one of the biggest deals to spark concerns was the 2016 purchase of kuka — germany's largest maker ofrobotics — by china's midea for 5.5 billion dollars. and there is particular concern about companies linked to foreign governments. as china looks increasingly overseas at technology and manufacturing interests, its investors spent a record 43 billion on eu purchases in 2016. that's almost double the previous year. just yesterday germany's financial regulator said it would look into the $9 billion worth of shares bought in the car—maker daimler — which owns mercedes — by china's geely. with me is bronwyn curtis, chair of the society of business economists. afamiliar a familiarface. a familiar face. good to see you again. give as your take on the situation. of course, china has been looking for years at good assets in europe. and of course we welcome peak investment but to a degree, whether we draw the line? there's been a lot of money coming out of china. that has been the biggest concern. notjust into europe. it is worldwide. we have already seen the us saying, we're not sure that you

companies have been buying into key german companies bank puts meister concrete systems robot maker kuka. in two thousand and two only two chinese companies bought into german enterprises but that number has increased constantly since then in two thousand and sixteen it was sixty eight. forces but after looking long term in ten to fifteen years we'll have to ask ourselves which parts of our industrial base are still left in germany as more and more of them are relocated to china while on the other hand german investors in china are systematically disadvantaged. german investors in china have long complained of discrimination and have called on politicians to do something about it it's one reason why the sale of part of it is raising eyebrows germany's financial regulator an ounce an investigation gili is also on the agenda in parliament but german politicians don't have much decision making power as long as no security related information is involved shareholdings and takeovers cannot be blocked. and in a surprise move u.s. cable giant comcast has thrown down the gauntlet to tycoon ruper

one of the biggest deals to spark concern was the 2016 purchase of kuka, germany's largest maker of industrialy china's midea for $5.5 billion. and there is particular concern about companies linked to foreign governments. as china looks increasingly overseas at technology and manufacturing interests, its investors spent a record $15 billion on eu purchases in 2016. that's almost double the previous year. just yesterday, germany's financial regulator said it would look into the $9 billion investment in the car—maker daimler, which owns mercedes, by china's geely, which hopes to access damiler‘s technology. with me is miriam gonzalez, an expert on european trade law at dechert llp. thank you forjoining us. sally running through the details on what strikes me about this is about trying to decide which investments are welcomed and which are not and thatis are welcomed and which are not and that is the difficult thing, isn't it? some industries will say, "we need access to this intellectual property and technology", but then the government might say, "yes, but it's a crucial industry". how do you