Germany and China promised on January 18 to increase cooperation in banking and finance at the second China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue in Beijing. The two nations are aiming to broaden each others’ markets to oppose the United States. Agreements signed include deals to increase the use of offshore renminbi in Frankfurt, Germany, and to deepen coordination between Chinese and German banks.

The agreements signed between the two nations reflect China’s willingness to move its economy away from the U.S. and closer to Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy. The joint statement of the China-Germany Dialogue said, “The two sides will make joint efforts to improve international economic governance, maintain the global multilateral system, combat trade protectionism,” referring to isolationist U.S. trade policies.

“Both sides promise to protect multilateralism and the principles of free trade, and resolutely support the rules-based, wto-centered multilateral trade system,” Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, an influential economic adviser to President Xi Jinping, said. “Today, there have been some signs of a slow down in the world economy, market volatility has increased, and there is a rise in various kinds of uncertainty,” He added, pointing to how U.S.-China trade war has affected the world’s economy.

The United States imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum last year and has threatened to extend tariffs on European car and car parts. The Trump administration has also levied tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who attended the dialogue in Beijing, said, “It is important that contrary to recent trends [U.S.-China trade war] that we can observe elsewhere, we are seeing progress in our cooperation. … And we have a lot of common interests in financial matters, and then we need to bring different perspectives together. I believe that is the very important task of this financial dialogue.”

Nations like Germany have long been concerned about China’s economic practices. Because China’s business firms are controlled by the government, Europe fears that its foreign direct investment in China could be manipulated by the government. Chinese investors have taken a keen interest in investing money on European companies that specialize in technology. Europe is wary of ongoing Chinese thefts of American intellectual property and is concerned that China might steal its technological know-how as well. But despite these stumbling blocks, China and Germany are laying aside differences and building a trade alliance as a response to U.S. tariffs. This turn of events will set the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Around 2,000 years ago, God inspired the Prophet Isaiah to write about a trade bloc led by China and Germany. Isaiah 23:3 refers to this trade bloc as a “mart of nations.”

Verse 1 mentions “Chittim,” a nation prophesied to have a leading position in the bloc. In his booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes, “Isaiah 23:1 has a prophecy about ‘the land of Chittim.’ … This biblical name refers to both the island of Cyprus and to the nation of China, whose progenitors first populated Cyprus and gave it its name.”

This passage also names “Tyre” as the other leading nation in the “mart of nations” alliance. Mr. Flurry continues:

The spiritual center of the Holy Roman Empire is called Babylon in your Bible (Revelation 17:5; 18:1-3). But here in Isaiah, the Bible refers to Tyre (and its allies Zidon, etc) as the commercial center of this European power. By understanding the spiritual and the commercial powers, you can understand what colossus is rising in Europe.

This prophecy also shows that Japan, Russia and other nations will also be involved in this massive trading bloc. “Isaiah 23 discusses the destruction of the destroyer of Israel—the Holy Roman Empire. But whom does God use to destroy [Israel]? Russia, China and Japan ally themselves and do that deed. They are called the kings of the east,” continues Mr. Flurry. (The modern descendants of ancient Israel include the United Kingdom and the United States.)

God prophesied that, in the end time, China and Germany would form a huge trade alliance to bring the modern descendants of Israel down economically and punish them for their sins. Mr. Flurry writes:

With a German-led Europe (the king of the north) possessing great maritime power, North America will be surrounded on the east by Europe …. The Bible contains many prophecies of that European power attacking America—and many other prophecies of America being besieged.

That is where China and the giants of Asia enter the picture. When the Holy Roman Empire attacks North America, there will be no help or sympathy from Asia. In fact, considering that China has come to possess most of the world’s strategic sea gates (which, ironically, at one time were held by Britain and America), we believe there may be a brief alliance between the German-led Holy Roman Empire and certain Asian powers (Russia, China, Japan—the kings of the east). Should Europe, the resurrected Holy Roman Empire, find a way to take advantage—even for a moment—of key resources and strategic holdings of China, Russia and Japan, it would have more than enough power to besiege the Anglo-Saxon nations and enslave them.

This is why Isaiah’s prophecy of an end-time “mart of nations” that includes both European and Asian powers is so intriguing. And why the trend of collusion between these two great economic blocs is worth watching.

To understand more about what the China-Germany collusion entails, please request your free copy of Mr. Flurry’s booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.