What seemed years ago to be an insatiable Chinese demand for high-end products from Germany has since slowed as China no longer registers the whopping, double-digit growth rates it once did.
The International Monetary Fund even forecast this week growth in China could slow to 7.1 percent by next year.
Yet China is still Germany's third largest trading partner. In 2013, bilateral trade topped 140 billion euros ($178.1 billion) - up from 12 billion euros in 1993. Outside Europe, China was the second most important market for German exports, behind the United States. And some only expect that number to go up.
"We are counting on 2017 being a record year for bilateral trade," China's ambassador to Germany, Shi Mingde, said earlier this month.
But Shi also voiced concern over falling European demand for goods produced in China as geopolitical tensions around the world have unnerved investors and caused business confidence to drop. Pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, rapid advances by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria and the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus have spoiled appetites for loans and investment the world over.
"We don't want the entire EU to dip into a recession," Shi said. "At the moment, we're feeling lower demand from Europe - that's a problem for us."
While Li and Merkel convene in Berlin, around 550 business leaders will gather in the northern German port city of Hamburg for the sixth biennial "China meets Europe" summit, where Li will also make a speech.
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