Before Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to China, the Foreign Chamber of Commerce (AHK) drew attention to the ongoing problems of German companies in China. In a survey, around two thirds of the companies from the Federal Republic operating in the Middle Kingdom complained of unfair competition, as the AHK in Beijing announced.
“The expectation is that Chancellor Scholz will make the challenges we have here understandable,” said Maximilian Butek, executive board member of the German Chamber of Commerce in East China.
According to the survey, companies suffer disadvantages, for example due to more difficult market access. In addition, the government, local authorities and public tenders are more difficult for companies to access.
150 of the more than 2,000 AHK member companies took part in the survey. The majority came from the mechanical engineering, automotive and business services sectors. At 52 percent, Chinese private companies are the main competitors for the Germans. Almost all respondents (95 percent) saw the increased competition as having an impact on their business and cited increased cost pressure, reduced profits and lower market shares as the main consequences.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is traveling to the People’s Republic on Saturday for three days and wants to meet China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping there. It is the Chancellor’s second trip to China since taking office in December 2021.