Chancellor Scholz prevailed over his coalition partners with his slimmed-down Cosco deal. CDU leader Merz therefore makes serious accusations against the chancellor: The entry of the Chinese state-owned company is about nothing less than the security of the Federal Republic.
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz spoke out against the entry of the Chinese state-owned company Cosco at a container terminal in the port of Hamburg and accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of a serious mistake in this connection. “I don’t understand the Chancellor how he can insist on it in such a situation,” Merz said in ARD’s “Morgenmagazin”. “Granting this permission is wrong.”
For him, the focus is not primarily on financial aspects, but on political and strategic ones. Cosco’s entry is “a very fundamental question from the point of view of the security interests of the Federal Republic”. The Federal Intelligence Service, six specialist ministries of the German government, the EU Commission and friendly governments such as the USA and most experts are against it.
The Chinese port entry is about a so-called “partial ban”, which allows Cosco to hold a maximum stake of 24.9 percent in the terminal. This “prevents strategic participation,” government circles said on Tuesday evening.
The planned deal between the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA and the Chinese state shipping company Cosco has been causing a stir for days. Cosco would like to acquire 35 percent of the shares in the container terminal in Tollerort, which is operated by an HHLA subsidiary.
Merz spoke out against allowing China access to so-called critical infrastructure in Germany. “We have to come to a reassessment of the relationship with China as a whole.” He referred to the experience of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the recent decisions of the Chinese Communist Party Congress. The country is becoming “more and more repressive internally” and “more and more aggressive externally,” said Merz.
At the same time, the CDU chairman emphasized that he was concerned with the question of whether Chinese state-owned companies were allowed to invest in Europe and Germany. “Trade with China is not under scrutiny here,” he added. Germany wants to continue trading with China.
