One of the flagship program of President Xi Jinping is China 2025, an initiative that aims to put China on top of the food chain when it comes to the technology and industry sectors. As such, the initiative have prompted several Chinese firms to start expanding their operations and portfolio internationally instead of just focusing on the local market.
The most talked about of these acquisitions, and perhaps the most surprising, is the takeover of Chinese firm Midea of Germany's robotics company Kuka in 2016.
Chinese firms are also slowly gobbling up German car makers. The most recent of these investment moves is the Chinese carmaker Geely's purchase of 9.7 percent stake in German auto manufacturer Daimler.
Last year alone, Chinese companies completed the acquisition of 30 firms in Germany. That is nearly double that what Chinese companies have acquired the year before. Chinese companies are also responsible for 40 percent of all the 165 review of foreign takeovers in Germany for the last three years.
A source with insider knowledge about the acquisitions and proposals told the South China Morning Post that Chinese firms, some of which are state-owned, are interested in taking over German companies that delve in new technologies, as well as those working in critical infrastructure sector.
In order to counter these flood of Chinese acquisitions, the German government is reportedly considering setting up a billion euro fund in order to counter Chinese acquisition offers. The fund is expected to counter Chinese acquisition offers if no private investors decide to replace, or at least rival, these offers.
A roadmap for the country's future in technology and industry was first unveiled in October 2015 by China's Ministry for Industry and Information Technology. This road map specifies China's intention to be self-sufficient in several sectors. Part of this road includes 80 percent of alternative- and new-energy vehicles, 70 percent in industrial robots, 50 percent in aviation systems, and 40 percent for mobile phone semiconductors. As the name implies, all of these are expected to be achieved by 2025.
Since its economic boom, China has been heavily reliant on foreign technologies especially when it comes to semiconductors, machines and robotics, and computer numerical control. The core goal of the China 2025 is to at least mitigate, if not totally remove, this reliance on foreign technologies. Based on recent developments, it would appear that China is doing well fulfilling the targets of its proposed roadmap.
