Activists critical of China's human rights policies Sunday picketed the fairgrounds in Hanover, where an upbeat German Chancellor Angela Merkel and China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao opened the annual industrial showcase.
About 100 protesters gathered outside the Hanover Congress Centrum, police said. They included representatives from Amnesty International and the German Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV.)
China is this year's partner in Germany's world-famous Hanover Fair, billed as the world's leading industrial expo. At the ceremonial opening, Merkel was optimistic about the health of German industry, despite a drop in orders early this year. "In general, the Hanover Fair comes at a time when Germany is doing well," Merkel said.
The chancellor said she had "little worry" that German products would not sell well, based on both Germany's strong export market as well as its domestic consumption.
But she warned industry not to slack off in their pursuit of innovation. "We know, we have to keep up the pace," she said.
The very presence of China as a partner at the fair seemed to indicate how tough international competition has become.
One of the protesting groups, the GfbV, appealed to German industry to support and protect human rights in China. Despite years of growing trade, there has been no democratic change in China, the group said.
The Hanover Fair is 8 per cent larger this year. Stricken and contracting European economies have had little effect on world trade in machinery, with emerging economies like Brazil, Russia, India and China still eagerly buying the factory equipment exhibited at the fair.
China, as the special guest, is wooing buyers for its own machinery exports. Wen was to attend a business conference on Monday in Hanover and visit the nearby main factory of carmaker Volkswagen.
The fair, which officially runs from Monday to Friday for general admission, will feature just under 5,000 exhibitors, up 8 per cent from two years ago, fair chief executive Wolfram von Fritsch said recently.
The fair alternates its mix of industries every year with the smaller event taking place in even-numbered years.
Despite contractions in the economies of Italy, Spain and other eurozone nations, German exporters of machinery and complete industrial plants are upbeat, according to von Fritsch.