Petra Sigmund was already reading books from Asia and China with enthusiasm during her school years. „In the period after the Cultural Revolution in China, so-called scar literature came to Germany, Heavy Wings by Zhang Jie, for example,“ says the 54-year-old, recounting her first encounters with the country. Petra Sigmund now heads the Asia and Pacific Division at the Federal Foreign Office. Policy-making is her daily routine, and she always has two questions in mind: „How do we look at China, and how do we need to position ourselves? „