BERLIN/FRANKFURT/MUNICH (Reuters) – Germany’s top corporate executives will join Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his visit to China later this month, reflecting continued dependence on the world’s second-largest economy despite efforts to spread influence more evenly across to the world.
Roland Busch, Siemens chief executive and chairman and president of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business, will be among the executives traveling at the end of next week, the company said.
Mercedes-Benz (OTC:), which counts China’s Beijing Automotive Group Co Ltd and Geely Chairman Li Shufu as its two main shareholders, also confirmed that CEO Ola Källenius will attend.
Scholz’s trip to China is the first since Berlin laid out a China strategy last summer that called for “risk reduction” to reduce the economic impact on the Asian power but was vague on specific measures or binding targets.
German chancellors are typically accompanied by high-profile business delegations on major foreign visits, and the list of leaders for this trip underscores China’s status as Germany’s largest trading partner.
China also remains extremely important for German industry, especially for automakers who operate several local joint ventures with Chinese partners in the world’s largest auto market.
German direct investment in China rose to a record 11.9 billion euros ($12.9 billion) last year, showing firms continue to pour money into a country Berlin calls a systemic rival.
BMW (ETR:) boss Oliver Zipse will also travel with Scholz, two people familiar with the situation said. The same goes for Miguel Lopez, who heads German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp (ETR:), the submarine steel maker said.
The list of leaders is not final, and others may join as the trip ends.
While Germany’s biggest companies, including BASF and Volkswagen (ETR:), continue to rely on China as an engine of growth, some smaller firms have begun to change course.
Mid-sized German corporations have begun taking steps to ringfence or legally separate their Chinese businesses, balancing between maintaining a presence in the market and preparing for the worst-case scenario of Beijing’s invasion of Taiwan.
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