China (Mainland)
1946 - 1956
After many years of negotiating the decartelization of the chemical giant, Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik AG was newly founded in 1952 as one of the three successor companies of I.G. Farben.
The political re-education attempts also influenced the clothing habits of the Chinese, which had consequences for the textile industry.
The technical department at Jebsen & Co. already indicated that business in China would be more difficult to transact in the future and that its scope would be smaller. Dealing with the powerful procurement authority CNIEC, which issued the necessary import licenses, proved to be very difficult.
The Chinese authorities demanded an ever deeper insight into the methods and procedures developed by BASF to test the product quality: Despite all these efforts it remained difficult to expand business with the People’s Republic.
In mid-August 1956, a four-member group of high-ranking BASF employees traveled to Beijing with special permits from China to expand the business relations. In the Chinese capital, the Germans faced tough and shrewd negotiators and the business transactions fell considerably short of the expectations by the BASF delegation.
The “cold war” cemented the division of the world into an eastern and a western block.