Who's afraid of big bad China?

Published on 15 June 2011 at 11:07

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“China is buying up Germany’s companies”, writes the Financial Times Deutschland, noting that rarely have Chinese firms carried out so many mergers with German companies – seven so far in 2011. Experts believe that transactions totalling billions of euros will not be long in coming. China is seeking to buy up technological expertise in Europe, a market seen as less protected than the U.S. In Germany, where Chinese direct investment doubled between 2006 and 2009 to €629 billion, Beijing's strategists are interested in “new technologies, the financial sector and the automotive industry.” But there ought to be no fear of any “yellow peril”, writes the daily from Hamburg in its editorial titled “Same rights for all”: “So far, the Chinese have not behaved like investors who emptied out companies like locusts, destroying jobs on a massive scale.” However, with a view to keeping industrial espionage and sagging competitiveness from becoming a danger to the German economy, the FTD calls for investment in innovation, to let the Germans and Chinese play the game of competition and progress.

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