Merz and Steinmeier take separate routes to Asia, with Merz visiting Singapore, Japan and South Korea

Two trips to very different partners

Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier leave Berlin on separate routes on Monday, 26 October, on separate aircraft and toward different destinations. Steinmeier departs in the morning for his second state visit to China, which is Germany's by far most important economic partner in Asia. A few hours later Merz begins a five-day journey that opens in Singapore and continues to Japan and South Korea. Government circles stress that the two trips have no direct connection, although both offices have coordinated closely. China is described as a competitor and systemic rival with an authoritarian government, whereas the three countries Merz visits are like-minded partners, with Japan bound to Germany especially closely through the G7 and G20.

Merz's push to reduce dependence on China

This is Merz's third trip to Asia as chancellor. In January he chose to visit India before China, the most populous country, and went to China only a few weeks later, unlike his predecessors Olaf Scholz and Angela Merkel. The trip is meant to lessen Germany's economic dependence on China, both for exports and, above all, for imports of important raw materials. Merz presents the journey as an investment in partnerships with the countries of the region and in a shared understanding of international order.

Merz often says that a German chancellor must concern himself with foreign policy, a point his critics frequently use against him. He repeats the idea on his foreign trips, where he usually discusses Germany's strategic economic interests.

“Foreign policy, foreign economic policy and economic policy go hand in hand.”

Programme in Singapore, Japan and South Korea

In Singapore Merz will deliver a keynote speech on foreign policy alongside political talks. In Japan he is scheduled to take part in economic conferences. In South Korea he will attend the Asia-Pacific Conference of German business, which takes place every two years, and from Seoul he will make a side trip to the demilitarized zone on the border with North Korea. He travels with a large, high-ranking business delegation, and company agreements as well as government agreements on artificial intelligence, infrastructure and critical raw materials are expected to be signed. In his government statement to the Bundestag in mid-October, Merz addressed unfair trade practices without naming China.

“Whoever seeks a trade conflict with us will notice that we are now defending ourselves, with appropriate responses.”

Steinmeier's state visit to China

The four-day visit to China is the closing and highest-profile stop of Steinmeier's many Asia trips. In his second term alone he visited around ten Asian states, including Singapore, Japan and South Korea. He has repeatedly presented Germany and Europe as fair and reliable partners that stand ready if Asian states want to reduce one-sided dependencies on China. In Beijing the central theme will be fairness in economic and trade relations. On Thursday, 29 October, he is to deliver a policy speech at Peking University during the conferral of an honorary professorship, and on the following day he will talk with Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang. According to the Federal President's office, imbalances must be dismantled for relations to benefit both sides. Steinmeier also wants China to take on more responsibility as a world power, including using its good ties with Russia to press for an end to the war in Ukraine.

Trade concerns behind the trips

Germany and Europe worry deeply about unfair competition in trade with China. State subsidies from Beijing, overcapacity in production and aggressive pricing are seen as massively harming German industry, as is the Chinese currency, which is kept artificially low. Merz told the Bundestag that Germany would respond with appropriate measures and pointed to new trade protection instruments that the EU Commission is planning. Government circles say a number of decisions on Germany's China policy were taken shortly before the trips.