Friday, May 9, 2025

"Chinese companies bought up European ports — and now Brussels is starting to worry"

Now the Eurocrats are starting to worry? Now?*

From Politico.eu, May 9:

Chinese firms own stakes in about 30 European ports, and that’s raising security concerns.  

Europe is getting twitchy about who owns its ports, with mounting anxiety driven by the outsized footprint of Chinese firms across the bloc’s maritime gateways.

Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas on Thursday told industry leaders that Europe’s ports must “reconsider security … and examine foreign presence more carefully.” It was one of the clearest signals yet from Brussels that what once was seen as a benign investment is now starting to look like a security liability.

The Commission’s recent defense white paper echoed that concern by floating the idea of stricter controls on foreign ownership of “critical transport infrastructure.”....

....MUCH MORE
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March 1, 2018 - "Sizing up Chinese Investments in Europe"
July 8, 2018 - "China’s strategic investments in Europe: The case of maritime ports" 
July 12, 2018 - Shipping: "Hamburg: China’s European trade hub" 
November 7, 2020 - Shipping: "China Makes Waves, Seeking To Control World Shipping"
Keeping track of Chinese investment in other nation's ports could be a full-time job, and that is just one aspect of what they are doing. Good luck to the EU and MENA, they are going to need it....
October 25, 2021 - "Hamburg Is at the Heart of Germany's Growing Dilemma Over China" 
October 26, 2021 - "The Chinese military is thinking about how to stealthily destroy enemy ports and just set off a big explosion to see how it might work"
October 25, 2022 - China's COSCO Near Deal To Buy Into Port Of Hamburg
August 23, 2024 - Logistics: "A $2 Trillion Reckoning Looms as Ports Become Pawns in Geopolitics"