When Sabine Herold opened a new Shanghai facility in September, the milestone for her tiny Bavarian glue maker was the culmination of 14 years of careful development — and a sign of how deep and wide commercial ties between Germany and China have become.
Piling into China with Bosch drills, Mercedes-Benz cars and Siemens turbines has made the Asian country Germany’s largest business partner for the past two years. Total trade between the two reached $179 billion in 2017, double the U.K.’s level and triple that of France. Germany’s special status became clear in July, when BASF SE announced a $10 billion plant in Guangdong province — the first large manufacturing site in China entirely owned by a foreign chemicals maker. Now, BMW AG is plowing $4.1 billion into its Chinese joint venture, taking advantage of a new policy to let foreign companies take majority control of their local partnerships.
