A group of top German business leaders is warning against leaving China while acknowledging that Germany has the right to reconsider its relationship with Beijing.

The heads of eight companies, including executives from industrial conglomerate Siemens, chemical manufacturer BASF, technology company Bosch, auto parts supplier Schaeffler, and the port of Hamburg, published an article for the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

According to them, the sites of German companies in China and elsewhere contribute significantly to their competitiveness, and China has become the second largest and most dynamic market in the world.

The authors argue that the potential of the Chinese market provides an opportunity to expand more quickly and succeed in other markets, providing jobs in Germany.

Given China's behavior and the human rights situation in Xinjiang province, they said, it is right for Germany today to define its relations with China more subtly, in the three dimensions of competition, cooperation, and systemic rivalry.

 

 "Despite all of China's challenges, we are convinced that its fundamental growth momentum will continue," the authors write. "Exiting China would cut us off from these opportunities."

Chinese investment in Germany has been in the spotlight in recent weeks as officials seek to balance a strong business relationship with a desire to avoid repeating the mistakes made with Russia, which once supplied more than half of Germany's natural gas.

Last month, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition disagreed over allowing the Chinese shipping company COSCO to acquire a 35 percent stake in a container terminal in the port of Hamburg. The Cabinet eventually allowed COSCO to purchase a stake below 25 percent, guaranteeing that it would not be allowed to block the company's decisions.

On Wednesday, the Cabinet blocked the sale of a chip plant in Germany to a Swedish subsidiary of a Chinese company.

Meanwhile, Scholz visited Beijing last week. Scholz encourages company diversification, but does not discourage business with China. Before the trip, he said that "we do not want to separate from China," but "we will reduce one-sided dependence in the spirit of reasonable diversification."

 

 Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)