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    Chinese Companies Get Tech-Savvy Gobbling Up Germany's Factories

    Beijing wants to up its manufacturing game to make high-end technology — so it has gone on a buying spree, acquiring key German tech firms.
    by Esme Nicholson Oct 03, 2018 5 minutes
    Containers from China are stacked next to the train station in the Duisburg port in July. Approximately 25 trains a week use a new connection between Duisburg and the Chinese cities of Chongqing and Yiwu. Several European countries use the railway for trading goods both from and into China.

    For decades, the label "Made in Germany" has stood for quality and a guarantee of expensive, precision engineering. Conversely, "Made in China" has long been a marker of substandard, cheap, knockoff products. But this is changing.

    Beijing's "Made in China 2025" policy aims to transform its manufacturing sector into an excellence-driven, global leader in high-end technology. While Germany still has the edge in engineering expertise, a steady increase in the number of Chinese firms buying up key German tech firms has triggered angst in Berlin.

    The city of Duisburg, a former steel and coal town in Germany's western Ruhr valley rust belt, is well-known in China. A map of Europe hangs at Shanghai's Pudong airport, according to Erich Staake, and on it, Duisburg is printed in larger letters than Berlin, Paris

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