The robot manufacturer has been majority-owned by the Chinese Midea Group since 2016.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Before the first visit to China by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) this Friday, the debate about Chinese foreign investments in Germany is gaining momentum. The Vice-President of the SPD Economic Forum, Matthias Machnig, warned against focusing only on the People’s Republic in the event of stricter requirements.
“Not every participation is safety-related. We should avoid symbolic debates,” Machnig told Handelsblatt. Overall, Germany needs a “comprehensive resilience strategy”. China is only part of it.
Machnig responded to a push by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner. The FDP chairman had announced legal precautions to limit Chinese influence in Germany. Beijing wants to “create dependencies and exert influence,” said Lindner of the Funke media group. “Therefore, foreign trade law must be changed.”
Machnig supports the efforts of the traffic light coalition to tighten the rules for controlling foreign investments in order to better protect sensitive economic sectors in Germany.
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Since the takeover of the Augsburg-based robot manufacturer Kuka by a Chinese group in 2016, a number of legal regulations have been introduced, he said. Further measures are now required. “They should focus on critical infrastructure and strategic technology areas.”
The example of Kuka shows that foreign corporations, for example from China, keep trying to take over German companies. The federal government was only able to prevent a Chinese group from entering the electricity network operator 50Hertz with difficulty. However, Chinese takeovers have recently become fewer. According to a study, in 2020 they even fell to their lowest level in ten years.
Industry wants to redefine cooperation with China
This is probably due to the fact that China has now invested heavily in research and development and is therefore less dependent on acquisitions. At the same time, the EU and Germany have made takeovers more difficult for foreign companies.
In June 2020, the Bundestag passed a law with a large majority that allows investments from non-EU countries in strategically important areas to be examined more comprehensively and with foresight. For example, it was about the supply of vaccines or critical infrastructure such as power grids. The main addressee at the time was China.
The industry sharply criticized the law at the time. According to the Federation of German Industries (BDI), new hurdles to investment are counterproductive. Putting the companies under monument protection and shielding them from investors will not protect their innovative strength.
In the meantime, the BDI has also started to think differently – at least as far as one-sided dependencies on China are concerned. In a position paper, the association advocates a redefinition of cooperation with the People’s Republic.
“Risk prevention is the order of the day,” said BDI President Siegfried Russwurm on Monday. Individual states increasingly turned their backs on the rules of the international order. “Cooperation, especially with major economies like China, must be redefined.” Europe must become more independent and resilient.
Listen to our podcast here: How Germany wants to free itself from its dependence on China
The BDI sees a need for action in areas such as energy resources, critical metals and certain technologies. The industry should reduce its dependencies here. The EU must coordinate the future energy infrastructure across Europe, said Russwurm. In industrial policy, it should focus on its own production capacities in the chip area and initiate more investment in research and development.
Lindner plans initiative on the occasion of the Cosco case
The chip issue is piquant because the planned takeover of a chip factory from the Dortmund company Elmos by a subsidiary of the Chinese company Sai Microelectronics is currently being discussed in Germany. The sale must be approved by the federal government.
The case caused a stir mainly because the government would apparently defy the advice of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution by approving it. He advised against approving the deal.
The Greens, for example, see an urgent need for “legal adjustments” because of such deals. The goal must be to be able to prohibit strategically motivated takeovers by foreign investors even more easily in the future, said parliamentary group leader Konstantin von Notz.
On the occasion of the Cosco case, Lindner is planning an initiative for stricter specifications. By that he means the controversial planned participation of the Chinese state shipping company Cosco in a container terminal in the port of Hamburg.
On Wednesday last week, the Federal Cabinet agreed on a compromise. Accordingly, the Chinese can only acquire a share of less than 25 percent in the container terminal in Tollerort. Cosco originally wanted to acquire 35 percent.
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