BERLIN/HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - The German government's approval of an entry by Chinese state-owned Cosco into a Hamburg container terminal has met with sharp criticism from the Green government faction and the CDU opposition. "It was wrong, it is wrong and it remains wrong," Green Party economic politician Felix Banaszak told the Handelsblatt newspaper (Thursday). He said it was a mistake for Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to prevent a new investment review process. "With the chancellor, misunderstood Hamburg local patriotism is mixed with a foreign economic policy that has learned nothing from the fatal mistakes in dealing with Russia." Scholz was mayor of Hamburg before moving to Berlin.

It was short-sighted to bow to China's actions with a view to location competition with other European ports because Beijing was threatening sanctions, the Green Party member of the Bundestag explained. "This shows that one is unnecessarily susceptible to blackmail." Banaszak's stance is at odds with Hamburg's Green Party, which is in favor of Cosco's participation in the Tollerort terminal.

CDU security politician Roderich Kiesewetter was similarly critical. "Since the intelligence services and other ministries have warned massively against the sale of shares in the port's terminal to Cosco, the whole thing looks even more like the chancellor going it alone on his China-policy aberration," the vice chairman of the Bundestag's intelligence control committee told the Handelsblatt newspaper. He said Germany must finally learn from the mistakes it has made toward autocracy Russia.

The German government had decided on Wednesday, after months of dispute, to release a minority stake of Cosco Shipping Ports Ltd in the Tollerort terminal of a maximum of 24.99. Cosco originally wanted to take 35 percent of the operating company. Several federal ministries had protested against this. Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG had expressed relief at the decision, stressing that the CTT could now be developed into a preferred handling point for HHLA's long-standing customer Cosco, where cargo flows between Asia and Europe would be concentrated./klm/DP/zb