China Port Deal Exposes Coalition Cracks

The German gov't has agreed for Chinese shipping giant Cosco to take a stake in the container terminal in Tollerort in the port of Hamburg, a move that has exposed some cracks in the federal coalition. The gov't has agreed to Cosco taking a smaller stake than originally planned (24.9% rather than 35%), but within the 'traffic light' coalition there were notable disagreements on whether the deal should proceed.

• Germany's NDR reports that Economy Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens and 'other ministries' opposed the deal entirely, but was overruled by the chancellery and Chancellor Olaf Scholz from the Social Democrats. The opposition centre-right CDU and right-wing AfD have also opposed the plan.
• There are already evident disagreements at the EU level as to the acceptable level of Chinese investment and participation in large economic and infrastructure projects. This deal would hint that even in Germany - one of the EU nations seen as most amenable to close economic cooperation with China - there is disagreement on what level of access Chinese firms should have to major domestic economic assets.
• The deal comes as Scholz plans to visit Beijing and hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in early Nov. He will be the first Western leader to meet with Xi since the COVID pandemic.