Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed at their recent meeting to enhance Sino-German cooperation and strategic partnership to an even higher level. As Li put it: "Relations are in the fast lane."

Li chose Germany as the last stop of his maiden overseas trip as prime minister and Berlin was the only EU capital included in his itinerary, which shows how important Germany is to China. Likewise, Merkel has visited Beijing six times as German chancellor, twice during the last year alone.

As Friedolin Strack, managing director of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business, put it, there is a "special relationship" between the two countries. Two years ago, Martin Wolf of the Financial Times coined the neologism "Chermany," although his take on the matter appeared somewhat less than positive.

Bilateral trade between China and Germany amounted to US$161 billion in 2012, an almost 600-fold increase on the 1972 figure. In light of this alone, Li's "Fast lane" comment is unquestionably correct.

China and Germany are the world's largest exporters of manufactured goods and their combined current account surpluses amount to hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars.

During Li's visit, seventeen bilateral agreements were signed covering cooperation between companies including Volkswagen and SAIC Motor Corp and Weichai Power Co and Kion Group. Volkswagen, Germany's largest car maker, manufactures 2.3 million cars in twelve plants across China, and plans to boost its production in China by more than 70 percent over the next five years. It is no accident that one sees lots of Volkswagens on China's roads.

During the meeting with Merkel, Li raised the outstanding issue of the European Commission's plans to impose heavy duties, averaging 47 percent, on Chinese solar panels, labeling such trade protectionism as unacceptable. Germany came out in support of China's stance and in a recent vote, German and a majority 13 other EU members, including Britain and the Netherlands, voted against the sanctions. Reuters spoke to 21 of the EU's 27 members and reported that 15 opposed duties against China, whereas only six supported them. The remaining six members either declined to comment or were unreachable.

Despite this, it appears that provisional anti-China duties will likely go ahead on June 6, once they are established in the European Union's official journal, but there will be intense pressure to roll them back before they become permanent in December. Chancellor Merkel promised she would strive to ensure no permanent tariffs would be imposed by the EU on Chinese solar products and would work over the next six months to resolve the dispute.

The European Commission has also threatened an investigation into mobile telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE. Eighteen of thirty-one trade investigations conducted by EU involve China. But despite this, Li reiterated Beijing's commitment to support the ailing EU economies, since this year marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

Premier Li also visited the site of the Potsdam Conference where he said that Article Eight of the Potsdam Proclamation affirmed that the Cairo Declaration must be carried out; meaning that Japan must return to China the territories it has stolen. He emphasized that any words or deeds that negate or try to embellish Japan's history of fascist aggression would be unacceptable to both the Chinese people and the wider global community.

Unlike rightwing Japanese politicians who did just that – recast Japan's wartime aggression so as to glorify it, Germany has a long history of acknowledging and repenting for the war crimes of its Nazi past. On December 7, 1970, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt traveled to Warsaw and dropped to his knees before the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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