Daimler: regulating China’s influence

Daimler Supervisory Board Chairman Manfred Bischoff calls for a common industrial policy strategy of the European Union to regulate political influence on the economy. With regard to Chinese investors, Bischoff urged in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that the EU must regulate whether and under what conditions Chinese investors with a state background can buy companies in the EU in the future. Bischoff said that it had to be decided whether there should be companies that „should not come under the influence of other political decision-makers“. The chief watchdog, who is retiring in spring, explicitly warned against an overly defensive stance by Europe in the US-China trade conflict. He said he assumed that there would be no rapprochement between China and the US, even under the new US President Joe Biden, and that European companies, the majority of which are Chinese-owned, „will have to reckon with reactions from the American side“. That’s why the question is: „How do we in Europe get free access to both major partners, America and China?“ asi