European firms are being snapped up by China companies, and that’s causing headaches in Berlin.
By Janosch Delcker
In the conflict between Beijing, Berlin and Brussels over skyrocketing investment by Chinese firms in European high-tech industries, China has a major advantage: It has a plan.
Germany doesn’t. Neither does the European Union.
While trade experts warn that a recent spending spree by Chinese companies — many of them supported by the Chinese government — will harm the competitiveness of European business in the long-term, Berlin and Brussels are struggling to come up with a political response.
“As we don’t have EU-owned companies we cannot [behave] the same [as China],” European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told POLITICO.
It doesn’t make things easier that European businesses have little incentive to put a stop to the billions flowing out of China, which provide them with capital in the short term and help them secure access to the growing Chinese market.
