Recently, according to a report by Reuters, in the first quarter of this year, the United States replaced China as the number one country in imports and exports to Germany. What is the truth, and why was the United States able to surpass China to become the number one country in Germany's imports and exports? Will this be a good thing for the Germans?
China has been Germany's largest trading partner for eight consecutive years, but this year, Europe's countervailing investigations against China have intensified, increasing barriers to imports from China, making it more difficult for Chinese products to enter Germany, and many of Germany's capable companies have already built factories in China and produced in China, and China's demand for imported products from Germany is getting smaller and smaller. At the same time, due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States has deepened its relations with European countries, through military aid to Ukraine, arms trade with European countries is also growing, and the United States has increased subsidies to enterprises, so that many German companies are willing to trade with the United States.
So is such a thing a good thing for Germany? Germany had a huge demand for energy at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, but due to its hostility with Russia, it has gradually become dependent on energy from the United States. Germany has now begun to deindustrialize due to the relocation of a large number of production companies, but it is this deindustrialization that has made Germany's competitiveness even less attractive in recent years, because German products are becoming less and less attractive to China. The United States has forced Germany to increase military spending through the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, so that Germany has put more national strength on containing Russia's development, and although the United States has also participated in the containment action, the United States has profited from the arms business, and it can weaken Germany's strength through this move.
In this situation of internal and external troubles, the time has come for the most cruelty to the Germans. Germany is now not only experiencing an outflow of manufacturing companies, but also capital outflows, which has made Germany's domestic manufacturing industry even worse. Germany, along with the EU, has to create contradictions in trade with China, and it can only be said that it is to blame for this. China and Germany are economically complementary, and Germany can even follow China's lead. But now that Germany has gone to extremes after the economic downturn, it has become a follower of the United States politically, which is exactly what the United States wants to see, and the United States will hold Germany's lifeblood and make Germany a weapon in Europe.
In the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Germany's hostile performance towards Russia is already extreme, exercising on the edge of Russian enclaves, and constantly giving military aid to Ukraine, which seems to have a lot of right to speak, but in fact, it is just putting a good economy and not developing, putting the cart before the horse. Military and war are the last resort of politics, only when the economy develops, will there be less disputes, and only when there are fewer disputes, can the economy be developed, I don't believe that Germany does not understand this truth, but Germany is now, coveting the benefits gained by the United States in military expansion. The United States can compensate for the military risks through dollar hegemony, while Germany does not have such means. Germany should really think carefully about whether to follow in China's footsteps or in the footsteps of the United States.