China’s Ambassador to Berlin, Deng Hongbo, appeals to US President Donald Trump not to escalate the trade dispute. “Trade and tariff wars know no winners” Deng Hongbo writes in a guest article for the “Handelsblatt”.
“One-sided tariff increases violate the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), solve no problems and threaten the stability of global supply chains.” The central question of our time is how to handle competition, the ambassador says. “Should competition be used for cooperation, or should one block others through protectionism?” the ambassador asks. “For China and Germany, the answer is obvious: protectionism should not shape our zeitgeist and competition is not a zero-sum game.”
According to the ambassador, China’s focus on high-quality development remains unbroken. “The Chinese start-up Deepseek recently triggered a new wave of AI innovation with its open-source model” Deng Hongbo writes. Meanwhile, a visit to China has become a trend for many German start-ups to find capital, potential partners, talents and valuable inspiration there.
The ambassador advocated for closer cooperation with Europe and Germany. The boom of China’s electric vehicle market is driving the business of European chipmakers like Infineon and NXP. “German automakers, who are deeply rooted in China and known for their ‘hardware,’ are increasingly cooperating with Chinese partners in the ‘software’ sector – a promising experiment” he writes.