Mercedes-Benz increases investment in China

Germany's leading luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz has continued to increase its investment in China as the enormous market remains committed to opening up wider to the world.

Despite increasingly fierce competition in the Chinese auto industry, Mercedes-Benz announced last month that, together with its Chinese partners, it would invest an additional 14 billion yuan (1.99 billion U.S. dollars) into the Chinese market, increasing its product portfolio in the country.

The German automaker established its first joint-venture Beijing Benz with BAIC Motor in August 8, 2005.

Mercedes and its Chinese partners invested a total of more than 100 billion yuan (about 14 billion U.S. dollars) in China between 2014 and 2023.

Over the past two decades of localization, the operations of Mercedes-Benz in China have become more and more mature, said Ola Kallenius, chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

"When we started expanding our operations here more than 20 years ago, in the beginning, it was a lot about the market. And then, it was about production capacity and building up plants here in China together with our partner, of course creating jobs, building up the supply chain. But more and more, it's now every aspect of running an automotive company," he said.

Fu Yuwu, honorary chairman of the China Society of Automotive Engineers, recognized the benefit of globalization when talking about flourishing auto industry and rising foreign investment in China.

"We should recognize the benefit from globalization. It is just because of globalization that China has got integrated its auto industry into the world auto industry and become the most vibrant auto development arena in the world. In the meantime, transnationals have also entered China, so there have emerged a large number of joint ventures set up by transnationals and Chinese firms," Fu said.

To mark Chinese Sturgeon Protection Day, around 550,000 Chinese sturgeons were released into Jingzhou and Yichang sections of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province, as well as in Shanghai, on Saturday.

Nicknamed "aquatic pandas," Chinese sturgeons have existed for over 140 million years. However, the natural population of the species in the Yangtze plummeted in the late 20th century due to intrusive human activities.

The fish is primarily protected through artificial breeding followed by release into the natural environment. In recent years, China has made significant conservation efforts, including expanding artificial breeding and release and fostering natural breeding of the species.

The annual releases of captive-bred Chinese sturgeons have exceeded 1 million for two consecutive years since 2024, effectively replenishing wild populations of the endangered species.