Germany jeopardises Chinese relations as it halts two planned takeovers
German officials have withdrawn their approval of Grand Chip Investment’s $730m acquisition of chip equipment maker Aixtron due to security concerns as well as approval for the acquisition of Osram’s general lighting unit by another Chinese company. This comes as recent Chinese acquisitions of German technology companies have raised concerns over German expertise and intellectual property being sold to the highest bidder as well as China’s access to the country’s open markets.

Move by European nation, which has ‘special relationship’ with mainland, comes before German business delegation’s trip on Tuesday to China and Hong Kong