China’s play for U.S. allies has a problem: As Germany’s leader showed, Europe’s grievances with Beijing may run deeper than its frustration with Trump. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, tried to sell Germany on a future less tied to the United States and anchored instead in Chinese markets and technology.

BEIJING — There are many things that China and Germany do not see eye-to-eye on — notably Russia's war in Ukraine — but the leaders of the world's second and third largest economies nonetheless pledged Wednesday to work to deepen ties in an era of global turbulence.

The German chancellor is trying to set a new tone with Beijing to parry pressure from the U.S. But years of deep economic ties make that difficult.

A lot is at stake as Germany is in search of global partners after the US has relinquished much of its longstanding role.There is no shortage of gloomy assessments of the global situation at the moment.