Beijing calls them its Luban workshops 鲁班工坊, the new overseas vocational schools where the People’s Republic has so far mainly educated and trained Africans in high-tech industrial fields. Foreign observers mockingly refer to them as „Confucius Institutes 2.0.“ Others see Beijing’s sudden emergence as an active provider in the international education market as a kind of specialized technical reincarnation. Or, depending on one’s point of view, a simple replica. After all, China itself was a recipient country for more than 40 years of German vocational training expertise funded and promoted primarily by development policy through companies such as GTZ (now GIZ) with its diverse technical cooperation projects.