As the first foreign office of the University of Cologne, the China office was founded in 2007 and used to be located at DAAD Beijing Affiliation.

However, since January 1st, 2017 the new NGO law has come into operation, the China Office was affected and could no longer stay with DAAD. After intensive discussion with the partner China Political Sciences and Law (CUPL), the University of Cologne was able to individually find the solution and keep a presence in China on the campus of CUPL. Furthermore, the University of Cologne invited other four representative offices to set up a Project Office of German Universities in China at CUPL, including the University of Cologne, RWTH Aachen, University of Siegen, University of Jena, and Bayisches Hochschulekonsortium. The University of Cologne is the coordinator of this office.