Exclusive: China-Germany Economic and Trade Ties Embody the Importance of Open Markets: Peter Jungen

By Sharon Hu, 21st Century Business Herald, SFC

"China-Germany trade volume has now grown to over 200 billion US dollars, marking a tremendous leap in trade scale," said Peter Jungen, Chairman of Peter Jungen Holding GmbH.

During the 2025 Understanding China International Conference, Jungen told 21st Century Business Herald that the success of China-Germany trade cooperation stems from the high complementarity of the two economies.

Faced with the complex situation of rising global unilateralism and trade protectionism, Jungen believes that all countries need to open up markets, encourage competition, and ensure the fairness of competition.

"In general, China-Germany trade relations have shown that the less government intervention in trade, the more conducive it is to business exchanges between the two countries. "Jungen said the fact that China once again surpassed the United States to become Germany's largest trading partner in the first eight months of this year is a clear testament.

Peter Jungen is a renowned German investor and President of Jungen Group, having co-founded or invested in numerous start-ups across Europe and the United States. In 2000, Germany's WirtschaftsWoche named him one of the 100 key figures shaping the future of the "new economy."

SFC: Based on your personal observation and personal experience, what new changes and trends have emerged in the development of China and German economic relations over the past few decades？

Jungen: The relationship has improved tremendously over the period you mentioned, because there is so high complementarity in what the structure of the business is and in particular, the structure of the industry in various countries.

Germany started by supplying cars to China. In the last couple of years, Germany imported more cars from China than the cars were exported to China from Germany. China have built up a huge manufacturing capacity for automotive. So that's a very good example that German companies, export to China, manufacture in China, and export again from China, into other parts of the world.

SFC: What are the notable and promising areas of cooperation between China and the EU in economic trade relations? 

Jungen: If you look at the facts, it's the high percentage of manufacturing in industrial production. It is easy to predict that the bilateral trade will rather concentrate on the area of manufactured goods rather than in other parts. I think it waits to be seen how the development that are at the edge of industrial production. 

And I'm sure that both countries profit from the fact that they are highly industrialized countries. And it will increase not only the attractiveness to each other, but also the competition with each other, and the competition among them will lead to a higher exchange of products and services.

SFC: Do you have any concerns that the US tariffs and trade restrictive policy will affect the operations of German enterprises in China? How do you see the resilience of China and Germany's economic and trade relations?

Jungen: I don't think that the German-Chinese trade relations will be negatively affected by US trade policies. But this is no reason to relax or to lean back. I think the best policy for all countries would be open markets and competition, but it would also be fair competition. The German-Chinese trade relations show that the lesser governments are involved with their own policy in trade, the better for the business between the two countries. 

SFC: What's the room for cooperation existing between Germany and the Greater Bay Area?

Jungen: First of all, we have invested in the country through early-stage funds, innovation ventures such as investment in the technology of Chinese businesses. They are looking into what the proper technological proposal is. People, business model and revenue model are components of a decision in making an investment in technology in this country. 

And it has shown that since the borders ever opened, the countries were opened for trade. German trade with China has developed to over USD 200 billion in one way, which would not have been possible if you had closed borders. The relationship between Germany and China shows how important it is to have open markets and open markets mean open information because it's the flow of information which makes innovation happen.