Source:
https://scmp.com/business/economy/article/1459897/economic-honeymoon-between-china-and-germany-fades
Business

Economic honeymoon between China and Germany fades

Once close trading partners, China and Germany are now rethinking their business relationship and shifting their focus to other markets

China accounted for a fifth of BMW's sales last year, well above the 13 per cent the company makes in Germany. Photo: Bloomberg

As Xi Jinping prepares to make the first trip to Germany by a Chinese president in eight years, lofty goals to boost trade between the world's top exporters look out of reach, and German firms are beginning to rethink their aggressive push into China.

In 2012, when then premier Wen Jiabao paid a visit, he announced an aim to raise bi- lateral trade to US$280 billion by 2015, a target that seemed ambitious but realistic at the time, given a 54 per cent surge to US$180 billion in the previous two years.