德国领导访问中国讨论买卖问题

Next, we are going to talk about the buying and selling of things between Germany and China.

In the last few days, a very important person came to China.

This person comes from Germany.

He is the current leader of Germany.

His name is Merz.

He flew from Germany to Beijing by plane.

He met many Chinese friends in Beijing.

He also met many Chinese leaders.

For example, China's Premier Li Qiang.

They shook hands and spoke together.

Everyone might ask, why did he come to China?

Is it for tourism?

It is not for tourism.

Is it because he wants to eat Chinese food?

It is also not to eat Chinese food.

He came for work.

He came here because there is a big problem that needs to be solved.

This problem is about money.

It is also about buying things and selling things.

We all know that China is a big country.

Germany is also a very important country.

Both of these countries can make many things.

For example, they both make cars.

They both make machines.

They also both make clothes and computers.

Before, these two countries were very happy buying and selling things from each other.

You buy my things, I buy your things.

This is called business.

When doing business, everyone hopes it is equal.

But now, the situation is a little different.

The problem now is that Germany buys too many things from China.

And China buys too few things from Germany.

We can take a look at last year's numbers.

In this year, Germans gave China a lot of money.

Because they bought a lot of Chinese things.

However, the money China gave to Germany was very little.

The things Germany bought in were double the things sold out.

This is like two people being friends.

One person always gives gifts to the other person.

But the other person rarely gives gifts back.

The person who always gives gifts will become unhappy.

The current Germany is that unhappy person.

Germans feel that this is very unfair.

Their money has all gone to China.

But no money comes back to Germany.

If it keeps going on like this, German companies will have no money.

If there is no money, companies cannot stay open.

If companies do not stay open, workers will have no jobs.

So, Mr. Merz is very worried.

He came to Beijing this time just to talk about this matter.

He wants to tell China, we need to make a change.

We hope you can also buy more of our things.

A specific example we want to talk about is cars.

Everyone knows that German cars are very famous.

Before, many people in the world wanted to buy German cars.

Although German cars are expensive, they drive very well.

Many Germans work in car-making companies.

This is one of the most important things for Germany.

But now, things have changed.

Now, Chinese cars are also made very well.

Especially electric cars.

This kind of car does not use oil, only electricity.

China makes this kind of car very fast.

Moreover, Chinese cars are sold very cheaply.

Because they are cheap, many people like to buy them.

In Germany, people have also started buying Chinese cars.

Because Chinese cars are much cheaper than German cars.

This makes German car companies very sad.

Their cars cannot be sold.

Because they are too expensive.

Why are Chinese cars so cheap?

Germans think there might be two reasons.

The first reason is because China makes them fast.

The second reason, Germans think the Chinese government gave money.

If the government gives money to companies, companies can sell things cheaply.

This is called help.

But Germans feel this kind of help is too big.

This is unfair to companies in other countries.

So Mr. Merz wants to ask China, is this true?

Besides cars, there are other matters.

It is the cost of making things now.

In Europe, making things is very expensive now.

Why?

Because there is a war going on there.

Everyone knows Russia and Ukraine are fighting a war.

Because of the war, many things have become expensive.

Electricity has become expensive, and oil has become expensive too.

Companies need electricity and oil to make things.

So German things have become even more expensive.

But in China, there is no war.

So making things in China is not that expensive.

This is also why Chinese things can be sold cheaply.

This makes Germans feel a lot of pressure.

They don't know what to do.

If taxes are increased to make Chinese things expensive, that is also not good.

Because no one hopes for this kind of thing to happen.

If this is really done, everyone might be unhappy.

So, Mr. Merz feels the best way is to talk.

Talk face to face.

He brought many German business people to Beijing with him.

These business people include car makers and machine makers.

They talk with Chinese people together.

They hope to find a good solution.

To make the trade between the two countries better.

To become fairer.

Mr. Merz said, we do not want to leave China.

We still want to be friends with China.

But we need a fair friendship relationship.

Besides buying and selling things, he also wants to talk about the war.

He hopes China can help.

Because China's relationship with Russia is not bad.

He hopes China can tell Russia to stop fighting.

This is also very important.

However, the most important thing is still the money matter.

It is still the matter of trade imbalance.

This is the main content of this visit.

What we just said is actually what the news calls "trade imbalance".

In the news, this is called "trade deficit".

It means a country buys too much and sells too little.

The German leader mentioned in the news is Friedrich Merz.

He met with China's Premier Li Qiang.

They discussed problems in the automobile industry.

They also discussed the problem of government subsidies.

Subsidies mean the government gives money to companies.

Germany worries that China's subsidies are too many, making the competition unfair.

This is today's news about Germany and China.