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David Gray Reuters German Chancellor Angela Merkel shook hands with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in February.
As global power eastwards moves, Germany and China are building a special relationship that may compromise the global position of Europe with the Asian giant on the rise and can have serious consequences the balance of power between Europe and China, according to a new report hitting an EU think tank.
Some aspects of the two countries of rapid deepening links can be summarized by the words Marx and Mercedes, Hans Kundnani, one of the two authors of the report, wrote in an e-mail.
Young Chinese admire modernity Munich and Berlin edginess; Chinese old pilgrimage still Trier, the birthplace of Karl Marx And everyone said Mr Kundnani, like German cars.
On a deeper level, business, as well as frustration with the lack of coordinated policies of the European Union, is driving the relationship, Mr. Kundnani and Jonas Parello-Plesner, analysts of the European Council of relationships Foreign, say in their report on China and Germany Why emerging issues of the special relationship to Europe.
As my colleague Harvey Morris reports Germany experienced stronger growth than expected in the first quarter of 0 5 percent this year, the highest in the European Union.
This includes a remarkable German growth depends largely on demand from China, the two economies form a near-perfect, according to the report.
At present, there is an almost perfect symbiosis between Chinese and German economies China needs technology and Germany needs markets, they wrote.
According to the Italian bank UniCredit, exports to China have contributed a very significant 0 of 5 percentage points to German growth in 2011 the equivalent of 13 billion Germany accounts for almost half of EU exports to China in 2010 its trade with China surged 34 percent to 181 billion.
China's conservative policymakers like the fact that Germany is working on tight budgets, wary of what they consider profligacy elsewhere in Europe.
It is better to have a cooperation with Germany than to pay money to other countries that have problems with their real economies, the authors quoted a Chinese analyst as saying unidentified.
China knows it needs more than Germany in Europe; France is also a partner Yet it is difficult to predict what impact the new French president, François Hollande, perhaps, Mr. Kundnani said.
Chinese leaders saw Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous President, as something of a clown, he wrote in the e-mail Perhaps Hollande will improve the image of France in China On the other hand, the Chinese seem to approve austerity and the approach of Germany to the euro crisis, then maybe they will attempt to slow Holland austerity as misguided, he wrote.
The flourishing Sino-German friendship has a dark side, the authors say it may jeopardize all Europe's relations with China on a range of important issues in the E U including human rights , climate change and foreign policy.
There is a danger that Germany is pursuing its economic interests rather than the strategic interests of Europe, said Mr Kundnani.
China, like Germany, is frustrated by the apparent inability of E U to coordinate policy, say the authors of the report if you want something done in Brussels you go to Berlin, a Chinese official told.
Schooled in decades of Ostpolitik, German leaders continued engagement with China early and have invested heavily in the country, with BASF, Volkswagen and Siemens among foreign heads of business there.
Yet behind the strong relationship showed last summer when the two countries held a joint cabinet meeting in Berlin, is an awareness of their political differences, analysts say.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has often met or tried to meet with Chinese dissidents in China and Germany; it was forbidden to meet a leading dissident lawyer, Mo Shaoping, and editors of an outspoken newspaper, the Southern Weekly, during his visit to China in February, as the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Merkel said he was angered by this.
As tensions are clearly there is room for the European Union to develop a real strategic partnership with China would result in a more coordinated approach and determination to protect the strategic interests of the EU while the balance of power a new century is still under development out, say the authors.
Germany and China Too Close for Some New York Times, Germany, China, some.