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

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