Business & Economics
Merz’s Beijing Trip Clinches 120-Jet Airbus Sale and Promises of Fairer Sino-German Trade
On 25 Feb 2026 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, on his first visit to China, secured Beijing’s pledge to purchase up to 120 Airbus aircraft and boost imports of premium German goods while openly demanding cuts to Chinese subsidies and a level playing field.
Focusing Facts
- Merz told reporters that China will order “up to 120” additional Airbus planes following his meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing.
- Germany’s merchandise trade deficit with China reached a record €89 billion in 2025, a figure repeatedly cited by Merz during the visit.
- The two sides signed five limited MOUs covering climate action, green transition, animal-disease prevention, poultry trade rules, and sports cooperation.
Context
China has used large Airbus orders as diplomatic sweeteners since its first 150-jet purchase in 2005, much as the Soviet grain deals of 1972 softened Cold-War tensions; Merz’s haul therefore fits a pattern of Beijing leveraging market access for political breathing room. The visit sits at the junction of two structural currents: Europe’s century-long oscillation between dependence on distant hegemonic powers (the U.S. since 1945) and quests for strategic autonomy (echoing de Gaulle’s 1960s challenge to NATO), and China’s push to pre-empt Western decoupling by binding key industries—aircraft, EVs, A.I.—to its demand cycle. On a 100-year horizon the episode matters not for the headline jet sale but as another data-point in the gradual re-weaving of a multipolar trade order where regulatory leverage—not tariffs alone—is the principal weapon; if Europe manages to extract genuine reciprocity, the asymmetry that hollowed German manufacturing in the 2020s could narrow, but if history rhymes with the 1930s raw-materials dependencies, Berlin’s deeper entanglement may instead magnify vulnerability when the next geopolitical rupture arrives.
Perspectives
Russian state-owned media
e.g., TASS — Presents Xi Jinping’s meetings with Chancellor Merz as evidence of Beijing’s genuine backing for an autonomous, cooperative Europe and a Chinese commitment to share development opportunities with Germany. Echoes official Chinese talking points uncritically and omits the trade grievances raised by European leaders, reflecting Moscow’s incentive to showcase a China-EU axis that sidelines U.S. influence.
U.S. liberal-leaning media
e.g., The New York Times, Newsweek — Frames Merz’s trip as a hard-nosed attempt to confront Beijing over subsidies, currency policy and market access while balancing against the turmoil caused by President Trump’s trade wars. Stresses conflict and portrays China largely as an unfair competitor, which fits the outlets’ pattern of scrutinising authoritarian states and may underplay areas of mutually beneficial cooperation mentioned by the German side.
Global business-focused outlets
e.g., Euronews, Free Malaysia Today — Highlight the commercial windfalls such as China’s plan to buy up to 120 Airbus jets and new sector-specific agreements, casting the visit as proof that pragmatic economic engagement can still pay off. By foregrounding headline deals, they risk glossing over the deeper structural imbalances and political frictions that German officials say remain unresolved.
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