Germany has blocked the sale of Hamburg logistics company Zippel to China's state-owned shipping giant Costco, as Berlin takes a tougher line on competition with Beijing. Costco is planning to buy an 80% stake in Zippel, which moves cargo from major German seaports to inland destinations. But the Economy Ministry intervened, saying the acquisition would jeopardize the resilience of German and EU supply chains. Berlin is unwinding its strategic dependencies on Chinese state-backed entities to protect its critical infrastructure. Security experts warn that reliance on Chinese tech leaves Germany vulnerable to digital sabotage or espionage by Beijing during a geopolitical crisis. In the early 2020s, Germany phased Chinese operators Huawei and ZTE out of 5G infrastructure over security concerns. Costco already has a minority stake in a Hamburg port-based container terminal after the previous German government gave the go-ahead in 2023, despite strong disagreements within the coalition and warnings from security officials. But since then, Germany has stepped up its de-risking strategy, which has seen a distance itself from Chinese investments. European industries are being hammered as China exports the kind of products that advanced economies once expected to dominate domestically, such as electric vehicles, semiconductors, and other high-tech goods. The industry group Eurometal predicts 300,000 job losses in European manufacturing for the rest of the year because of expanding competition from China, which currently enjoys a record 1 billion euro a day trade surplus with the bloc. And that surplus is widening again. Our graph shows how Chinese imports into the EU rose again through 2025 and into this year, while EU exports to China have weakened. The European Commission is considering measures to counter China's industrial dominance, including new rules to encourage companies to diversify their critical supply chains. Germany has drawn a line trade on Costco. Now comes the harder task, reducing its dependence on China without sparking a trade war.