Xi Urges Germany to Stay 'Pragmatic' on China as Steinmeier Pushes Back on Trade Gap

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged Germany to maintain a "rational, pragmatic and friendly" policy toward Beijing during a meeting Friday with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as China works to stabilize its relationship with Europe at a moment of rising trade friction. Xi told Steinmeier that areas of consensus between the two countries outweigh their differences and floated the idea of what he called an "all-dimensional strategic partnership," according to a readout from China's Foreign Ministry.

A trade deficit Germany wants addressed

Steinmeier, on the final day of a five-day state visit to China, used the meeting to press Xi on a different priority: narrowing Germany's trade deficit with China, which has widened as Chinese exports of electric vehicles, solar equipment and other manufactured goods have outpaced German sales into the Chinese market. The imbalance has become a recurring point of tension between Berlin and Beijing even as both governments publicly emphasize the importance of keeping trade ties intact.

Steinmeier also told Xi that the world needed China to play its part in preserving the rules-based international order built around the UN Charter, a pointed reminder that Germany's willingness to engage pragmatically with Beijing is not unconditional, and that European governments still expect China to act as a stabilizing rather than disruptive force in global affairs.

Beijing's broader pitch to Europe

Xi's appeal to Germany specifically, and to the European Union more broadly, to work with China "in the same direction" reflects a wider Chinese diplomatic push this year to keep European governments from aligning too closely with Washington's more confrontational approach to trade and technology policy toward Beijing. German officials have tried to balance that pitch against domestic pressure to protect European industry from a flood of subsidized Chinese exports, a tension that shaped much of the backdrop to Steinmeier's visit even as both sides publicly stressed cooperation over confrontation.

Whether Xi's "pragmatic" framing translates into concrete concessions on market access or the trade imbalance Steinmeier raised is likely to be the real measure of the visit's success, rather than the warm language both leaders used in their public remarks.