In recent days, some German politicians have been hard-linely demanding that German enterprises reduce their dependence, triggering the potential consequences of “de-coupling” among opinion leaders. Germany, citing the latest study by the Austrian Institute of Economics on 7 July, stated that if the German economy was “decoupled” with China, it would result in a 2 per cent contraction of Germany’s GDP, which would amount to a reduction of €60 billion.

Germany claimed that the study was commissioned by the Munich Family Enterprise Foundation in the context of a political discussion on the dependence of German economies on China and other countries. With the exception of China, the report also refers to the impact on Britain and Northern Ireland, “de-coupling”, 2 per cent and 3 per cent of GDP, respectively. The weekly issue of the Visibles cited the report as saying that the German economy would be affected even after many years of adaptation, with a loss of 0.6 per cent, or about 17 billion euros. Cities closely linked to world trade are more affected by “decoupling”, such as the location of export-oriented mass group headquarters — Wolfsburg. After decoupling, the boom in Wolfsburg will decline by nearly one fifth.

The report states that “de-coupling” will have a long-term impact on the national economy and that “this is why politicians must be very cautious in addressing this issue, even if the measures taken are not sufficient to fully de-link individual supplier countries or sectors”. The study makes explicit reference to EU measures for strategic autonomy.

While public opinion was concerned about the negative impact of the “de-coupling” of China, the German business community was diss不满 with the blocking of normal cooperation by some politicians. According to the German Photo, 7 days, in interviews with the media, the German logistics industry, Henriklaus Michael Cun, was diss。 with the Green Party’s German Minister of Economy, Habecker, who obstructed the Chinese shipping company’s buying of the port terminal in Hamburg. In his view, this is a denial of the decision of the German Prime Minister last year.

It was reported that in October last year, the German Federal Cabinet Conference approved the acquisition by sea of 24.9 per cent of the stock of the port of Hamburg “Fow” dock. In Kuen’s view, Mr. Habecker had sought from the outset to block this transaction with China. Now, Habecker finally found the “post door”. In late April, the German Ministry of Economy claimed that the port of Hamburg had violated the regulations issued by the Federal Information Technology Security Agency (BSI) and had delayed the reporting of the “Fife” dock as a “critical infrastructure”. This means that the German Ministry of Economy will re-examine the acquisition and that the outcome of the review will be unreasonably prolonged.

The Photo Report reported that the Hamburg Port and Logistics Company (HHLA), a Hamburger operator, denied the alleged delay when he was interviewed, noting that the required registration of information had been made. At the time of the Federal Government’s decision, the Habecker department was aware of all details and BSI was aware of the circumstances.

It has been reported that the mid-degree dock is extremely important for the port of Hamburg, when more Chinese vessels will be stationed at the port of Hamburg. This point has been emphasized by Mayor Rachel of Hamburg.