Italy and France criticize Germany’s chinoiserie with Cosco in the port of Hamburg
Who is gloating and who is not (inside and outside Germany) for the purchase by the Chinese of Cosco of a share in one of the four terminals of the port of Hamburg. Marco Orioles's article
The decision by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to approve the Chinese purchase of Cosco of a stake in one of the four terminals of the Port of Hamburg has raised not only half of its government, but also its main European allies, while in Beijing. rejoices.
The controversy in Germany
Scholz's last-minute ploy of lowering the Chinese control share of the terminal from 35 to 24.9% did little. Liberal Democrats and Greens , who were already on a war footing, did not digest the chancellor's unilateral move.
In fact, the note drawn up by the Foreign Ministry and signed by the Minister for the Economy and by four other Liberal Democratic ministers in which all his disappointment is expressed is very hard.
In the note, which Reuters became aware of through two government sources, it is stated that Cosco's investment "disproportionately expands China's strategic influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as German dependence on China".
In the note from the ministers, an issue comes to the fore, that of German economic dependence on China, which had been raised a few days earlier by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier while he was visiting Kiev.
"We have to learn lessons," was Steinmeier's admonition reported by Euronews , "and learning the lesson means that we need to reduce unilateral addictions wherever possible, and this applies to China in particular."
Macron's irritation
“We have made strategic mistakes in the past with the sale of infrastructure to China” is what Macron would have whispered in Scholz's ear last Friday in Brussels.
It is these unheard words of the French President that probably explain the icy welcome given by Macron to Scholz at the Elysée Palace a few days later.
As the Wall Street Journal writes, the disagreement between the two leaders is profound and concerns among other issues the German no to a gas cap as a European lever against expensive energy and Berlin's decision to proceed with a massive rearmament by turning to the US defense industry rather than, as Macron would have preferred, to European actors.
The Hamburg port deal therefore only adds to a long list of French grievances over the ally's moves.
The wrath of Adolfo Urso
The new Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy (ex Mise) Adolfo Urso, already known for his hawkish positions on dossiers such as that of Huawei and on the appeal, lashed out in Italy against the agreement between Cosco and the port of Hamburg. to golden power as a shield against predatory investments.
"We will never put ourselves in the hands of the Chinese"thundered Urso speaking to a journalist at a conference in Rome. "If others intend to move", added the minister, "from energy dependence and therefore from Russian power to technological and to a certain extent commercial dependence on China, we will not follow them".
It was Urso himself, at the beginning of this week, who hinted that the new government led by Giorgia Meloni will have no hesitation in resorting to the golden power if the country's strategic assets are at stake, thus outlining a continuity with the approach taken by the previous tenant of Palazzo Chigi, Mario Draghi.
The satisfaction of China
On the other side of the globe there is no hidden satisfaction for an agreement destined to significantly increase commercial traffic between China and Europe.
Aware of the controversy that has arisen in Europe, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Beijing, Wang Wenbin, urged "the parties involved to look rationally at pragmatic cooperation between China and Germany" and stop making ideological proclamations.
As always, the Global Times , the English-language edition of the People's Daily, took care of it, to better illustrate the point of view of China.
"The agreement between the Chinese shipping giant Cosco and the port of Hamburg for an investment stake in a terminal does not create unilateral dependence, as certain German politicians have said, but injects stability into important Sino-German relations".
The newspaper then gives the floor to an alleged expert, the director of the Center for German Studies of Tongji University, Zheng Chunrong, who states that "when in the future the port will benefit from the cooperation with Cosco, the facts will speak for themselves. and those who have been against will see the error in their logic ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/italia-e-francia-criticano-le-cineserie-della-germania-con-cosco-nel-porto-di-amburgo/ on Fri, 28 Oct 2022 05:54:13 +0000.