Germany’s foreign ministry warned in a cabinet note that an investment by China’s Cosco in a terminal at the port of Hamburg increased Germany’s dependence on China disproportionately and endangered the success of European transport projects.

The investment “disproportionately expands China’s strategic influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as Germany’s dependence on China,” says the note seen by Reuters.

In the event of a crisis, the acquisition would open up the possibility for China to politically instrumentalize part of Germany’s, as well as Europe’s, critical infrastructure, the note continued.

A government source said the note had the backing of all ministries controlled by the Greens and the Free Democrats, the two junior parties in Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, Writing by Thomas Escritt, Editing by Miranda Murray)