Berlin, Not Brussels: Why Germany Will Decide If the EU-China “Reset” Means Anything

Brussels can set all the deadlines it wants, but Beijing has already figured out that Germany, not the European Commission, holds the pen on Europe’s China policy.

A deliberate sequence

When Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao stood together on June 29 to launch the new EU-China Trade and Investment Consultation Mechanism, the framing was carefully bloc-wide: four pillars covering trade balance, export controls, intellectual property, and WTO reform, plus a joint monitoring system to track flows and build trust. Šefčovič told reporters the goal was “tangible results” by October, with a Commission visit to Beijing planned for the autumn.

But the meeting that will matter more happened a day earlier, with far less fanfare. On June 28, Wang sat down in Brussels with Germany’s economy minister, Katherina Reiche, and the two sides agreed to revive the China-Germany Joint Economic Committee, establishing working groups on trade and investment and on industrial cooperation. Wang used the meeting to ask Germany to “play an active role” inside the EU in pushing Brussels toward what Beijing calls a more “rational and pragmatic” position. That sequencing was not incidental. Beijing understands that the EU does not really negotiate with China as a unified bloc. Rather, it negotiates as twenty-seven member states with sharply different exposure, and one of them holds a substantial influence over how far collective action can go.

The numbers explain why Germany occupies that position. China remained Germany’s largest trading partner in 2025, with bilateral........

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