Germany’s dependence on imports from China

The dependence of Germany on imports from China has intensified in recent years, as a recent analysis by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, affiliated with the FDP, shows. This development contradicts the goals of the German government’s China strategy, which was formulated in 2023. The study was published shortly before the upcoming trip to China by Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche and highlights the increasing shares of Chinese imports in strategically important goods, as stated by the foundation.

Increasing import shares of critical goods

According to the analysis, the share of Chinese imports for several products and raw materials classified as critical has risen. For rechargeable lithium batteries, the import share increased from 49.7 percent in 2023 to 66.5 percent in 2025. There is also an increase in the area of antibiotics: the share of Chinese deliveries grew from 65.3 percent to 72.9 percent. The share of vitamins and provitamins also rose by a similar extent. Particularly striking is the increase in solar panels, whose import share has now reached 92.6 percent of the total weight.

Additionally, according to the foundation, China is virtually the sole supplier of the rare earths praseodymium, neodymium, and samarium. These are important for the production of high-performance permanent magnets, for example, in e-motors. The import quantity of these raw materials has more than quadrupled from 3.1 tons in 2023 to 13.0 tons in 2025.

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