The COVID-19 pandemic has increased Germany's economic dependency on China in many areas, acting Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Wednesday, adding that an open discussion was needed on how to reduce an over-reliance on Asia's rising giant.
"We have experienced and had to experience how dependent we have become on China," Spahn said at an economic conference organized by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, pointing to rising imports of face masks and medical precursors from China.
"This alone would be worth discussing on an economic summit on its own, the question of how we can at least become a bit less dependent on China again in the 2020s," Spahn added.