China in 25: Trump-Xi meeting, Germany-China relations and the next Five-Year Plan

In this episode of the German-language “China in 25” podcast, Bernhard Bartsch, Mikko Huotari, and Claudia Wessling discuss the eagerly awaited meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea, the state of German-Chinese relations following the cancellation of Foreign Minister Wadephul's trip to Beijing, and the next Five-Year Plan, the priorities of which the Chinese leadership has just outlined at the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP Central Committee.

Mikko Huotari says that China and the US have bought themselves time by agreeing to suspend the export controls imposed by China.  “The question now is what they will use this time for.” Europe is only an “spectator” in this context, he notes critically. 

German-Chinese relations are also strained, and the German government must strategically prepare itself for difficult talks, as Bernhard Bartsch says. Beijing sees how European leaders are making pilgrimages to Washington to flatter Trump and wants to be “just as respected and feared.” 

China's draft for the next Five-Year Plan also makes it clear that Europe urgently needs to do its homework, as our podcasters say: It reflects the continuity with which Beijing places industrial innovation at the center of its economic strategy. "The rest of the world must respond,“ says Mikko Huotari. 

Read more about the resilience and vulnerabilities of EU member states in relation to China in our "Europe China Resilience Audit" published on October 29, 2025. Analyses of the next five-year plan and the Fourth Plenum can be found in the current ”MERICS China Essentials."