved in a single visit. But the direction has been set. Dialogue has been revitalized, institutional channels reopened and new areas of cooperation identified. If both sides continue along this path, the benefits will be tangible — for both countries and their economies, but, above all, for their people, whose livelihoods depend on open markets, innovation and stable international relations.

The visit, therefore, marked a new beginning in the form of a return to the disciplined, pragmatic tradition of German economic diplomacy. Germany is back, and it has come to China not as a lecturer, but as a partner prepared to work seriously for shared progress.

The author is chairman of the German Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.