In the end China's CCP will use it's influence to act politically

In Greece's largest port of Piraeus, China is the boss

Kaki Bali

8 hours ago8 hours ago

Since 2016, the Chinese shipping company Cosco has been the majority stakeholder in the port of Piraeus. This means a foreign power controls Greece's main port.

https://p.dw.com/p/4ImNZ

In Germany, a heated debate has been raging about the Chinese state shipping company Cosco buying a minority stake in a container terminal at the port of Hamburg.

Greece, however, seems to have no such concerns. Since 2011, under pressure from both the debt crisis and the Troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund), the Greek government has sold almost all of the country's important ports and airports to foreign companies. Athens signed a contract with Cosco in 2016 that has allowed the Chinese company to secure a two-thirds majority stake in the port of Piraeus.

So far, the Greek government appears to be satisfied with Cosco's performance at Greece's main port. "The Chinese investment in Piraeus is beneficial for both countries," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in February 2021, at China's first summit meeting with the 17 Central and Eastern European countries. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, described Cosco's investment in Piraeus as an "exemplary project." Xi, who inspected the port himself in 2019, sees Piraeus as "an important hub for China's fast land-sea link with Europe, and for connectivity between Asia and Europe."