Heads • China.Table

Liu Zhengrong was Head of Human Resources at Beiersdorf in Hamburg for almost ten years. Now he is retiring and allowing himself a six-month break. Time to reflect, as he says. After all, the 55-year-old has had an eventful few years.Born in Shanghai in 1968, Liu first studied Chinese as a second language and then, […] continue reading →

Qian Sun’s work is a balancing act. After all, the native of northern China works as an investigative journalist in Berlin and for Chinese television. For Phoenix TV, a majority state-owned television station from Hong Kong and Shenzhen, she explains the broad lines of German politics to the Chinese. Things get more nuanced when Sun […] continue reading →

Marc Matten’s interest in China began with a visit to a flea market in the 1990s. While still in school, he stumbled across a book by Edgar Snow, the US journalist who recorded his encounter with Mao Zedong in the world-famous bestseller “Red Star Over China”. Matten was fascinated. “A little later, when our city […] continue reading →

For three years, Chinese scientist He Jiankui was in prison for creating the world’s first genetically engineered babies. After his release in April 2022, he has now returned in a remarkable interview with the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post. Some four years after their birth, he explained, the three children were doing well. […] continue reading →

After a two-year travel hiatus, David Feng can finally ride the train again. Now that the Covid measures have been lifted, the Swiss national is once again sharing details about China’s rail network – from high-speed lines to ticketing machines – on Twitter and his website.But Feng is contributing even more as an independent consultant […] continue reading →

“I have spent a very significant part of my professional life making people aware of this repeatedly: You can’t think of the world without China,” says Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik. Since the mid-1970s, the now 68-year-old has been intensively involved with China. The influence of her older brother – a Mao enthusiast – and a year abroad […] continue reading →

Ruth Schimanowski is used to being at home in a foreign country. “From an early age, I experienced myself as a foreigner, as a guest.” The head of the DAAD Beijing office grew up in Tanzania as a missionary’s daughter. In terms of foreign languages, she speaks Kiswahili, Swedish, French, English and, of course, Chinese. […] continue reading →

Ralph Koppitz still has to get used to the winter weather in Germany. The Munich native has spent the last 20 years in Shanghai, the once cosmopolitan city that has become increasingly cramped for Koppitz and his family in recent years. A few months ago, he made the decision to return home to the German […] continue reading →

Sarah Eaton knows very well that certain encounters can change the course of entire lives. When she studied political science and Asian studies at a small university in her native Canada, she met Marilyn McCullough, an expert in modern Chinese history.McCullough became Eaton’s mentor and significantly influenced her future academic endeavors. “I knew then that […] continue reading →

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 does […] continue reading →