Germany’s coalition government on Wednesday allowed a Chinese firm to buy a reduced stake in a Hamburg port terminal after Chancellor Olaf Scholz resisted calls to ban the controversial sale outright over security concerns. 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. Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, backed the Cosco deal and has repeatedly stressed the importance of strong trade ties between China and Europe’s biggest economy.
