, Columnist
BASF Playing China Matchmaker Should Worry U.S.
The European chemicals giant has form in smoothing relations between powerful trading partners.
Let’s make a deal.
Photographer: Jacobia Dahm/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
If you want a look at how China is playing the economic diplomacy of its simmering trade war with the U.S., consider BASF SE.
The world’s most profitable listed chemical company1 agreed Monday to spend as much as $10 billion on a giant plant – in Guangdong province, at a ceremony in Berlin attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.