Both Baerbock and Macron are just there to milk China for whatever China has left. They both know China is now entering its third year of its own Great Depression, with 30% unemployment rate (even food delivery jobs are scarce now), 90% unemployment rate for new grads (it's so bad, Guangzhou government just sent 500k youth to countryside for a program), 80% retail collapse (entirely empty malls in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen), 50% real estate price collapse, 40% export collapse. CCP can't hide this kind of economic collapse when Germany companies are closely watching the sales figures of cars and luxury goods of its own stores in China.
I realize it is hard to find data on China that is trustworthy in particular if you do not trust its government. But what you can do is to look at trade data with other countries and that data does not show the economic collapse you are describing.
According to the office for national statistics in China, for jan/feb of 2023 http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/202303/27/t20230327_38464161..., car manufacturing profits is down 41%. non-metal products manufacturing profits is down 39%. chemicals manufacturing profits is down 56%. electronics manufacturing profits is down 71%. In fact, all businesses have dropped 22% in profit.
That's data with existing businesses. It's been reported that within the last 2 years, China has had 1M+ SMB closures.
I know I won't change your mind but for everyone else do note that HN is one of the worst places to get unbiased opinions on the country if you actually have curiosity on this matter.
Go watch unbiased Chinese citizen videos like https://www.youtube.com/@laobaixing-CN, https://www.youtube.com/@China559, https://www.youtube.com/@user-ii2lv3iq9rhttps://www.youtube.com/@zgbx if you want the truths. But I highly doubt you speak any mandarin, or for that matter, pay any attention to recent events coming out of China. Since otherwise you would know about Apple, dell, hp, lg, Kyocera currently shifting manufacturing out of China. Or how Guizhou just became the first Chinese state to file for bankruptcy. Or how Chinese government just raised retirement age from 60 to 65.
It's not too hard to sample some people shitting all over their country basically in any country. There tons of these "unbiased truths" about the collapse of western civilization, or racial theories, or alternative medicine or whatever.
How do you figure this is actually representative?
3/21 Germany's Economy Minister: "We must become less dependent on China" https://www.agenzianova.com/en/news/germany-economy-minister...
4/16 Germany backs EU-Indonesia trade pact to curb China reliance https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/germany-backs-eu-i...