DUISBURG, Germany - Trains laden with containers of clothes and solar panels straight from China still trundle into the station here about five times a day, but other plans to forge links between this German rust-belt city and Beijing have ground to a halt.
Duisburg's aspirations of using Chinese tech giant Huawei to modernize its administration, schools and traffic systems are on ice. Construction of a Chinese business hub on the Rhine River has been abandoned, and embarrassment hangs in the air.