Shipping: Port participation: Baerbock warns of dependence on China

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has warned against German dependence on China with a view to the Chinese entry at a terminal in the port of Hamburg.

Shipping: Port participation: Baerbock warns of dependence on China

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has warned against German dependence on China with a view to the Chinese entry at a terminal in the port of Hamburg. It is the task of politics to learn from mistakes, said the Green politician in an interview with the ARD program "Report from Berlin".

"And that's why I think it's absolutely important that we never again make ourselves so dependent on a country that doesn't share our values ​​that we end up in a situation like the one we're seeing now with a view to the war in Russia, that we are limited in what we can do."

China does not comply with human rights standards and competition rules. "Human rights are not respected in one's own country. The use of forced labor is an absolute destruction of fair competition rules, because: In Europe you are rightly not allowed to do that." She therefore does not believe in saying that values ​​are on the one hand and interests on the other.

Baerbock: Chinese rules are a distortion of competition

A second distortion of competition lies in the Chinese rules on foreign investments. "China forbids foreign companies from investing in their infrastructure, forbids companies from being active in China - in case of doubt without joint ventures. And then we allow all this in our country?"

Green parliamentary group leader Konstantin von Notz called for a European strategy for dealing with "totalitarian regimes". There can be no such thing as "keep it up," said von Notz on Sunday evening on the ZDF program "Berlin direct". "We need a port strategy for the whole of Europe when it comes to port infrastructure, so that this sale of our substantial infrastructure, on which our life, our economy, and ultimately our freedom depends, does not just continue."

The federal cabinet decided on a so-called partial ban on Wednesday. According to this, the Chinese group Cosco can only acquire a share of less than 25 percent in the container terminal - instead of the planned 35 percent. In a protocol statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other departments had expressed serious concerns about the cabinet's decision on Chinese entry into the port terminal.

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