Germany’s deputy chancellor has set out proposals to increase scrutiny of Chinese investments as Europe’s largest economy grapples with increased geopolitical risks surrounding its biggest trading partner.
The measures put forward by Robert Habeck, a Green who also serves as economy minister, would toughen restrictions on foreign direct investment in Germany in critical sectors such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and come just weeks after Berlin warned that Beijing was becoming “more repressive internally and more aggressive externally”.
The proposals, confirmed by a government official, come at a time of intense debate in Europe and the US about western economic relations with Beijing but risk stoking fresh tensions within chancellor Olaf Scholz’s bickering coalition as well as with business groups.