Mercedes-Benz CEO: Cutting ties with China is 'unthinkable'

By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) May 4 -- Cutting economic ties with China is unrealistic and attempting to do so would put most of Germany's industry at risk. This is the viewpoint expressed by CEO of auto giant Mercedes-Benz in a recent interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

Europe is trying to reduce its dependency on China as the disruption of the pandemic and the Ukraine crisis have highlighted the dangers of relying on dominant suppliers and the fragility of supply chains. "The major players in the global economy, Europe, the US and China, are so closely intertwined that decoupling from China, the world's second largest economy, was "unthinkable for almost all of German industry," he said.

German carmakers depend on the Chinese car market, the world's largest, and Mercedes-Benz counts China's Beijing Automotive Group Co Ltd and Geely Chairman Li Shufu as its two top shareholders.

"Our sales figures in China are increasing and I am quite optimistic that we will also grow this year. During the pandemic years, the wealthier Chinese in particular made extraordinary savings. This made purchasing power should benefit us," Kaellenius said.

Many international enterprises have previously stated that decoupling from China is not feasible. They thought the interests of China and European countries overlap in many fields, and cooperation far outweighs differences.