this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz backs China, ignores government warnings in Hamburg port deal, report says (www.politico.eu)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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An investigation by German regional public broadcasters reported Wednesday that Scholz's chancellery is pushing to approve efforts by Chinese state-owned shipping giant Cosco to buy a foothold in a container port in Hamburg, ignoring warnings from six federal ministries, including the Greens' Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, amid fears of risky economic over-dependence on Beijing.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

ignoring warnings from six federal ministries, including the Greens’ Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, amid fears of risky economic over-dependence on Beijing.

Reality:

Cosco and HHLA have been working together for more than 40 years. Cosco and HHLA had entered into initial talks about a shareholding in June 2021. Cosco originally wanted to take over 35 percent of the terminal operating company. However, several federal ministries protested against this, so that the cabinet set the quota at below 25 percent in October last year to prevent Cosco from acquiring a blocking minority.

You should not use politico for your primary source of information. In the best case they get it half right, often not even that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the fact check. Always crazy to see such an (at first glance) respectable medium spread such fake news.

[–] KpntAutismus 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

how much are they paying him?

or is he really that stupid?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This happened in 2022 and it was a minority share at one terminal, so hardly as worrisome as suggested in the headline.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In itself probably harmless, but the general trend is concerning. We need a common european strategy to reduce chinese influence. Too often in the EU individual members act too much in what they think is their own best interest without considering what's best for the EU, forcing other members to do the same leaving everyone worse off than if they had all acted together.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Perhaps, but in this case OP could have shared an article that objectively analyses the general trend, rather than a year-old article that exaggerates a single decision.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He's the former mayor of Hamburg and Hamburg's current mayor that he gave over the reigns to really wants it because I would assume that from a pure money perspective it might be lucrative for the city.

[–] KpntAutismus 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

but when has privatizing public infrastructure ever gone well, especially under foreign leadership?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't know, I'm not condoning the move. But either way it's already owned by a private company (and I'm also not sure if it can be considered public infrastructure)

[–] KpntAutismus 2 points 1 year ago

yeah, didn't really think about the definition of "public" at time of commenting. still, selling off any piece of infrastructure to china is just plain dumb.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

He already had shady deals going on when he was mayor of Hamburg. He may not be corrupt in the legal sense, but he is definitely in politics for himself first and foremost. I'd compare him to Hillary Clinton.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Fuck Axel Springer publications. Why even spread this major source of misinformation here?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Any specific reason to post a year old article?
Never mind that politico is agenda driven trash.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

First they decide to get all their gas exclusively from Russia, which, as it happens, turned out not to be such a great idea. Now they want to sell their biggest port to China.

It seems that Germans just never learn.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

That is just a big fat lie.

Russia supplied about half the natural gas in 2021 and from 2022 on it went to zero anyways. Why would you make up such crap that everyone can just Google that it's a lie?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We didn't agree. He is elected and we can't do anything about it. Trust me, most of us aren't happy about that decision. We try to get rid of him in the next election. Selling tax payed public stuff to our disadvantage sadly has tradition in Germany (telephone lines, railroad)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Railroad is still 100% Bund owned.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, but for profit. Since Die Bahn was changed into an AG it is also mismanaged. This really turned out great.

[–] JoCrichton 11 points 1 year ago

One terminal 35% stake It’s still not great but let’s not blow things out of proportions.