The Chinese government has discreetly laid its zero-Covid strategy to rest. While democratic ministers would have loudly proclaimed the relaxations, Chinese bureaucrats step in front of the press and talk about “optimizations” of the existing policy. In fact, everything that defines zero-Covid has been abolished: widespread lockdowns, strict isolation of infected individuals and their close […]
Protests continued across China on Monday. In addition to criticism of the Covid policy, other concerns rose to the fore, including a general call for freedom and an end to censorship. The police maintained a massive presence on the streets. For the time being, police are seeking a middle ground between discouraging further gatherings and […]
A fire in Urumqi sparked a political wildfire in China. In the country’s political and economic centers Beijing and Shanghai, young people openly protest against the party. This is the stuff of the CP’s nightmares. The courage of the people is admirable. Those who chant for Xi Jinping’s resignation put themselves at great risk.Xi has […]
Juliane Weinzierl has moved to Beijing as Business Manager China for Brainlab, a specialist in medical technology software. She previously served as a project manager at the headquarters in Munich.Matthew Qiu becomes the new CEO at EV manufacturer Aiways. He replaces Chalie Zhang, who only led the company since January. Qiu previously served as chief […]
In political Berlin, the impending conflict is already treated as a fact, and the clash of titans is considered inevitable: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s draft China strategy against the objections of the Chancellor’s Office under Olaf Scholz. While Baerbock as a Green politician puts a focus on human rights and political independence, Scholz as a […]
The German government’s China strategy is to make foreign policy clearer and more effective, according to announcements from the traffic light coalition. Whereas ideas on how to deal with the new superpower were previously scattered across various strategy papers in different departments, there are supposed to be clear instructions for action in the future. The […]
A number of Chinese authorities have published their joint draft of a new social credit law on Weibo (an unofficial translation can be found here). This way, the state is gathering feedback from interested members of the public. Thus, it is only an initial trial balloon. The text may still change considerably before it is […]
Joe Biden’s first meeting in his role as US president with Xi Jinping was the top event shortly ahead of the start of the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia. The two men already know each other as vice presidents, but due to the pandemic, they had not met in person since the end of the […]
Olaf Scholz spoke with human rights lawyers during his visit to Beijing. Here’s what happened: Two days before the trip, Scholz was connected to the German Embassy in Beijing via an encrypted data tunnel in a video call. Human rights lawyers had gathered there. Scholz spoke with them and assured them that he took their […]
Cosco yes – Elmos no. Where is the logic in that? The entry of a state conglomerate into actual infrastructure would, after all, be more detrimental to Germany than the takeover of a small factory for semiconductor precursors by a Swedish-Chinese company. German economy minister Robert Habeck consistently opposed both deals equally, as our analysis […]