Merz tries to woo China’s neighbours without angering Beijing
officials in Berlin say decision-makers were finally tipped over the edge by what the economists Brad Setser and Sander Tordoir have termed the “China shock 2.0”.
In a paper for the Centre for European Reform think-tank, they argued that Germany more than any other western country was bearing the brunt of a vast surge of competition from Chinese exports as its own businesses were increasingly being shut out of the Chinese market.