Germany is currently rethinking its traditional China policy of “promoting change through trade”；it has concluded that in the new era of “great power competition” it should adopt a new China policy. In the past，Germany has benefited greatly from its pragmatic diplomacy vis-à-vis China，focusing as it did on cooperation in economy and trade. But the adjustment of Germany’s China policy suffers from inertness：its “complexity” and “indecisiveness” are manifest at three levels. Firstly，on the economic level，in order to share the economic dividend brought about by China’s rapid development，Germany needs to closely cooperate with China in economy and trade. But at the same time Germany is concerned about the prodigious competitive pressure the Chinese economy exerts upon the world. Secondly，at the diplomatic level，Germany is still searching for a new equilibrium between two policy orientations：placing its national economic interests first or regarding EU unity as an even higher priority. Thirdly，at the international level，Germany is disappointed with the “America First” policy pursued by the Trump administration and worried about the future of the multilateral international system. But on the other hand Germany hesitates to cooperate with China to maintain the current international order. These three trade-offs lead to a new round of adjustments in Germany’s China policy.