German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is scheduled to land in the north-eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Thursday to begin her three-day trip to the country.
Baerbock plans to visit a school in Tianjin with links to Germany as well as a factory owned by a German company that produces wind turbines.
On Friday, Baerbock plans to visit an electromobility company in Tianjin along with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang before taking a high-speed train together to Beijing, about 150 kilometres to the north-west.
In Beijing, Baerbock is expected to meet with other top Chinese officials including Vice President Han Zheng and Wang Yi, the top Chinese foreign policy official and a former foreign minister.
Given China's backing for Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and the heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei, the visit is likely to be one of the most diplomatically difficult missions of Baerbock's term so far.
The school in Tianjin is part of the German "Schools: Partners for Future" (PASCH) initiative, a network of about 2,000 schools worldwide that receive extra support for teaching the German language. Germany's Foreign Office launched the programme in 2008.
