The Chinese automaker BAIC has acquired 9.98 percent of shares in Germany’s Daimler corporation, bypassing the other Chinese shareholder, Geely, which holds 9.69 percent. This is to deepen a strategic alliance between Germans and Chinese which, in the case of BAIC and Daimler, has been active for ten years.
Daimler sells one-third of its production in China, and more than half of the profit is made in China as well. It’s not surprising that this alliance is attacked by certain circles as a sell-out to China, but Daimler’s management has repudiated that as “nonsense” and emphasized that working with the Chinese also secures jobs in Germany.
