Members of Burg Chinese Chorus perform during a cloud concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Germany in Essen, Germany, on September 10 (XINHUA) 

The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the People's Republic of China recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. On October 11, 1972, the foreign ministers of both countries, Walter Scheel and Ji Pengfei, signed a communiqué formally establishing relations in Beijing. However, before the signing ceremony could take place, a number of people first paved the way through their dedicated initiatives. A Chinese foreign correspondent and a German foreign policy expert both played decisive roles.   

At the time, the United States was generally skeptical about diplomatic relations between the FRG and China. However, when U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger unexpectedly flew from Pakistan to China in July 1971, the circumstances changed. Shortly after, U.S. President Richard Nixon visited Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai in February 1972 and signed the Shanghai Communiqué regulating U.S.-China bilateral relations. Nixon spoke of the "week that changed the world."

Wang Shu, bureau chief of the Chinese news agency Xinhua in Bonn since late 1969, and Gerhard Schröder, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag, were at the center of activities drawing both countries closer together. Schröder was the FRG's foreign minister from 1961 to 1966 and took part in negotiations on a trade treaty with China in Geneva in 1964.

Schröder traveled to China in July 1972 and immediately met with Vice Foreign Minister Qiao Guanhua to sign an agreement that both sides were ready to begin negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations. That same day, Schröder and Premier Zhou Enlai met twice and spoke for five hours. Zhou knew Germany rather well, having lived in Berlin in the 1920s and also visited Cologne and Göttingen.

Contributing to China's readiness to establish diplomatic relations with the FRG were Wang's reports, which he had sent to Beijing from Bonn over the past few years, and which had met with great interest not only from Zhou but also from Mao Zedong. Wang’s reports were an additional confirmation that the FRG did not have an anti-China stance, but was a country open to all sides, especially since the first Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had avoided having relations with Taiwan.

Scheel traveled to China with a 39-member delegation accompanied by 29 journalists in October 1972. There he held talks with Vice Premier Li Xiannian and Ji. The actual signing ceremony of the communiqué on the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations lasted only about 15 minutes.

In his extraordinary speech, Scheel said, "Geographical location, size, population, social, political and economic structure, language and culture separate us. And yet a bridge of understanding can be built across this divide. This is an imperative of reason. The FRG has finally renounced power politics. We have consistently committed ourselves to a policy that seeks to prevent conflicts, reduce tensions and seek a balance between states on the basis of existing reality... This gives us the justification to establish now, in sober self-assurance, without arrogance, a new link with your country and thus to take a step into world politics."

At the evening banquet, Scheel added, "Through continuous political discussion, through the revival of economic, scientific, technological and cultural contacts, through the meeting between Chinese and Germans, we want to achieve lasting understanding." In the days that followed, many talks followed on a trade agreement, an expansion of trade volume, an air transport agreement, delegation exchanges, industrial exhibitions, and exchanges in sports, culture and science.

From then on, economic relations between the two new partners took off. In 1979, a treaty on economic cooperation was signed. In 1984, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl brought a group of industrial leaders to China. Among other things, they signed the contract to set up the Volkswagen joint venture to produce the legendary Santana sedans in China.

During another visit by Kohl to China in 1993, contracts worth billions of U.S. dollars were signed. The volume of trade increased by 13 times as of 2011, helped also by the agreement on cooperation in business, industry and technology signed by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and his business delegation in Germany in 2000.

During Chancellor Angela Merkel's term, regular intergovernmental consultations (2011) and a comprehensive strategic partnership (2014) were established. Today, China and Germany are linked by some 80 bilateral dialogue mechanisms on all relevant international issues. Meanwhile, the trade balance has grown to 245 billion euros, with China becoming Germany's largest trading partner.

This success story cannot be easily reversed. The potential for the Sino-German partnership is far from exhausted and will hopefully see future decades of success.

The author is a researcher with German think tank the Schiller Institute

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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