The International Motor Show (IAA) was once the showcase for the German automotive industry. However, this time, the focus for many German visitors is on models from a completely different country: China. These models are certainly worth a look, as noted by Julia Fiedler, who attended the presentation shows in Munich.Chinese competitors are not only […]
The robots that greeted visitors at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai in early July were not really impressive. The human-like machines can toss balls to each other and dance to traditional Chinese music. They are even used as service staff in some restaurants in China.But if you asked them more complex questions, […]
As the experienced Winston Churchill supposedly once said, do not trust any statistics you did not fake yourself. But how to deal with it when statistics are no longer gathered at all?At least, that is what economists, academics and journalists who observe China experience. Figures on the steeply rising youth unemployment, on the crashing real […]
It is possible that the Chinese secret service is operating on German soil. This is at least the most conclusive explanation for what is happening to democracy activist Su Yutong. Men ring her doorbell and threaten her, and her German address is published on the Internet in connection with salacious pictures.Other human rights activists notice […]
The saber-rattling in the Indo-Pacific is getting louder. According to the Taiwanese government, fighter jets entered Taiwan’s air defense zone 42 times over the weekend. More than half of the military jets crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. The median line is considered the unofficial border between Taiwan and the People’s Republic in […]
The approach to dealing with China has started changing – only slowly on the political stage in Berlin, but much more so in Brussels. EU top diplomat Gunnar Wiegand has contributed significantly to this change. For many years, he was in charge of Europe’s relations with a total of 41 countries, most recently primarily with […]
Today’s issue is all about AI. Our first analysis is about Beijing’s fight against deepfakes, i.e. video and image fakes that can be used to spread even more sophisticated and credible fake news in China. Of course, this is not at all in the interest of the censorship and regulatory authorities, who, fearing a loss […]
Saudi Arabia invited to talks on the Ukraine war in Jeddah over the weekend. Representatives from more than 40 countries came. And unlike the previous round in Copenhagen, China also accepted the invitation this time.Some might already see this as a turn away from Russia, but Michael Radunski takes a much more sober view. Beijing […]
Those were the days when every renowned architect flocked to Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen and went wild. Some buildings were so avant-garde that citizens made fun of them, like the famous building of the state broadcaster CCTV, which was quickly dubbed “underpants” due to its strange shape. President Xi Jinping has put an end to […]
From student to master: Chinese carmakers have spent decades trying to learn from the car nation Germany. However, when it comes to building intelligent EVs, Volkswagen is now getting help from a Chinese manufacturer and taking a stake in the EV start-up Xpeng for 700 million euros.What seems like a defeat for Volkswagen could turn […]