On the whole, rapidly growing bilateral economic relations benefit from both China's industrialization in the last 30 years and the financial assistance and technological support provided by Germany to China since 1979 when West Germany acknowledged China's identity as a developing country. By April 2012, Germany had exported 16,796 new technologies to China, worth $55.73 billion. In the meantime, Germany had invested in 7,437 projects on the Chinese mainland with a total sum of $18.67 billion. Moreover, after China's admission to the WTO in 2001, the two governments further improved a bilateral trade for deeper economic cooperation.

Since the severe debt crisis hit the EU in 2008, economic cooperation between the two saw great changes. After Germany ended traditional development assistance to China in 2009, the two sides strengthened cooperation in climate change mitigation, environmental protection and energy conservation. Centering on the economic policy goals of China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), bilateral cooperation has focused more on strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new material, medical technology, aerospace technology and electric vehicles since 2010. Cooperation in financial and insurance industries was also strengthened. Meanwhile, China's investment in Germany increased swiftly. In 2011, China surpassed the United States to become one of the largest foreign direct investors in Germany.

Culture, science knowhow

The great importance attached by the governments of the two countries on cultural exchanges and education and technology cooperation also contributed a lot to the rapid growth of bilateral relations.

After the two sides signed protocols on science and technology and cultural exchanges in 1978 and 1979, a higher education cooperation agreement was signed in 2002. In 2006, the two sides also set up talks for cooperation in higher education.

In 1988, the Goethe Institute set up its first branch in Beijing. Many German corporate foundations as well as cultural organizations, including the German Academic Exchange Service, thereafter set up offices in China. In 2008, a Chinese Culture Center settled in Berlin. In addition, about 12 Confucius Institutes have been set up across Germany. In the fields of science and technology, together with the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the German Research Foundation established a Sino-German science promotion center in 2000 in Beijing. Other famous German research institutes have also conducted active cooperation with their Chinese counterparts. In 2011, the Leibnitz Association created a Sino-German maritime science center in Qingdao, Shandong Province, joining hands with the Ocean University of China.

Cultural exchanges between the two have ranged from language, music, art and opera to ideological dialogue with a profound influence on modernization and urbanization, as evidenced by the three-year-long "Germany and China—Move Ahead Together" campaign from 2007 to 2010 in China and the Chinese Culture Year held this year in Germany. The participants and scope of cultural exchanges have expanded from college students to middle school students, from big metropolises to smaller cities, and from intergovernmental to people-to-people. At present, there are 70 pairs of sister cities and 750 interschool partnerships between the two countries. The number of overseas students in each other's countries has also seen dramatic increase.

Mutual benefits

China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the world's second largest economy, has played an important role in global political and economic issues. At the same time, Germany is the world's fourth largest economy and a bellwether of European integration. Its influence in regional and global issues is also notable. In the last decades, the fruitful Sino-German cooperation has not only promoted the rapid social and economic development of China and its connection with the international community, but also gave a boost to German economic growth.

Although the two sides have maintained close economic and cultural ties, their military exchanges are limited by the EU's arms embargo on China. There are also major differences in political systems cultures and geopolitical interests between the two sides. Therefore, a friendly Sino-German relationship in the future still requires unremitting efforts from both official and nongovernmental levels.

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