China said the United States has “no right” to interfere in Chinese cooperation with Germany. It comes after the U.S. cautioned against China getting a controlling stake in Hamburg’s port terminal.
U.S. interference is symptomatic of its practice of coercive diplomacy, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Linjian said.
“Pragmatic cooperation between China and Germany is a matter for the two sovereign countries, the United States should not attack it without reason and has no right to meddle and interfere,” Zhao said.
China’s statement today comes a day before German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due to be in Beijing for a day-long visit to meet with President Xi Jinping.
Chinese shipping giant Cosco made a bid last year to take a 35 percent stake in one of logistics firm HHLA’s three terminals in Germany’s largest port. However, Germany’s coalition was divided over the deal. The German cabinet last week approved a 24.9 percent stake investment by Cosco.
By pushing the stake under 25 percent, the deal no longer officially requires Cabinet approval, which would have been hard to muster from the Greens and liberal-run ministries.
It was described as an “emergency solution” to approve the deal but mitigate the impact. The approved percentage investment does not give Cosco any say in the management or strategic decisions.
“The embassy was very clear that we strongly suggested that there’d be no controlling interest by China, and as you see when they adjusted the deal, there isn’t,” a senior State Department official said.
Ensuring that Hamburg City and the port itself still constitute the majority of stakeholders was “important for the standards we’re trying to set among all of the G7 countries and for the world,” another official said.
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi about multiple issues, including the Russian war against Ukraine and the threats it poses to global security and economic stability.
Blinken and Yi also discussed the need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage U.S.-China relations.
Be the first to comment