A top BASF China executive is leading the race to succeed Martin Brudermüller as chief executive of the world’s biggest chemicals group, an appointment that would cement the company’s reliance on Beijing at a time of rising geopolitical tensions.

Markus Kamieth, the board member overseeing BASF’s operations in China, is backed by Brudermüller, who is to step down in May to join Mercedes-Benz, two people familiar with the matter said. He is the clear favourite after Saori Dubourg, who headed BASF’s European business, suddenly left the company in February. Dubourg had advocated a more cautious approach to China, the people said.

Kamieth has been closely associated with Brudermüller’s decision to build a €10bn petrochemicals site in Zhanjiang, in the Guangdong province. The plant — the largest investment in the group’s 158-year history — is modelled on BASF’s sprawling headquarters in Ludwigshafen, about an hour’s drive south of Frankfurt, where it employs nearly 40,000 people.