German Business Leaders Against Decoupling From China

The German business sector is upbeat about cooperation with China and cannot decouple from China, said Heino Buddenberg, CEO of a German high-tech steel enterprise, when talking about the prospects of his business in China.

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"A lot of politically discussed issues are quite theoretical for me and a little bit far away from reality and society," said Buddenberg, who has been with the company Waelzholz since 2005.

Talking about the so-called "decoupling" fallacy, Buddenberg refuses to calculate the cost of it; to him, it is just a "theoretical topic."

Buddenberg said his company has been managing to "keep a little bit away from political things" and make decisions based on economy and market factors. Waelzholz has been developing its business in China since it founded its service center in China in 2007.

Looking back on the company's expansion in China, Buddenberg said that when he visited Taicang, Jiangsu Province, where the China branch was based, in 2005 for the first time, there were barely any hotels to stay in.

But nowadays, great changes have taken place there. The company has grown bigger and even finds it hard to acquire nearby space to expand the branch. Buddenberg said there is no reason for his company to leave China as "it has developed very strongly."

"China has been Germany's largest trading partner for seven years. And we have over 5,000 German companies that are active in China and over 2,500 Chinese companies that are active in Germany," said Silke Besser, general manager of the German-Chinese Business Association.

"It is clear to both sides and all stakeholders that de-coupling should not happen, especially as long as we will keep an international path," she said, adding that cooperation seems more important than ever amid the current environment, which is marked by challenges and crises.