[Reading level: B2 – Upper Intermediate]
Beijing’s long-term strategy, called “Made in China 2025,” is about transforming the country from the world’s factory into a technology leader. While it invests everywhere in Europe, it’s mainly eyeing Germany’s top-class technology and engineering to help it achieve its goal.
A new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation crunched the data on which sectors of the German economy China has been targeting for investment and says that “buying stakes in foreign companies are explicitly part of this strategy.”
No surprise then that, in line with its government’s goal, Chinese investors have been shopping in sectors like automotive tech, robotics, and biomedicine in Germany.
Bertelsmann examined 175 Chinese M&A transactions taking a share of 10% or more in Germany (the threshold for foreign direct investment) between 2014 and 2017. It found that almost 64% of these investments happened in the sectors that China plans to dominate globally by 2025.
Chinese appliance maker Midea’s $5 billion takeover of robotics company Kuka in early 2017 caused a national debate over whether Germany was giving away too much technical know-how. In February this year, the government said it was “watchful” after Geely Automotive took a 10% stake in Daimler. This week, the State Grid Corporation of China, the world’s largest utility, tried again to buy a 20% stake in German high-voltage energy network 50Hertz, according to Handelsblatt.
The study found that only around 20% of Chinese investments were by state-owned companies, but that doesn’t mean that the German government should rest easy. Study author Cora Jungbluth said that both Germany and the EU as a whole should demand that China gives EU firms a reciprocal level of free market access, rather than let China keep protecting its key industries.
“There is cause for concern on the one hand because of the potential state influence on Chinese company holdings in Germany,” says Jungbluth.
“On the other hand, there is a lack of reciprocity in the German-Chinese economic relationship: Germany offers an open investment environment for foreign investors, China doesn’t,” she added. “If this imbalance persists, it will be a long-term disadvantage for Germany. Germany should give serious consideration to lowering the threshold for investment screening. Currently, the threshold is at 25 %, it would make sense to lower it to 10%.”
She notes that from 10% upwards, an investor’s goal is generally to grasp control.
Source: https://qz.com/1284932/china-investment-in-germany-its-plans-to-transform-from-manufacturing-hub-to-tech-leader/
WORD BANK:
eye (v): nhắm đến, để mắt đến
top-class (adj): hàng đầu
crunch (the data) /krʌntʃ/ (v): thu thập (dữ liệu)
stakes /steɪk/ (n): cổ phần
explicit /ɪkˈsplɪsɪt/ [C2] (adj): rõ ràng
in line with (pre): để phù hợp với
biomedicine /ˌbʌɪəʊˈmɛdsɪn/ (n): y sinh học
M&A transaction (n): merges and acquisitions transaction – giao dịch mua bán và sáp nhập
threshold /ˈθreʃhəʊld/ (n): ngưỡng tối đa
takeover /ˈteɪkˌəʊvər/ [C1] (n): việc một công ty chiếm quyền kiểm soát một côgn ty khác thông qua việc mua cổ phần
technical know-how (n): bí quyết kỹ thuật
watchful /ˈwɒtʃfəl/ (adj): thận trọng
utility /juːˈtɪləti/ (n): một dịch vụ công cộng (như cung cấp điện, nước, khí ga …)
reciprocal /rɪˈsɪprəkəl/ (adj): có tính qua lại
reciprocity /ˌresɪˈprɒsəti/ (n): sự qua lại
persist /pəˈsɪst/ [C2] (v): tiếp tục (1 tình huống xấu)
