Today marks the 50th anniversary of the formal establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Germany.

The two nations have enjoyed strong economic ties over the decades and have collaborated with each other in several sectors, including the technology and automobile sectors.

CGTN Europe spoke to Rana Mitter, a British historian and political scientist who specializes in the history of China, about the history of China-Germany relations and what the future may hold.

Mitter teaches the history and politics of modern China at the University of Oxford's St. Cross College. He formerly directed Oxford's China Center. 

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"The Chinese-German trade relationship has quite a long history of development. The main areas that both sides have found pretty satisfactory have to do with the ability of Germany to create a major new export market," said Mitter.

He says the partnership between the two nations has given China access to new types of technology, especially in the automobiles and chemicals sectors. 

"These are areas where both sides have found quite a lot of mutual benefit," said the historian.

China's largest European partner

China has seen lots of German enterprises keen to invest and are attracted by the enormous size of the Chinese market. The recent move towards electric vehicles will open up further opportunities for both sides.

"Germany is China's largest European partner," said Mitter. "Germany and China have realized that certain areas are likely to change over time." 

"We can see that changing European politics has meant that Germany may be looking to widen the range of markets it deals with … particularly necessary at a time when the European markets are being heavily impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, China is also looking to indigenize certain areas of its technology, particularly in fast growing sectors."

A new trade policy

Meanwhile, Germany's economy minister has said that a new trade policy with China is in the pipeline but what will that look like?

Mitter believes there will be "more coordination of German trade policy with China, with the EU's trade policy as a whole."

But it is important to acknowledge the impact that the conflict in Ukraine has had on the trade relations between the two nations and with the continent.

"So far the trade relationship between Germany and China has not been so directly affected by Russia's invasion of Ukraine," says Mitter. 

"That has had a more immediate effect on Germany because it has had to take part in the EU sanctioning of Russia in terms of not importing oil and gas … much of that oil and gas has now been diverted to India and China, and that has lowered inflation and energy prices in China itself, which continues to be a major market for Germany."