The Chinese state-owned shipping company Cosco is authorized to buy 24.9 percent of the port of Hamburg – at the express request of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Originally, Scholz, who was once the mayor of Hamburg, even wanted to grant Cosco a 35% stake in the Tollerort container terminal, owned by Hamburg port logistics company HHLA. Six ministries, including Economic Affairs and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warned against participation.
There are fears that China wields too much influence, especially with regard to dependence on Russian gas: “For the future, it means that we have to learn lessons, and learning the lesson means that we have to reduce unilateral dependencies wherever possible, if applies especially with China,” Steinmeier told ARD. The war of aggression in Ukraine shows that there is no certainty that economic exchange will also lead to political rapprochement. Confidence that change comes from trade has been lost.
Commitment
But now there was a compromise with Scholz: Cosco receives only 24.9% and, according to “Spiegel”, Cosco is expected to be barred from “contractual veto rights in strategic business or personnel decisions”. Cosco will also be prohibited from “appointing members of the board of directors”.
Germany’s opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) also expressed his opposition to participation: “The focus is not primarily on the financial aspects, but on the political-strategic ones.” He doesn’t understand Scholz, because Cosco’s entry into the port of Hamburg is “a very fundamental issue from the point of view of the security interests of the Federal Republic”.
experiences in greece
In Europe, Cosco has eight terminals, including the one in Piraeus, Greece. The “” interviewed former Economy Minister Stefanos Manos. The port of Piraeus, which is now the largest in the European Mediterranean, did not play a major role in Europe, he says: “Thanks to the Chinese, that changed. We weren’t particularly competent at managing the port. The Chinese are very good at that.”
But Manos admits that he “is not sure how much the Greek state would be able to control what is really happening in this port in the event of conflict.”
Browsing account jm time27.10.2022, 05:13| Act: 10/27/2022, 05:13