On August 30, 2012, Vice President Xi Jinping met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Great Hall of the People.

Xi said that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Over the past four decades, especially in recent years, bilateral relations have achieved ​​new development. Chancellor Merkel is on her sixth visit to China. The number of visits by Merkel illustrates the increasing friendship between China and Germany, Xi said. Xi noted that China and Germany established a strategic partnership in 2010 and a government consultation mechanism in 2011. During this visit, the two countries decided to advance their strategic partnership in the future, which injects new connotation to the development of bilateral relations and is of great significance.

Xi said that both China and Germany have a long history and splendid culture. The two countries hold friendly feelings towards each other, so China and Germany should strengthen people-to-people contacts, especially those between young people, students, think-tanks and the media so as to enhance mutual understanding and lay a solid social foundation for the development of bilateral relations, said Xi. The two economies are highly complementary to each other, he said, adding China and Germany are the largest trade partner to each other in their regions respectively, with two-way trade volume in 2011 approaching 170 billion U.S. dollars. The Vice President said the two nations should deepen cooperation while continuously looking at cooperative potentials, which will inject long-term, sustainable impetus into bilateral pragmatic cooperation. As China and Germany are both influential countries in the world and shoulder important responsibility, they should strengthen coordination and cooperation on major international issues and promote the building of a world with lasting peace and common prosperity.

Xi pointed out that China has always looked at the Sino-German relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective. China and Germany, as the world's major economies, exporting and manufacturing powers, as well as strategic partners, should strengthen cooperation to jointly cope with challenges, which will benefit the two peoples and contribute to world peace and development. China hopes the two countries will stick to the major points of cooperation and mutual benefit, and push forward bilateral strategic partnership in the future while adhering to mutual respect and equal treatment, Xi said.

Merkel said the German-Chinese relations have grown to become a truly strategic partnership with close contacts between leaders of the two countries, extensive bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation and active cultural exchanges. She expressed agreement with Vice President Xi's views on jointly advancing bilateral strategic partnership in the future. She agreed to work with China to maintain the momentum of bilateral ties, and advance cooperation with China in areas such as economy and trade, medical treatment, environment protection, culture and new industry. Germany will enhance coordination with China in international affairs and opposing trade protectionism so as to benefit both peoples and contribute to world peace and development, Merkel added.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Chinese Ambassador to Germany Shi Mingde attended the meeting.