Merz in China: Robots, Deals, Ambition

Germany's chancellor stops in Hangzhou to meet Unitree Robotics.

Germany’s visit to China this week is more than ritual diplomacy: it is a high-stakes signal that even as Western capitals fret about tech decoupling, Beijing remains a critical hub for cutting-edge robotics and a key partner for European manufacturers. The Foreign Ministry announced on February 23 that Chancellor Friedrich Merz would travel to China from February 25 to 26, with a scheduling arc that knits Beijing’s political dialogue to on-the-ground industrial access. In Beijing, Merz will join a Sino-German Economic Advisory Committee meeting, confer with Chinese leaders, and visit the Forbidden City before heading to Hangzhou to meet Unitree Robotics and Siemens Energy.

The Hangzhou stop matters for more than optics. Merz travels with a “large business delegation” of roughly 30 senior executives from German and multinational corporations, including Bayer, Volkswagen, Siemens, Adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Henkel, DHL, Commerzbank, and BMW. The arrangement—paired with talks in Beijing—underscores Germany’s intent to keep a foothold in China’s vast manufacturing ecosystem even as Western capital markets and policy circles increasingly press for supply-chain diversification and stricter controls on technology transfer. The trip’s framing around the Sino-German Economic Advisory Committee signals that economic policy and industrial pragmatism sit at the heart of a relationship that has long promised mutual market access and shared innovation.

Unitree Robotics, the Hangzhou-bound stop, embodies a pillar of China’s private-to-private robotics value chain: a fast-growing maker in a sector dominated by private startups and state-aligned players, where Chinese suppliers increasingly weave together components, software, and market access across continents. A state-level visit to a robot-equipment manufacturer sits at the intersection of Germany’s industrial strategy and China’s ambitions to export more “intelligent manufacturing” capabilities. The listing of Siemens Energy on Merz’s itinerary also highlights a broader energy-and-automation dialogue that China has framed as a national priority for industrial upgrading.

From a policy perspective, the trip aligns with Beijing’s long-running practice of tying diplomatic engagement to economic outcomes. Chinese officials have repeatedly emphasized that foreign policy and foreign-economic policy are interlinked, and Merz’s entourage—partnered with high-profile German corporates—riffs on that theme. Observers note that such high-profile visits are often designed to reassure foreign investors about ongoing access to China’s sizable consumer and manufacturing markets while signaling to domestic audiences that foreign capital remains willing to participate in China’s modernization drive.

For global manufacturers and suppliers, the event offers tangible lessons. First, the visit reinforces the importance of Zhejiang Province’s manufacturing clusters in China’s robotics and automation supply chains, where procurement, testing, and scale-up often converge. Second, Merz’s delegation is a reminder that even in a tightly regulated tech environment, European buyers continue to rely on Chinese robotics suppliers to bridge cost, capability, and time-to-market in automation rollouts. Third, the trip underscores the yin-yang tension companies face: access and proximity to China’s vast market and mature supply chain come with heightened scrutiny over IP, data security, and policy-driven constraints on technology transfer.

What to watch next: researchers and plant managers should monitor how this visit translates into tangible, incremental cooperation—whether in joint R&D programs, procurement pilots, or clearer pathways for European firms to source robotics components and services from China. In practice, the Merz trip will likely influence not just bilateral sentiment, but the pace at which companies recalibrate supplier footprints, balance speed against control, and decide how to mix European and Chinese suppliers to meet aggressive automation timelines.

Sources

German Chancellor Merz to Visit Unitree Robotics During China Trip