Basic facts: Sino-Germany Bilateral Relations

1. Political ties

The diplomatic relations between Chinaand Germanywere established in October 1972.

China Germany relations have on the whole made smooth progress in all fields, ever since the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

High-level visits of the two countries were exchanged frequently in between 1978-1989. The foreign ministries of the two countries set up a political consultative mechanism for mutual visits by the two foreign ministers and of regular consultation between their officials at different levels in different forms. Soon after the occurrence of the political disturbance in Beijing, federal Germanyjoined in the sanctions taken against China, thus the bilateral relationship dropped to the status of keeping contact in day-to-day affairs. Later, with joint efforts, however, their relations, step by step, returned to normal and began to improve.

In September 1990, the meeting between the two foreign ministers at General Assembly was restored.

In 1992, China Germany ties made further progress and were put back to the track of normal development.

In 1993, the German Government decided not to approve the sale of its submarines to Taiwan, the bilateral relationship trended toward positive development. In September, the German government put forward a new policy on Asiawith a stress on China, and in November the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl paid his third visit to China. In 1994, President of the NPC Qiao Shi and Premier Li Peng visited Germanyrespectively.