Interest in partnerships regarding climate-neutral industrial and commercial estates
Erfurt, November 6, 2025: Travelling through the Middle Kingdom: ThEEN Managing Director Jana Liebe was part of a delegation trip led by Thuringia’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Colette Boos-John, which visited the Chinese cities of Beijing, Ningde, Shanghai and Changzhou at the end of October. The programme included briefings, company visits and matchmaking events in Ningde and Shanghai – providing valuable insights into mobility, energy, AI and digitalisation.
China is a pioneer in the expansion of renewable energy and is also at the forefront of the development of transformation technologies, according to Jana Liebe’s impressions following her six-day trip to the People’s Republic. Through nearly 40 meetings with companies and experts, she was able to gain an in-depth understanding of the progress being made in the country. The topic of climate-neutral industrial and commercial estates is of particular importance to stakeholders here.
The focus of the trip was on sharing experiences and discussing future opportunities. Stops and highlights included insights into e-mobility and production at the electric car manufacturer Xiaomi, a tour with autonomous vehicle developer Apollo, wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind, and Star Change Technology, which also supplies charging infrastructure to several German brands. At CATL’s headquarters in Ningde, the battery cell production process was demonstrated, whilst CATL also expressed suggestions for improvements at the Thuringian site regarding energy and labour costs, as well as the reduction of red tape. The delegation also visited the Changzhou site of our ThEEN member Fraunhofer IOSB-AST, which has been operating in China since 1996 with a focus on water technologies and presented digital twins and artificial intelligence for the data analysis of water systems. Discussions centred on how the site can support German companies in achieving success in the Chinese market.
The insights gathered show that dialogue remains the key to success even in times of geopolitical tension: understanding and trust can only be built through dialogue. At the same time, there is a growing focus on resilience:
- Chinese companies are establishing their own supply chains to ensure independence rather than dependence. This also applies to German and European firms – alongside cooperation, resilience is becoming a competitive factor.
- Chinese tech companies allocate a high proportion of their turnover to R&D, which makes the pressure to innovate very evident.
- Furthermore, many Chinese firms are pursuing an export drive because the domestic market is saturated.
- Climate-neutral industrial estates are in high demand, with Chinese industrial parks expressly seeking partnerships with German firms.
„Anyone who wants to play an active role in shaping the markets of the future needs open dialogue, robust partnerships and concrete projects, ranging from climate-neutral industrial sites to smart energy, storage and mobility infrastructure. But the growing importance of our own resilience should not be underestimated either,“ concluded the ThEEN Managing Director.
The Thuringian delegation, which visited China from 18 to 24 October, consisted of companies, chambers of commerce, industry associations and business-oriented research institutions. The trip was organised by LEG Thüringen (Thüringen International) and the Thuringian Ministry of Economic Affairs, with the support of the German Embassy and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK) in China.
Interested members are invited to contact the ThEEN office for further discussions or to arrange contacts for joint projects.