Is China Systematically Buying
Up Key Technologies?
Chinese M & A transactions in Germany in the
context of “Made in China 2025”. Bertelsmann Stiftung GED Study 2018
“Made in China 2025” (MIC 2025) is the Chinese central
government’s main industrial policy strategy aimed at
turning China into the global leader of the fourth industrial
revolution. Chinese M & A transactions abroad explicitly
belong to the instruments for implementing MIC 2025.
Germany is an attractive location for Chinese M & A transactions
and offers tailor-made know-how for MIC 2025 due
to its large number of “hidden champions”, i. e. technological
world market leaders in highly specialized niches.
64 percent or 112 of the 175 analyzed Chinese M & A transactions
with a share of at least ten percent in German companies
between 2014 and 2017 percent can be assigned to
one of the ten key sectors in which China aims to assume
global technology leadership with the help of MIC 2025.
On the one hand, there is a clear focus on the MIC 2025
sectors of “energy-saving and new-energy vehicles”,
“electrical equipment” and “high-end numerical control
machinery and robotics” – i. e. sectors in which Germany
can in part demonstrate significant competitive technological
advantages. Even before the introduction of MIC 2025
in 2015, however, these sectors were already a focus of
interest for Chinese investors in Germany.
On the other hand, key sectors that played little or no
role for Chinese M & A transactions in Germany have also
become increasingly important since the introduction of
MIC 2025. This is particularly evident in the MIC 2025
sector of “biomedicine and high-performance medical
devices”.
The majority of the 112 Chinese M & A transactions (just
under 60 percent) that are relevant for MIC 2025 are distributed
across only three German states: Baden-Württemberg
(26), North Rhine-Westphalia (22) and Bavaria (18)
– the very regions in which the majority of the German
“hidden champions” are located.
State-owned investors make up 18 percent of the Chinese
M & A transactions examined, and are therefore a minority.
However, taking into account only the M & A transactions
that can be assigned to the MIC 2025 sectors, their share
rises to around 22 percent – a possible indication of state
stakeholders’ greater interest in acquiring know-how
abroad for the implementation of MIC 2025.
However, the formal type of ownership of Chinese companies
does not show the full picture of potential state influence
due to the complex interplay between the state and
companies in China. Therefore, the great challenge for Germany
consists in the forms of state influence that are not
or only insufficiently reflected in the majority ownership
type of Chinese investors
