Heads • China.Table

Research was the love of his life. Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said this in 2020 after stepping down as vice president of Taiwan. The epidemiologist had decided not to run again after four years in office and had returned to the Academia Sinica State Research Academy. But if he was needed, he would be ready at […] continue reading →

Climate sinner or model student? The question is not that easy to answer, says Liu Hongqiao. “China is turning its head – that is a positive trend,” explains the political advisor on climate issues. The important thing for her is the significance of this transformation: “China going net-zero by 2060 could prevent a further 0.2-0.3C […] continue reading →

Wolfgang Hirn has started learning Chinese about twenty times – and stopped just as often. The journalist and book author has been traveling to China regularly since the 1980s and has written several bestsellers about the country and its continent. “Again and again, I resolve to keep my eye on the ball this time, but […] continue reading →

Although he was not there from the beginning – the first contact between Wolfsburg and the People’s Republic came about back in 1978. When Carl H. Hahn took the helm of the Volkswagen Group in 1982, he made business in China a top priority and played a key role in driving the company’s entry into […] continue reading →

Timm Rohweder has always wanted to be a mediator between cultures. “My desire was either to explain China to the Germans or the other way around.” Rohweder is also committed to this idealistic idea, as he classifies it, in his current role as Regional Expert Greater China at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. Here, he […] continue reading →

Without him, there would be no Transrapid in China: Hartmut Heine, the former China boss of Thyssenkrupp, cultivated German-Chinese business relations in the People's Republic for 40 years. Now he has died in Beijing. An obituary. continue reading →

Oman Ramon Serrano Oswald has already lived on many continents: As a child of Mexican-Swiss parents, he grew up in both Mexico and Germany and had to find his way in both worlds early on. While studying International Relations, he spent time in China, India, Brazil and Mexico. Today, he is a professor of International […] continue reading →

“For me, a world broke down in Shenzhen,” says Alicia Hennig when she thinks back to her time as a lecturer in China. In 2015, the business ethicist came to the local Harbin Institute of Technology for a teaching position. She brought with her many positive memories of previous internships in Shanghai and Jiangsu. After all, […] continue reading →

Gudrun Wacker was already a China expert back when Taiwan was still a dictatorship. Much has changed since then. Authoritarian China threatens the small democracy of Taiwan. And as a Senior Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Wacker has to try and predict how long this will continue. However, she […] continue reading →

Elena Meyer-Clement learned Chinese during her school years. She traveled with school groups to Shanghai and Beijing. Meyer-Clement recalls finding the country and its people awful on her second visit. “The people saw us as strangers just as we saw them.” But that aversion did not last long; the then-student soon felt a connection to […] continue reading →

“I am most productive after talks – and unfortunately at night,” Jan Weidenfeld reveals about his work at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, or Merics for short. This is because Weidenfeld first listens. Preferably to people who have a different perspective on German and European relations with China. In the evening, when the phones […] continue reading →

In 2015, Tim Wenniges saw the lights of Shanghai for the first time from an airplane. He and his wife previously lived in Jakarta for a year, but China was at the top of their bucket list. Then an unexpected offer from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation landed on his desk. Wenniges was to head the […] continue reading →

After thirty years in Germany, Wenhai Wang clearly saw the demand: The longer he worked for German companies, the more frequently the native Chinese was asked for more exchange with his economically ambitious home country. In fact, he found no simple framework in which such a bridging function could be established in everyday life. So […] continue reading →

Robin Mallick is still very new to Beijing but has already found his running route: “I’m very pleasantly surprised by how green Beijing is. And I’m thrilled with Chaoyang Park, where I go for a jog every morning.” He keeps discovering new corners there. “And every now and then I get lost because it’s so […] continue reading →

China’s role in Central and Eastern Europe has changed. Not for the better, according to Ivana Karásková. Karásková is a China Research Fellow and project coordinator at the think tank Association for International Affairs (AMO) in Prague. She originally wanted to become a journalist and report from around the world. But after graduation, she was […] continue reading →

If China experts are asked how they found their area of expertise, they often speak of experiences that almost have enlightenment qualities. This was also the case with Paul Triolo. For him, enlightenment came in the form of a newspaper report. In 1987, he read a New York Times story about the rise of China. […] continue reading →

At the age of 14, Francis Kremer was already determined to become an international businessman. He was interested in business and in faraway places. Today, at age 39, he has reached his goal as head of sales and marketing for Juli Automotion, a Chinese engine manufacturer and Tier 1 supplier located in a Shanghai suburb. […] continue reading →

Scor (real name: Tim Oelrich) maneuvers through the narrow streets of Shenzhen on his bicycle. He is looking for a testing station to take the mandatory daily PCR test. The waiting lines are long, so he has to drive from one test station to the next. The red walls that will soon close off entire […] continue reading →