Six ministries advise against Chinese participation in the port of Hamburg, but the chancellery still has no concerns. SPD leader Klingbeil is now joining Chancellor Scholz and urging a closer look.
With a view to the planned participation of the Chinese state-owned company Cosco in the port of Hamburg, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil has warned against drawing hasty conclusions. It's "about a minority stake in a terminal" and "not about letting the Chinese into the critical infrastructure," he said.
Although he strongly advises not to repeat mistakes made in dealing with Russia, Klingbeil said on Deutschlandfunk. There shouldn't be any similar dependencies on China, for example in the technological area. But the Hamburg port business has been under negotiation for a year, emphasized Klingbeil. If the Hamburg port company and Hamburg's mayor said that this would not lead to China having any influence on critical infrastructure, "then that is something other than the sell-out of the Port of Hamburg". This must "be clarified now. There are still a few days left. There are now talks between the state and the federal government."
The Chinese shipping company Cosco wants to take over a 35 percent stake in the Hamburg container terminal in Tollerort. A review period runs until October 31, by which time the federal government could prohibit the business. If she doesn't do this, the sale can go ahead. At the EU summit on Friday, Chancellor Scholz rejected the concerns of six ministries involved about a possible Chinese participation.
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt asked Scholz to "stop the Chinese entry as soon as possible". "The sale of the gas storage facility to Russia should serve as a cautionary tale," he told the "Welt am Sonntag" newspaper.
Scholz is leading German China policy in the wrong direction, said the CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen to the newspapers of the Funke media group. "He wants to allow the Chinese state to enter the port of Hamburg and thus further increase our dependency." The existing dependency of the German economy on China is "irresponsible. Increasing it further endangers the sovereignty of our country."
Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther showed understanding for the sales plans. "It is important to us in Schleswig-Holstein that the port of Hamburg is economically successful and that investments are made there," said the CDU politician on the ARD program "Report from Berlin". "And it's also done very defensively in this area: It's a subsidiary of the Port of Hamburg. It's a minority stake." That's why he thinks "that's understandable".
