China’s President Xi Jinping meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing on Friday. This is Scholz’s first visit to China as leader. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

High-level leaders and business executives from China and Germany attend a conference in Beijing on Friday. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Olaf Scholz arrives at Beijing International Capital Airport on Friday morning. He is the first G-7 leader to visit China since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Kay Nietfeld /VCG

Michael Müller, mayor of Berlin from 2014 to 2021 looks at one of two giant panda cubs Meng Yuan and Meng Xiang in Berlin, Germany in December 2019. Berlin’s first panda couple arrived in the city as a national gift given by China in 1980. Photo: Sean Gallup/VCG

In 2018, the German Garden opened in Xiamen, East China’s Fujian province. The garden was built to strengthen the relationship between Xiamen and Trier, Germany. Photo: VCG

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel plays a diabolo in Beijing’s Zhongshan Park in August 2007. She visited China 12 times in her 16-year tenure. Photo: VCG

Mechanics work at the Volkswagen plant in Shanghai in April 1985. The German automaker established its first joint venture in the city in October 1984. Photo: Wolfgang Weihs/VCG

Karl Carstens visits the Great Wall with his wife in 1982. He was the first German federal president to pay a visit to China. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Deng Xiaoping welcomes German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in Beijing in 1975. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Ji Pengfei signs the joint statement on establishing a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and the Federal Republic of Germany with Walter Scheel in October 1972. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany