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China overtakes US as Germany's top trading partner (www.reuters.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/51530808

German exports to China fall 13.5%, imports rise 8.3%

Exports to China fell even more sharply than those to the United States, dropping 13.5% year-on-year to 54.7 billion euros in the first eight months of 2025.

By contrast, imports from China rose 8.3% to 108.8 billion euros.

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[–] 33 points 1 year ago* (21 children)

When you're an even bigger piece of shit than China, you know you've got problems

Of course, I know Germany's reason for this change is the monetary cost of trade, rather than the ethical cost, but still

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  • [+] -10 points 1 year ago (19 children)

    As terrible as the Trump administration is, China is still worse. Think freedom of speech is under threat and reduced in the US? Go to China and criticize Xi publicly. Think the Republicans are rigging Congressional races with gerrymandering? Try one party rule. Worried that you could be disappeared and show up in a prison hundreds of miles away or in another country altogether? How about just disappearing forever?

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    You describing China is different from the US how? You can't make jokes about our admin with the wrong people without it being catalogued if not just outright "getting" you for it. People are turned away from entering for memes literally. One party rule is no different than having Dems and Reps. Different colors, same flavor of shit. Even if some people on the lower end of the Dems are trying to "make things better", which is mostly trying to go back to pre Covid status quo. And being disappeared isn't something that doesn't occur in the states. Especially if you are a service member in the military and you go against whatever is happening administratively. Fort Leavenworth isn't the only place to have you thrown away.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    On climate change China is way better than USA, and Climate change regards the survival of the human race.
    Also criticizing the president of USA is no longer without danger. Especially for immigrants and tourists, that we have examples of are thrown out for it, and public people are harassed and lose their jobs.
    USA may still be slightly better, but it is not by much, and USA is trending in the wrong direction.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I'm not sure what your point is here, you're just describing the exact same thing. I mean it's clearly not worse all of your examples apply equally. I'm really not sure where you were going with this.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    None of that matters, what matters is engaging up to the level of trust. To german eyes, as most European eyes, both are now interchangeable ethically. So commerce has to be done on the basis of numbers, not ethics.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    Germany be like:

    Fascists to my left!

    Red fascists to the right!

    Neither US or China are good options. Germany should have ideally focused trade on anyone but the two.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    to what extend is china fascist in your opinion?

    china doesn't have centralized power, china is democratic on a grassroots level, china doesn't screw it's workers for max profit.

    i fail to understand this label, as china is not following the core tenets of fascism

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    There's something like 450 Chinese billionaires. That alone should tell you how naive your notion of them not screwing workers for max profit is. The exploitation of labor is alive and well in China.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

    yet china has 10x less billionaires per capita than the US. china is also not known for putting billionaires in the spotlight or letting them dictate policy. also: in the context of how china developed through the 20th century until today it´s more than impressive how china advanced the material conditions of regular workers. i am not denying that exploitation of labour happens to an extend, but it is neither encouraged nor as rampant as in western countries. china claims to be socialist "with chinese character" but they are capitalist after all, this includes all the failings of the system. but with extra guardrails.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    So what? China curtail civil liberty. They're communist in name only. China is a red fascist. Deal with it.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    define "fascism" and tell ne how this term applies to china.

    you won't convince me if we have two completely differing definitions of that term

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    • [–] 22 points 1 year ago

    The thing i love about these types of post is Murricans grandstanding about how much better than china they are, while their army is blowing up innocent fishermen on the Caribbean and their Tax dollars are still funding genocide, these people are hopeless.

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    [–] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    china can't stop winning! 我爱中国！ :3

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That was kind of the case for the US as well. They became Germanys largest trading partner basically because Germany needed to replace Russian oil and gas. That has happened, so trade is probably going to fall.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    i agree in that regard, nordstream was really bugging america and they could foresee this happening if germany and russia ever cut their business relations.

    but in context to the "china is winning" meme it's funny to observe how america constantly shoots itself in the foot for fringe ideological reasons despite the fact everyone and their grandma could foresee the consequences

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    • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The U.S. was Germany’s top trading partner in 2024, ending an eight-year streak for China. The shift came as Germany sought to reduce its reliance on China

    Trade dynamics shifted again this year, however, with Donald Trump’s return to the White House and renewed tariffs.

    Well done USA, you got what you voted for.

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    • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    Well, a key feature of a trading partner has always been reliability. Guess why the US fell down the ladder in that regard...

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    [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Germany used to send their car manufacturers to China to do knowledge transfer, they'd surely benefit from some reverse knowledge transfer from the Chinese these days.

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    • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I would rather trade not at all than with the U.S. so good for us I guess.

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