German investment in China rises by a third in H1: report

German companies increased their investment in China by around a third in the first half of 2026, while investment in the United States plunged 65 percent, according to analyses by the German Economic Institute (IW).

German companies' direct investment in China increased by around 5.6 billion euros (6.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months of the year, about a third more compared with the same period last year, IW said in a report on Monday, citing data from the German central bank.

The report found that German companies' reinvested profits amounted to 7.8 billion euros (9 billion dollars) in 2025, during which year the companies, according to IW's earlier analysis, invested around 7 billion euros (8.1 billion dollars) in China.

Over the longer term, German investment in China has remained broadly stable at a relatively high level, with the average half-year figure between 2020 and 2025 also standing at around 5.6 billion euros, the report showed.

Most German companies remain committed to the Chinese market, said Juergen Matthes, an IW expert and author of the report.

More than 85 percent of German companies operating in China plan to maintain or expand their current level of engagement, while more than half intend to increase investment, Matthes said, citing a survey by the German Chamber of Commerce in China.

China is an important sales market (for German companies), and some use it as a 'fitness center,' Matthes said. Companies that can maintain their position in the Chinese market are also more likely to succeed globally, he added.

German investment in the United States, meanwhile, moved sharply in the opposite direction.

A separate IW analysis showed that German companies invested around 4.3 billion euros (4.96 billion U.S. dollars) in the United States in the first half of 2026, down 65 percent from a year earlier and nearly 80 percent from the first half of 2024, the final such period before U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Heightened economic policy uncertainty in the United States was holding back German companies' new investment decisions, IW noted.

German investment in China rises by a third in H1: report

History cannot be distorted and the historical truths must be conveyed to young Japanese people to avoid repeating the same mistakes, said former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Beijing on Tuesday.

"Japanese schools rarely teach the history of war. As a result, an increasing number of young people are unaware of these facts. Japan once invaded China and colonized the Korean Peninsula. It is worrisome that more and more young people are unaware of these facts. I believe this is a very serious issue. Our generation should clearly convey the historical truth to young people, clearly and firmly explaining the crimes and mistakes Japan committed in the past, so that they understand these and we can prevent such mistakes from happening again," he said in an exclusive interview with China Radio International (CRI) on the sidelines of the ongoing Beijing Xiangshan Forum which opened on Tuesday.

The three-day Beijing Xiangshan Forum, themed "Build Consensus on Stability, Advance Security Governance Together", features four plenary sessions and eight parallel sessions.

Launched in 2006 as a "track-two" think-tank exchange, the Beijing Xiangshan Forum has expanded over the past two decades to bring together government officials, military leaders and scholars from around the world.

Japanese youths must be told historical truths to avoid making same mistakes: former Japanese PM