The first visit of Gunther Oettinger to Beijing on Sept 28, as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, will be of utmost importance. China became the leading manufacturer of digital equipment during the last decade. The visit follows up the China-EU Summit and earlier high-level meetings.

Today, Chinese companies are exporting high-tech equipment across the world, providing employment and revenues to thousands of Chinese workers. Since the European Union is a major export market for these companies, staying in touch with key EU decision-makers in this sector is very important for China, which aims to become a leading global innovator.

The main reason of Oettinger's visit is to take part in the EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue, but this will also be a golden opportunity for him to discuss closer cooperation with China in a number of strategic areas, such as the next generation of mobile communications (5G), also known as LTE. 5G is about 1,000 times faster than 4G.