Screenshot from DawnNews English Youtube account

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will start his first official visit to China on Monday, and he said, before boarding his plane for the trip, that direct engagement with China has become “irreplaceable” amid rising global tensions. Freedom, security and prosperity in Germany and Europe are “closely linked to China,” he said, according to media reports.

Wadephul will visit China from Monday to Tuesday at the invitation of Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese Foreign Minister, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced, Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday evening.

In a video released by DWS News, Wadephul was shown speaking to a group of people in front of a plane in Germany, with the English interpretation saying that “freedom, security and prosperity in Germany and Europe are closely linked to China, especially in times of growing tensions and geopolitical upheaval. We must continually explore how we can work together with China to find solutions to pressing challenges, even though our perspectives sometimes differ greatly.”

“It is important to maintain direct contact with China, which is irreplaceable,” he said.

However, he also claimed he would address “trade, restrictions and overcapacity” during his visit, according to the DWS News video.

On Tuesday, Wadephul will visit the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, per Reuters.

Wadephul’s trip to China is an important step toward restoring China-Germany relations. German businesses have long criticized the German government for its “ignorant” China policy, and that pressure from the US has further pushed Berlin to recalibrate its approach to China, Zhou Hong, director of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. 

Zhou noted that Wadephul’s visit should be viewed with a measure of caution, saying his remarks would need to be considered alongside how he follows through in practice.

According to DW on Saturday, Wadephul, a member of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), originally planned his first trip to China for October 26. But the trip was canceled at short notice, DW reported. 

Following news of Foreign Minister Wadephul's postponed trip in November, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil embarked on a visit to China on November 16 to take part in the fourth China-Germany High-Level Financial Dialogue, and became the first minister of the new coalition government to travel to China.

Some Chinese analysts saw as Klingbeil’s visit as an "ice-breaker" for bilateral relations but also noted that Berlin needs to break out of its clichéd pattern of treating China as a competitor while professing the importance of stable ties.