It was no coincidence that Jiang Zemin was keen to visit Wolfsburg during his state visit to Germany in 2002. After all, he had already been to the VW city 24 years earlier, in November 1978, to be exact. At that time, Jiang was the Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the First Ministry of Mechanical Engineering. He is therefore only in the background in the picture. He is the second man from the left in the Western suit; the gentleman in the Chinese jacket is the minister. This first visit was the beginning of a successful business relationship between China and VW – which continues to this day. Felix Lee