The boss of the laser specialist Trumpf, Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, introduced herself to the China debate with her usual pithy words.

"Let's say the Chinese invade Taiwan: then we have to decide which side we want to be on.

The decision is easy for me,” said the CEO of the family company from Ditzingen, a suburb of Stuttgart.

You know “as an upright, German, democratic citizen” that you are on the side of the USA.

"For us as the West, attacking Taiwan has to be the red line."

Gustave parts

Business correspondent in Stuttgart.

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Leibinger-Kammüller is a member of the CDU, is considered to be well connected politically and had a close relationship with Angela Merkel.

The company with a good 16,000 employees manufactures machine tools and laser technology and is a supplier of machines for the chip industry.

China is the fourth most important market for Trumpf.

German companies usually speak very cautiously about China, not least so as not to alienate those in power in Beijing.

Leibinger-Kammüller has also been relatively open in the past.

"We have placed ourselves too much in the hands of China," she said at the company's annual press conference on Thursday.

You have to reduce the dependencies.

At the same time, she warned of the repercussions if the Chinese market disappeared: "That would have a major impact on the expensive welfare state that we are affording." "High wages" could also be paid in this country thanks to China.

"I don't know how good it is for our production workers if we had to do without China and send 200 of them away." Only a few countries in the world, she named the figure of 6 percent, are "perfect democracies".

You can't just trade with them.

"The standard of living cannot be maintained with this."

Praise for the chancellor's trip to China

The entrepreneur praised the agreement on the terminal at the port of Hamburg and the planned trip to China by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD): "I think that's right." You have to keep talking, Merkel also handled it that way.

However, she does not want to fly with her.

You have “enough to do here”, such trips are less important for medium-sized companies than for large corporations.

“There are no contracts for us.

It doesn't do us that much good," she said.

She did not want to say how Trumpf would react in the event of an attack on Taiwan.

It's too early to say, she said when asked if Trump would go out of business or spin off.

If China disappears, you just have to find replacement markets.

The company has increasingly become the focus of world politics.

It supplies special lasers for a machine from the Dutch group ASML, whose sale to China has been blocked by the USA for years.

The machine is necessary to make the world's most advanced computer chips.

China's share of Trumpf's total sales decreased in the fiscal year from July 2021 to June 2022.

But that was a coincidence, said Leibinger-Kammüller.

The dependency on Trumpf is more in the supply chain than in the business in China.

Sales in the People's Republic increased by almost 10 percent to EUR 575 million. Overall, the laser specialist recorded growth of more than a fifth to EUR 4.2 billion, exceeding the EUR 4 billion mark for the first time.

Some percentage points are inflation effects, said CFO Lars Grünert.

The key driver of this growth is the collaboration with ASML.

The turnover of this division increased by more than four fifths to 795 million euros.

The other two main business areas grew by 12 and 22 percent.

The company's earnings before interest and taxes rose by almost 100 million to 468 million euros.

The yield was 11.1 after 10.5 percent in the previous year.

The number of employees increased by almost 2,000 to 16,554, in Germany by 815 to 8,417.