As Theresa May “resets” the supposedly golden relationship with Beijing that she inherited from her predecessor, the UK prime minister might want to look across the English channel at the China strategy adopted by one of her continental peers.

In a recent meeting with German industrialists, Angela Merkel asked whether her government should be concerned about a Chinese company’s offer for Kuka, the Augsburg-based robot manufacturer.

According to people familiar with the exchange, the German chancellor accepted their consensus view that there was no reason for her government to block the deal. But she did so with reservations about a recent spate of acquisitions by Chinese companies in Europe’s largest economy. In a parting comment about the executives’ relatively relaxed view towards Chinese acquisitions of German know-how, she told them: “I think you are being naive.”