Liu He seeks European backup to help China weather US trade war
- China’s top trade negotiator to visit Germany next week before Xi-Trump meeting at G20
- Germany likely to be hit hard if US put tariffs on auto exports and, like China, has trade surplus with the US – but it shares some US concerns on China
China will be seeking to step up trade policy coordination with European nations when Vice-Premier Liu He visits Germany next week for financial talks, to help protect it as the trade war with the United States continues.
Liu, President Xi Jinping’s right-hand man in charge of economic policy and China’s top trade negotiator, will visit Germany from Sunday to Wednesday for the Hamburg Summit of China-Europe Forum.
Liu will meet Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, the Chinese foreign ministry said. His three-day trip takes place days before an expected face-to-face talk between Xi and his US counterpart Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Argentina on December 1.
The Hamburg summit is a biennial high-level business conference to advance Chinese-European relations that began in 2004. China usually sends officials of vice-premier level or above to lead the delegation.
This year, at a time of growing tensions between China and the US and uncertainty surrounding their trade war negotiations, China has moved to foster stronger relations with European countries in an attempt to counter US pressure.