- After the climate summit: cooperation and competition
- Merkel’s Beijing trip with Wirecard in tow
- China’s maritime influence in Europe
- Baidu and Geely invest billions in smart car technologies
- Daniel Burow: LFP – advantage for China in the battery market
- Profile: Qin Gang
Since Annalena Baerbock began campaigning for chancellor, her words carry double weight. It is highly likely that she will help determine the country’s fate as a member of the next federal government, perhaps even at its head. She now defined what she sees as the necessary way to deal with China as a mixture of “dialogue and toughness.” China experts and stakeholders will have to use the next few months to credibly explain their agenda and interests in China to the Green Party.
How seriously Xi Jinping takes the reduction of CO2 emissions and what regulatory means he uses to achieve this is of interest not only to all of us in general but also to everyone who is economically active and thus affected in China. At Joe Biden’s climate summit, one could see the first contours of Xi’s plans. Christiane Kuehl assesses the summit and the weight of Xi Jinping’s pledges to reduce the share of coal power in China.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk has spent a good 200 hours following the meetings of the Wirecard investigation committee in recent months. Most recently, on Friday, Angela Merkel had to explain to parliamentarians why she had intervened in Beijing on behalf of a company whose fraudulent business practices had long been the subject of public reporting at the time of her intercession. An economic thriller between Berlin and Beijing.
Chinese investors want to invest around €100 million in Wilhelmshaven’s Jade-Weser Port. Frank Sieren puts the plans in the context of Beijing’s Silk Road initiative.
And automotive expert Daniel Burow explains in today’s Opinion what European battery manufacturers can expect when patent protection for LFP technology expires next year and the European market is open to Chinese manufacturers.
Antje Sirleschtov
Feature
After the climate summit: cooperation and competition
Joe Biden’s climate summit is over; and now the experts are beginning their analyses: What do the commitments made at the virtual summit by some 40 heads of state and government mean? And does all this also bring geopolitical shifts – new cooperations and lines of conflict, for instance? One of the surprises was the announcement by Brazil’s President Bolsonaro that he would cut his country’s emissions by 50 percent by 2030. However, the element of surprise was quickly over: One day after the summit, Bolsonaro cut his Environment Ministry’s 2021 budget by 24 percent.
Such about-turns are not to be expected from China. In his appearance, Xi stuck to the typical premise that it is better to promise too little than too much – and certainly not under pressure from other countries. In keeping with socialist plans, it is always better to exceed the planned target in the end than to break the bar – including losing face. In this respect, Xi’s initially meager announcement to reduce coal consumption from 2025 is definitely worth something.
“Xi has never before made such a statement on reducing coal consumption or controlling new coal-fired power plants,” Lauri Myllyvirta, senior analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air and an expert on China, pointed out on Twitter. “However, this will only make a difference if concrete targets and guidelines follow now. But Xi’s remarks pave the way for that.”
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