The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, is visiting three countries on his European tour this month. But his previous stops, in Hungary and Britain, were sideshows next to last Tuesday’s visit to Germany. To this Mr. Wen has brought 13 ministers (to meet their 10 German counterparts). The two countries signed 22 cooperation agreements and 14 economic deals. The meetings marked the start of permanent consultations, a relationship Germany has with just a handful of countries and that China has had until now with none. Before Mr. Wen’s visit, China issued a “white book” on its relations with Germany, its first such report on a European country.
It is a meeting of winners whose economic relationship is deepening by the day. Trade leaped nearly 40% in 2010 to $185 billion; that accounts for one-third of the European Union’s total trade with China.
The flurry of contracts and agreements between German and Chinese ministers touches on everything from hospital management to electric cars. The creation of a mechanism for such discussions is more important than the subject matter, even if Chinese ministers count for less than Communist party bosses.
Source: The Economist, June 30
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
Volkswagen signs were everywhere when I visited the interior of China in 1995. Party bigwigs drove Audis. Talk about getting in on the ground floor.
Am in Istanbul at the moment and yesterday saw a huge railway station on the Asian side that was a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm, ally of the Turks in the Great War.