Diplomatic bombshell as German foreign minister postpones China trip – Berlin-Beijing relations are becoming increasingly fragile

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Friday postponed an imminent diplomatic trip to China, over a dearth of meetings on his schedule, Bloomberg reports.

Wadephul's bombshell will likely roil relations between Berlin and Beijing. It comes amid an increasing deterioration of Germany-China relations in recent months over Beijing's export curbs on rare earths and microchips, as well as German criticism over China's posture toward Taiwan and behavior in the South China Sea.

A few hours earlier, German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche announced that Berlin was lodging a diplomatic protest against China for blocking semiconductor shipments. "We have been hit hard by the chip shortage because the German economy depends on these chips," she said in Kyiv.

The foreign minister was originally scheduled to depart for China on Sunday. Wadephul had planned to press Beijing to ease export restrictions on rare earths and semiconductors, he told Reuters on Thursday — and discuss pushing Russia toward negotiations to end its war in Ukraine.

Wadephul decided not to travel and to seek alternative dates for the two-day visit because China was only able to confirm one official meeting, with his counterpart Wang Yi, foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer told reporters in Berlin Friday. Deschauer declined to give an alternative travel date, Bloomberg reports.

The incident is another blow to German-Chinese relations which have cooled off in the few months since conservative chancellor Friedrich Merz took office in May, promising to take a tougher line with Beijing. Merz himself had planned to travel to China for his first meeting with President Xi Jinping, but that trip, too, failed to materialize due to scheduling conflicts and will most likely not happen this year.

Wadephul, who is a close ally of Merz, had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earth exports during his visit and had planned to also meet a leading official from the Chinese Communist Party. The shortage of rare earths has led to serious production problems in many Germany companies and was also raised by Merz in discussions with other EU leaders at a summit in Brussels Thursday.

German officials are also trying to unlock access to semiconductor supplies from Nexperia after shipments were halted due to a dispute between China and the Netherlands.

“We are talking to companies, associations, Dutch and European partners, and are lobbying China on behalf of German customers of Nexperia components, which are currently blocked,” Economy Minister spokeswoman Anne Lorenzat said at press conference in Berlin. “Microelectronics are crucial for our supply chains and our security as a business location, which is why it is important for the federal government to adopt the micro strategy, which places a new focus on the resilience of supply chains.”

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