It is all legal, and perhaps the debate simply shows us how charged the international climate is right now. But the German Bielefeld University is currently forced to defend its decision to establish an offshoot on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea.
Tim Gabel analyzes that Bielefeld University has chosen a bad timing in the public perception. The news of the university’s China branch only came days after the presentation of the German government’s China strategy, which urges universities to remain vigilant. The university wants to teach electrical engineering near a naval base. Objectively, this should not be a problem. But promoting the new China engagement with public funds is probably not in line with the spirit of de-risking education.
The crisis in the Chinese real estate sector is far from over. It currently looks like a horror without an end because Beijing does not allow an end with horror: The government does not want to risk the bankruptcy of large property developers. But since their share prices are in some cases only just above the zero line, they are forced to leave the stock market in rows, writes Frank Sieren.
The extent of the financial holes in the Chinese real estate industry is probably not even fully understood yet. Because the situation continues to deteriorate due to a downward dynamic: The more problems the sector has, the more money investors pull out – and the more problems the sector gets.
Your Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Feature
The real estate market continues to slip
Construction site in Shanghai: less and less money for new projects.
“The release of results seems to indicate that management and regulators have finally accepted that a housing rebound isn’t imminent,” said Brock Silvers, chief investment officer at private equity firm Kaiyuan Capital in Hong Kong. “Recent economic data shows that Evergrande cannot simply waituntil the current crisis passes and then release results in a more favorable environment.”
‘Persistent weakness’
China’s real estate market is simply not recovering. In fact, real estate sales slumped again by almost 30 percent in June. That is a bigger slump than in May. Chinese real estate developers spent ten percent less on land purchases than last year, and that was the year with the Shanghai lockdown and other harsh Covid measures. The real estate research firm CRIES calculated these figures by examining data from China’s 100 largest real estate developers. At least property prices for new homes remained stable in June, growing 0.1 percent in 70 cities.
Nevertheless, investment bank Goldman Sachs already speaks of a “persistent weakness,” even though the number of sales measured by value also increased by 0.1 percent to almost 500 billion US dollars in the first half of this year – driven mainly by state-owned real estate developers. But that is not nearly enough for the real estate industry to climb out of its pit of despair.
Cars preferred over houses
State-owned Poly Developments and Holdings leads housing sales, followed by private company Vanke. State-owned companies also dominated land purchases.
Although fixed investment in China increased by 3.5 percent in the first half of the year, its real estate investment sub-category declined slightly in June compared to May. By comparison, car sales were up 8.8 percent. This is down from last year, but it clearly shows that consumers are already more confident about buying a car than buying large properties. In the meantime, many listed real estate developers are running out of air.
Increased number of delistings
Many real estate companies leave the stock market trading. Last Thursday, Myhome Real Estate Development Group announced to exit trading on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Friday, as its share price has remained below one yuan for 20 consecutive trading days. The problems are just beginning for companies that withdraw from the stock market. After all, restructuring their debt will not get any easier, as creditors are less willing to convert debt into equity stakes in companies.
Other major real estate developers, including Yango Group, Shanghai Shimao Co. Ltd., and Jinke Property Group, have suffered the same fate. They belong to more than 10 of the approximately 110 real estate companies traded on the stock exchanges in Shenzhen or Shanghai that are either facing delisting or struggling to avoid being kicked off the stock exchange.
Crash of historic proportions
Ten companies in China going off the stock market may not sound like much. But considering that only ten real estate companies exited the A-share market over the 22 years between the start of 2001 and May 2023, the historical scale of the slump becomes more apparent. The market is “worse than expected,” and the real estate industry is “indeed seeing pressure in the short-term,” Yu Liang, Chairman of China Vanke, told Chinese media.
No wonder investors are selling off their holdings en masse. “This is a confidence issue,” said Esther Liu, Hong Kong-based director at S&P Global Ratings. “Investors are not confident about prospects for distressed developers.”
Shanghai Shimao’s self-rescue plan
The situation is particularly grave for Shanghai Shimao, one of China’s long-time prime real estate developers. It suffered losses of nearly 560 million euros last year. Shares have plummeted from 6.8 yuan in September 2020 to 1.18 at the start of this week. This year alone, the stock has lost 50 percent of its value.
Fearing that the shares would fall below the one-yuan mark, Shanghai Shimao launched a self-rescue plan. At present, the company is buying back shares to “protect the company’s valuation and shareholders’ interests.” Sichuan Languang, the first real estate developer to exit the stock market this year, had accumulated debts of the equivalent of 5.2 billion euros by that point. Another company, Yango Group, was forced to quit with eight billion in debt.
Economy
Real Estate
Real estate market
Stock Exchange
Trade
University founding in Hainan: stress test for Germany’s China strategy
Juergen Kretschmann, President of the planned Hainan-Bielefeld University, and University Chancellor Guan Naijia in front of a poster showing the building project on the Chinese tropical island of Hainan.
The timing seems odd: Less than a week after the publication of the China Strategy, in which the German government sets stricter limits for scientific cooperation, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (HSBI) has announced plans to found its own university on the Chinese tropical island of Hainan.
This was first reported by German media. At the Hainan Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, abbreviated BiUH, up to 140 students will be able to study Computer Science and Digital Technologies at the Bachelor level starting this winter semester.
According to HSBI President Ingeborg Schramm-Woelk, BiUH is to be “an independent university operating based on the German model of universities of applied sciences,” in which academic freedom is paramount. Indeed, the new university has unique privileges by Chinese standards. The legal status of the Yangpu/Danzhou Economic Development Zone in the north of the island exempts the German-Chinese project from granting the Chinese partner a 51 percent stake.
Keeping risks in mind
Nevertheless, the project is expected to be politically extremely sensitive in light of the German government’s maxim of de-risking. China sanctioned undesirable scientists in the recent past and tightened up its counterintelligence law. This could also affect German scientists. In addition, the People’s Republic used joint research results to advance security systems or military research projects.
The latter could be particularly controversial since the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down by the US military over the continental United States in January is believed to have been launched from Hainan Island, according to Pentagon information.
The BiUH will keep all this in mind, President Schramm-Wölk promised when asked by Table.Media: “We want to ensure that BiUH research results benefit both countries, China and Germany, and exclude dual use of research results. Commitments in basic regulations are one thing, of course, but a continuous negotiation process is another.”
Clearing office planned
According to Schramm-Woelk, the plans already include this process for the university board, the presidium, the BiUH’s committees, and a planned clearing office. “The bottom line is that knowledge is exchanged at the BiUH and international experts are trained. Both Germany and China can and should benefit from this.” She even feels strengthened by the German government’s China strategy.
She says China is of great importance to Germany: “We have an enormous need in Germany for people with China expertise in order to shape successful cooperation at eye level with mutual understanding and culturally sensitive interaction.” The development of the BiUH project was based, among other things, on the guiding questions for university cooperation with the People’s Republic of China issued by the German Rectors’ Conference, she said.
A balancing act for the German education ministry
The project is also a balancing act for Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger. Following the publication of the China strategy, the research minister announced: “The federal government will adapt its funding regulations accordingly and strengthen the dialogue with science and universities as well as their continued sensitization.” Moreover, she currently sees only limited room for new collaborations, Stark-Watzinger said at the government consultations in June.
Accordingly, she could see the university project as a legacy burden from her own ministry. On the German side, the project is being funded by the German Academic Exchange Service between 2021 and 2024 with 3.5 million euros from education ministry funds as part of the “Transnational Education in Germany” program. According to HSBI, the substantial funds for the construction of the university in Yangpu will be provided by the Hainan provincial government and the city of Danzhou, respectively. In the long term, the university is expected to finance itself through the tuition fees that are common in China.
China strategy
Geopolitics
Events
July 21-23, 2023; (Beijing) Beijing University of TechnologyInternational Conference on Business and Economics ResearchMore
July 25 2023; 11 a.m. EDT Dezan Shira / Webinar:Trade Chat – Diversify Your Business to Vietnam: Why and How to Enter the MarketMore
July 27, 2023; (Beijing) China International Exhibition Center / Fair:International Food Beverage and Imported Food Expo 2023More
July 28, 2023; 3 p.m. (Shenzhen) German Chamber of Commerce / Knowledge Hub: Foreign Talents in China: Updated Chinese Work Visa and Green Card PolicyMore
July 29, 2023 M+ Museum Hong Kong / Exhibition:Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in ChinaTickets
News
Xi meets Kissinger
Henry Kissinger is still a high-profile figure in China. After top diplomat Wang Yi and Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Kissinger also met with President Xi Jinping on Thursday. The two assured each other of the importance of relations between their countries.
Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State and Presidential Security Advisor in the United States. In the 1970s, he broke the diplomatic ice between China and the United States with a secret trip. Since then, he has visited the People’s Republic around 100 times. Xi had last welcomed him in 2019. Kissinger currently warns urgently against escalating confrontations between the two nations. fin
Geopolitics
USA
China wants to deepen trade with Ukraine
China announced plans to expand trade with Ukraine. After meeting with Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy, Taras Kachka, in Beijing, Vice Minister of Commerce Ling Ji announced that China is willing to “establish cooperative relations between the investment promotion agencies of the two countries, and continuously expand the space for trade and investment cooperation.”
Kachka expressed Ukraine’s hope to increase the export of agricultural products to China. “We are willing to work together with China to promote the healthy and sustainable development of economic and trade relations between the two countries,” he said. rtr
Geopolitics
Russland
Ukraine
Russian attack damages consulate in Odessa
According to a report by the German news magazine Spiegel Online, the Chinese consulate was hit during the night attacks on the port of Odesa. Regional governor, Oleh Kiper, published photos on the messaging app Telegram of the slightly damaged consulate. The consulate is located near the port, which was attacked during the night.
Attacks on diplomatic structures of the People’s Republic have been closely monitored at the very latest since the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Despite an investigation suggesting that it was an accident on the part of the United States, many Chinese still believe that the attack was deliberate. In Odesa, Russia insisted that it had only attacked military targets. fin
Beijing condemns William Lai’s US visit
China sharply criticized the planned US visit by Taiwanese Vice President and presidential candidate William Lai. It is China’s “priority” to stop Lai from visiting the United States next month, China’s Ambassador Xie Feng said Wednesday in Washington.
Lai is the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). He is leading in most polls in Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which will be held in January. Beijing labels the Taiwanese politician a separatist who threatens peace between Taiwan and mainland China.
On August 15, Lai plans to make a stop in the United States on an upcoming trip to Paraguay to meet with US policymakers. He last visited the United States in January 2022, where he met Vice President Kamala Harris, among others.
In response, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said China had no reason to use Lai’s transit to “start a fight.” Meanwhile, the United States’ top diplomat in Taipei said Wednesday there was no reason for China to respond to Lai’s transit in the United States with “provocative” measures. Such transits are “a routine occurrence.” rtr/fpe
Transparency offensive at TikTok
In an effort to create more transparency, the short video app TikTok is now giving European scientistsaccess to its research application programming interface (API). The company also plans to make its ad library public. This browsable database contains information about paid ads and metadata about advertisements.
With this move, the video app, which is particularly popular with young people, is proactively bowing to the upcoming European Digital Services Act (DSA), which envisages stricter regulation of “very large Internet platforms.” Under these regulations, the EU wants to hold 19 of these large Internet groups particularly liable, including TikTok, owned by the Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance. They have until August to implement the stricter regulations. Violations could result in fines of up to six percent of annual revenue.
Although the European Union has not yet published detailed requirements for a software interface, researchers could begin their work, the short video platform announced Thursday. According to a company statement, access to the interface will be open to researchers who set up their own TikTok developer account and are based in the United States or Europe. TikTok already opened an initial version of its research API to academic researchers in the United States earlier this year. The goal is to facilitate “independent research and content transparency. Empowering researchers and experts with resources to evaluate content on TikTok,” the company wrote on its website. fpe
Column
Mao’s red classics of Peking opera
Mao Zedong was a big fan of Peking opera. But he didn’t make it prosper. Quite the contrary, he had all the existing ones banned. Yes, all of them. With the assistance of his hysterical wife, Jiang Qing, he had some new ones created to brainwash a whole nation and to promote his cult of personality, similar to how Hitler employed Leni Riefenstahl and her propaganda films.
The Peking operas tailored by Mao eventually found their way into China’s top Peking opera troupes’ repertoire and have been regularly staged. Imagine a country of 800 million, where almost all entertainment was forbidden and only eight stage works and their recordings were allowed to be played. That was exactly what happened during the first half of the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976).
The official title for the eight was “model works” (样板戏 yang ban xi). They tell stories of communists fighting enemies of different historical periods under the guidance of Maoist thoughts and the concept of class struggle.
Five of the eight model works were Peking operas produced in the run-up to the Cultural Revolution. The other three were two “revolutionary ballets” and one symphonic suite based on one of the five operas.
Mao’s red book as song lyrics
Apart from the eight, only new “revolutionary songs,” some of which used Mao’s quotes from his “little red books” as lyrics, were allowed to be played publicly. The Cultural Revolution was a political campaign that saw tens of millions of Chinese from all walks of life persecuted. They were dispossessed, physically abused, tortured to death, sent to prison, forced to work in labor camps, or, at the very least, labeled as social pariahs simply because of, for example, being from a “bourgeois family.”
But the “revolution” did have its cultural components and Peking opera had a big role in it.
Although in the 1950s and 1960s, radio and film, among other media, took an increasingly large share of Chinese people’s entertainment time, Peking Opera continued to enjoy great popularity. Since the early 20th century, Peking opera artists tried to create new plays depicting modern and contemporary life, as well as historical stories adapted to new values. But only few were successful.
Most stage works always consisted of the old plays – about emperors, aristocrats, military heroes, romantic scholars and girls and legendary spirits. These works were real masterpieces, tested by the market and constantly improved.
Mao was not happy about it. In his hallmark sharp words, he wrote in 1963 to Beijing’s party secretary, Peng Zhen: “Our stages are dominated by dead people. …They should be kicked out…Why do many of our comrades resist promoting socialist art and are against depicting the life of our workers, farmers and soldiers? Isn’t it odd?”
What he really intended was to use the arts to foster the control of the minds of a whole nation and to promote himself. Jiang, a former actress with a critic’s eyes for performing arts, took action and started to organize the production of the model works.
Mao was delighted
When the works were mature enough, Mao would attend the performances to show his endorsement. “Successful revolution, good art, and right direction,” he commented on one occasion. He should indeed be pleased. In these operas, whenever its protagonists encountered difficulties, they would all resort to Mao’s instructions, which would help them beat the “reactionaries.”
While the model works were in the making, Mao and Jiang attacked another newly made Peking opera in 1965. They accused the playwright of Hai Rui’s Dismissal (海瑞罢官 hai rui ba guan) of making an indirect complaint for a top communist leader, Peng Dehuai, who was sacked in 1959 for criticizing Mao.
The campaign against this opera was later seen as a prelude to the Cultural Revolution. The libretto’s author, Wu Han (吴晗), a historian and also Beijing’s deputy mayor, was purged and died in 1969 in prison for an unknown reason.
Around the time the Cultural Revolution was set in motion in May 1966, the eight model works also took center stage – all stages, to be exact – in the entertainment scene all over China, if it could still be called entertainment.
Troupes creating the works made tours across the country to perform and teach local artists, who could later perform the same works on their own while teaching troupes of even lower levels.
Beijing opera as a TV hit
The works dominated the “entertainment” time slots of all broadcasters. Their complete scripts were published in the Communist Party’s flagship mouthpiece publications. In 1970 and 1971, they were made into films, which were to be watched by 800 million Chinese time and again until the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Mao himself, however, started to miss the classical Peking operas, which, under his order, were already swept into historical dustbins. Dozens of the best Peking opera actors were now summoned to record and film Mao’s favorite pieces, only for his private joy. Many of these actors were actually called back from the countryside because they had been persecuted and sent there to be “re-educated” by doing farm work.
Mao died in 1976. Shortly after, his wife was arrested, then, after a few years, tried and put into prison. The Cultural Revolution was officially condemned as “havoc.” The model works, as a symbolic component of the catastrophe, were also quietly but completely removed from the public life of the country.
Interestingly, in the late 1980s, four operas from the eight works re-surfaced, first on television, then on stage, buoyed by a nostalgic sentiment. Supporters of the come-back said that these works, after all, were meticulously made and shouldn’t be wasted. Opponents argued that although technically commendable, they still have been made for evil purposes. They said that Showing these operas should be limited to academic purposes with clear accompanying statements about their true nature.
However, with the government’s reticent approval, they stayed and even became part of the best Peking opera troupes’ repertoire.
The official opinion about the Cultural Revolution became blurred in the new millennium, especially under Xi Jinping. Xi said the achievement of that period shouldn’t be dismissed. And now these revived model works have a new label: red classics.
Culture
Music
Society
Executive Moves
Anabel Stoeriko has been promoted to Head of Operations China at Siemens Real Estate. Stoeriko has been with Siemens for nearly 12 years. She has been active for the tech company in Beijing since 2021, most recently as Real Estate Regional Service Manager.
Philipp Holzer has been promoted from Senior Manager to Director for the Holistic Digital Luxury segment at Mercedes China. For his new post, he will be moving from Beijing to Shanghai.
Is something changing in your organization? Let us know at heads@table.media!
Dessert
China has always been a paradise for fossil enthusiasts. A team of Chinese and Canadian paleontologists made a particularly spectacular find not far from Lujiatun in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning. The researchers led by Gang Han of Hainan Tropical Ocean University conclude in the journal Scientific Reports that the twisted pile of bones is a mammal wedged in battle and a dinosaur. What is particularly astonishing is that the mammal obviously has the upper hand in the fight against the three times heavier dinosaur. The fight over life and death was ultimately interrupted by a volcanic eruption, which preserved the bones of the two primordial animals in a mudslide of volcanic ash and water.
It is all legal, and perhaps the debate simply shows us how charged the international climate is right now. But the German Bielefeld University is currently forced to defend its decision to establish an offshoot on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea.
Tim Gabel analyzes that Bielefeld University has chosen a bad timing in the public perception. The news of the university’s China branch only came days after the presentation of the German government’s China strategy, which urges universities to remain vigilant. The university wants to teach electrical engineering near a naval base. Objectively, this should not be a problem. But promoting the new China engagement with public funds is probably not in line with the spirit of de-risking education.
The crisis in the Chinese real estate sector is far from over. It currently looks like a horror without an end because Beijing does not allow an end with horror: The government does not want to risk the bankruptcy of large property developers. But since their share prices are in some cases only just above the zero line, they are forced to leave the stock market in rows, writes Frank Sieren.
The extent of the financial holes in the Chinese real estate industry is probably not even fully understood yet. Because the situation continues to deteriorate due to a downward dynamic: The more problems the sector has, the more money investors pull out – and the more problems the sector gets.
Your Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Feature
The real estate market continues to slip
Construction site in Shanghai: less and less money for new projects.
“The release of results seems to indicate that management and regulators have finally accepted that a housing rebound isn’t imminent,” said Brock Silvers, chief investment officer at private equity firm Kaiyuan Capital in Hong Kong. “Recent economic data shows that Evergrande cannot simply waituntil the current crisis passes and then release results in a more favorable environment.”
‘Persistent weakness’
China’s real estate market is simply not recovering. In fact, real estate sales slumped again by almost 30 percent in June. That is a bigger slump than in May. Chinese real estate developers spent ten percent less on land purchases than last year, and that was the year with the Shanghai lockdown and other harsh Covid measures. The real estate research firm CRIES calculated these figures by examining data from China’s 100 largest real estate developers. At least property prices for new homes remained stable in June, growing 0.1 percent in 70 cities.
Nevertheless, investment bank Goldman Sachs already speaks of a “persistent weakness,” even though the number of sales measured by value also increased by 0.1 percent to almost 500 billion US dollars in the first half of this year – driven mainly by state-owned real estate developers. But that is not nearly enough for the real estate industry to climb out of its pit of despair.
Cars preferred over houses
State-owned Poly Developments and Holdings leads housing sales, followed by private company Vanke. State-owned companies also dominated land purchases.
Although fixed investment in China increased by 3.5 percent in the first half of the year, its real estate investment sub-category declined slightly in June compared to May. By comparison, car sales were up 8.8 percent. This is down from last year, but it clearly shows that consumers are already more confident about buying a car than buying large properties. In the meantime, many listed real estate developers are running out of air.
Increased number of delistings
Many real estate companies leave the stock market trading. Last Thursday, Myhome Real Estate Development Group announced to exit trading on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Friday, as its share price has remained below one yuan for 20 consecutive trading days. The problems are just beginning for companies that withdraw from the stock market. After all, restructuring their debt will not get any easier, as creditors are less willing to convert debt into equity stakes in companies.
Other major real estate developers, including Yango Group, Shanghai Shimao Co. Ltd., and Jinke Property Group, have suffered the same fate. They belong to more than 10 of the approximately 110 real estate companies traded on the stock exchanges in Shenzhen or Shanghai that are either facing delisting or struggling to avoid being kicked off the stock exchange.
Crash of historic proportions
Ten companies in China going off the stock market may not sound like much. But considering that only ten real estate companies exited the A-share market over the 22 years between the start of 2001 and May 2023, the historical scale of the slump becomes more apparent. The market is “worse than expected,” and the real estate industry is “indeed seeing pressure in the short-term,” Yu Liang, Chairman of China Vanke, told Chinese media.
No wonder investors are selling off their holdings en masse. “This is a confidence issue,” said Esther Liu, Hong Kong-based director at S&P Global Ratings. “Investors are not confident about prospects for distressed developers.”
Shanghai Shimao’s self-rescue plan
The situation is particularly grave for Shanghai Shimao, one of China’s long-time prime real estate developers. It suffered losses of nearly 560 million euros last year. Shares have plummeted from 6.8 yuan in September 2020 to 1.18 at the start of this week. This year alone, the stock has lost 50 percent of its value.
Fearing that the shares would fall below the one-yuan mark, Shanghai Shimao launched a self-rescue plan. At present, the company is buying back shares to “protect the company’s valuation and shareholders’ interests.” Sichuan Languang, the first real estate developer to exit the stock market this year, had accumulated debts of the equivalent of 5.2 billion euros by that point. Another company, Yango Group, was forced to quit with eight billion in debt.
Economy
Real Estate
Real estate market
Stock Exchange
Trade
University founding in Hainan: stress test for Germany’s China strategy
Juergen Kretschmann, President of the planned Hainan-Bielefeld University, and University Chancellor Guan Naijia in front of a poster showing the building project on the Chinese tropical island of Hainan.
The timing seems odd: Less than a week after the publication of the China Strategy, in which the German government sets stricter limits for scientific cooperation, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (HSBI) has announced plans to found its own university on the Chinese tropical island of Hainan.
This was first reported by German media. At the Hainan Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, abbreviated BiUH, up to 140 students will be able to study Computer Science and Digital Technologies at the Bachelor level starting this winter semester.
According to HSBI President Ingeborg Schramm-Woelk, BiUH is to be “an independent university operating based on the German model of universities of applied sciences,” in which academic freedom is paramount. Indeed, the new university has unique privileges by Chinese standards. The legal status of the Yangpu/Danzhou Economic Development Zone in the north of the island exempts the German-Chinese project from granting the Chinese partner a 51 percent stake.
Keeping risks in mind
Nevertheless, the project is expected to be politically extremely sensitive in light of the German government’s maxim of de-risking. China sanctioned undesirable scientists in the recent past and tightened up its counterintelligence law. This could also affect German scientists. In addition, the People’s Republic used joint research results to advance security systems or military research projects.
The latter could be particularly controversial since the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down by the US military over the continental United States in January is believed to have been launched from Hainan Island, according to Pentagon information.
The BiUH will keep all this in mind, President Schramm-Wölk promised when asked by Table.Media: “We want to ensure that BiUH research results benefit both countries, China and Germany, and exclude dual use of research results. Commitments in basic regulations are one thing, of course, but a continuous negotiation process is another.”
Clearing office planned
According to Schramm-Woelk, the plans already include this process for the university board, the presidium, the BiUH’s committees, and a planned clearing office. “The bottom line is that knowledge is exchanged at the BiUH and international experts are trained. Both Germany and China can and should benefit from this.” She even feels strengthened by the German government’s China strategy.
She says China is of great importance to Germany: “We have an enormous need in Germany for people with China expertise in order to shape successful cooperation at eye level with mutual understanding and culturally sensitive interaction.” The development of the BiUH project was based, among other things, on the guiding questions for university cooperation with the People’s Republic of China issued by the German Rectors’ Conference, she said.
A balancing act for the German education ministry
The project is also a balancing act for Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger. Following the publication of the China strategy, the research minister announced: “The federal government will adapt its funding regulations accordingly and strengthen the dialogue with science and universities as well as their continued sensitization.” Moreover, she currently sees only limited room for new collaborations, Stark-Watzinger said at the government consultations in June.
Accordingly, she could see the university project as a legacy burden from her own ministry. On the German side, the project is being funded by the German Academic Exchange Service between 2021 and 2024 with 3.5 million euros from education ministry funds as part of the “Transnational Education in Germany” program. According to HSBI, the substantial funds for the construction of the university in Yangpu will be provided by the Hainan provincial government and the city of Danzhou, respectively. In the long term, the university is expected to finance itself through the tuition fees that are common in China.
China strategy
Geopolitics
Events
July 21-23, 2023; (Beijing) Beijing University of TechnologyInternational Conference on Business and Economics ResearchMore
July 25 2023; 11 a.m. EDT Dezan Shira / Webinar:Trade Chat – Diversify Your Business to Vietnam: Why and How to Enter the MarketMore
July 27, 2023; (Beijing) China International Exhibition Center / Fair:International Food Beverage and Imported Food Expo 2023More
July 28, 2023; 3 p.m. (Shenzhen) German Chamber of Commerce / Knowledge Hub: Foreign Talents in China: Updated Chinese Work Visa and Green Card PolicyMore
July 29, 2023 M+ Museum Hong Kong / Exhibition:Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in ChinaTickets
News
Xi meets Kissinger
Henry Kissinger is still a high-profile figure in China. After top diplomat Wang Yi and Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Kissinger also met with President Xi Jinping on Thursday. The two assured each other of the importance of relations between their countries.
Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State and Presidential Security Advisor in the United States. In the 1970s, he broke the diplomatic ice between China and the United States with a secret trip. Since then, he has visited the People’s Republic around 100 times. Xi had last welcomed him in 2019. Kissinger currently warns urgently against escalating confrontations between the two nations. fin
Geopolitics
USA
China wants to deepen trade with Ukraine
China announced plans to expand trade with Ukraine. After meeting with Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy, Taras Kachka, in Beijing, Vice Minister of Commerce Ling Ji announced that China is willing to “establish cooperative relations between the investment promotion agencies of the two countries, and continuously expand the space for trade and investment cooperation.”
Kachka expressed Ukraine’s hope to increase the export of agricultural products to China. “We are willing to work together with China to promote the healthy and sustainable development of economic and trade relations between the two countries,” he said. rtr
Geopolitics
Russland
Ukraine
Russian attack damages consulate in Odessa
According to a report by the German news magazine Spiegel Online, the Chinese consulate was hit during the night attacks on the port of Odesa. Regional governor, Oleh Kiper, published photos on the messaging app Telegram of the slightly damaged consulate. The consulate is located near the port, which was attacked during the night.
Attacks on diplomatic structures of the People’s Republic have been closely monitored at the very latest since the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Despite an investigation suggesting that it was an accident on the part of the United States, many Chinese still believe that the attack was deliberate. In Odesa, Russia insisted that it had only attacked military targets. fin
Beijing condemns William Lai’s US visit
China sharply criticized the planned US visit by Taiwanese Vice President and presidential candidate William Lai. It is China’s “priority” to stop Lai from visiting the United States next month, China’s Ambassador Xie Feng said Wednesday in Washington.
Lai is the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). He is leading in most polls in Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which will be held in January. Beijing labels the Taiwanese politician a separatist who threatens peace between Taiwan and mainland China.
On August 15, Lai plans to make a stop in the United States on an upcoming trip to Paraguay to meet with US policymakers. He last visited the United States in January 2022, where he met Vice President Kamala Harris, among others.
In response, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said China had no reason to use Lai’s transit to “start a fight.” Meanwhile, the United States’ top diplomat in Taipei said Wednesday there was no reason for China to respond to Lai’s transit in the United States with “provocative” measures. Such transits are “a routine occurrence.” rtr/fpe
Transparency offensive at TikTok
In an effort to create more transparency, the short video app TikTok is now giving European scientistsaccess to its research application programming interface (API). The company also plans to make its ad library public. This browsable database contains information about paid ads and metadata about advertisements.
With this move, the video app, which is particularly popular with young people, is proactively bowing to the upcoming European Digital Services Act (DSA), which envisages stricter regulation of “very large Internet platforms.” Under these regulations, the EU wants to hold 19 of these large Internet groups particularly liable, including TikTok, owned by the Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance. They have until August to implement the stricter regulations. Violations could result in fines of up to six percent of annual revenue.
Although the European Union has not yet published detailed requirements for a software interface, researchers could begin their work, the short video platform announced Thursday. According to a company statement, access to the interface will be open to researchers who set up their own TikTok developer account and are based in the United States or Europe. TikTok already opened an initial version of its research API to academic researchers in the United States earlier this year. The goal is to facilitate “independent research and content transparency. Empowering researchers and experts with resources to evaluate content on TikTok,” the company wrote on its website. fpe
Column
Mao’s red classics of Peking opera
Mao Zedong was a big fan of Peking opera. But he didn’t make it prosper. Quite the contrary, he had all the existing ones banned. Yes, all of them. With the assistance of his hysterical wife, Jiang Qing, he had some new ones created to brainwash a whole nation and to promote his cult of personality, similar to how Hitler employed Leni Riefenstahl and her propaganda films.
The Peking operas tailored by Mao eventually found their way into China’s top Peking opera troupes’ repertoire and have been regularly staged. Imagine a country of 800 million, where almost all entertainment was forbidden and only eight stage works and their recordings were allowed to be played. That was exactly what happened during the first half of the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976).
The official title for the eight was “model works” (样板戏 yang ban xi). They tell stories of communists fighting enemies of different historical periods under the guidance of Maoist thoughts and the concept of class struggle.
Five of the eight model works were Peking operas produced in the run-up to the Cultural Revolution. The other three were two “revolutionary ballets” and one symphonic suite based on one of the five operas.
Mao’s red book as song lyrics
Apart from the eight, only new “revolutionary songs,” some of which used Mao’s quotes from his “little red books” as lyrics, were allowed to be played publicly. The Cultural Revolution was a political campaign that saw tens of millions of Chinese from all walks of life persecuted. They were dispossessed, physically abused, tortured to death, sent to prison, forced to work in labor camps, or, at the very least, labeled as social pariahs simply because of, for example, being from a “bourgeois family.”
But the “revolution” did have its cultural components and Peking opera had a big role in it.
Although in the 1950s and 1960s, radio and film, among other media, took an increasingly large share of Chinese people’s entertainment time, Peking Opera continued to enjoy great popularity. Since the early 20th century, Peking opera artists tried to create new plays depicting modern and contemporary life, as well as historical stories adapted to new values. But only few were successful.
Most stage works always consisted of the old plays – about emperors, aristocrats, military heroes, romantic scholars and girls and legendary spirits. These works were real masterpieces, tested by the market and constantly improved.
Mao was not happy about it. In his hallmark sharp words, he wrote in 1963 to Beijing’s party secretary, Peng Zhen: “Our stages are dominated by dead people. …They should be kicked out…Why do many of our comrades resist promoting socialist art and are against depicting the life of our workers, farmers and soldiers? Isn’t it odd?”
What he really intended was to use the arts to foster the control of the minds of a whole nation and to promote himself. Jiang, a former actress with a critic’s eyes for performing arts, took action and started to organize the production of the model works.
Mao was delighted
When the works were mature enough, Mao would attend the performances to show his endorsement. “Successful revolution, good art, and right direction,” he commented on one occasion. He should indeed be pleased. In these operas, whenever its protagonists encountered difficulties, they would all resort to Mao’s instructions, which would help them beat the “reactionaries.”
While the model works were in the making, Mao and Jiang attacked another newly made Peking opera in 1965. They accused the playwright of Hai Rui’s Dismissal (海瑞罢官 hai rui ba guan) of making an indirect complaint for a top communist leader, Peng Dehuai, who was sacked in 1959 for criticizing Mao.
The campaign against this opera was later seen as a prelude to the Cultural Revolution. The libretto’s author, Wu Han (吴晗), a historian and also Beijing’s deputy mayor, was purged and died in 1969 in prison for an unknown reason.
Around the time the Cultural Revolution was set in motion in May 1966, the eight model works also took center stage – all stages, to be exact – in the entertainment scene all over China, if it could still be called entertainment.
Troupes creating the works made tours across the country to perform and teach local artists, who could later perform the same works on their own while teaching troupes of even lower levels.
Beijing opera as a TV hit
The works dominated the “entertainment” time slots of all broadcasters. Their complete scripts were published in the Communist Party’s flagship mouthpiece publications. In 1970 and 1971, they were made into films, which were to be watched by 800 million Chinese time and again until the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Mao himself, however, started to miss the classical Peking operas, which, under his order, were already swept into historical dustbins. Dozens of the best Peking opera actors were now summoned to record and film Mao’s favorite pieces, only for his private joy. Many of these actors were actually called back from the countryside because they had been persecuted and sent there to be “re-educated” by doing farm work.
Mao died in 1976. Shortly after, his wife was arrested, then, after a few years, tried and put into prison. The Cultural Revolution was officially condemned as “havoc.” The model works, as a symbolic component of the catastrophe, were also quietly but completely removed from the public life of the country.
Interestingly, in the late 1980s, four operas from the eight works re-surfaced, first on television, then on stage, buoyed by a nostalgic sentiment. Supporters of the come-back said that these works, after all, were meticulously made and shouldn’t be wasted. Opponents argued that although technically commendable, they still have been made for evil purposes. They said that Showing these operas should be limited to academic purposes with clear accompanying statements about their true nature.
However, with the government’s reticent approval, they stayed and even became part of the best Peking opera troupes’ repertoire.
The official opinion about the Cultural Revolution became blurred in the new millennium, especially under Xi Jinping. Xi said the achievement of that period shouldn’t be dismissed. And now these revived model works have a new label: red classics.
Culture
Music
Society
Executive Moves
Anabel Stoeriko has been promoted to Head of Operations China at Siemens Real Estate. Stoeriko has been with Siemens for nearly 12 years. She has been active for the tech company in Beijing since 2021, most recently as Real Estate Regional Service Manager.
Philipp Holzer has been promoted from Senior Manager to Director for the Holistic Digital Luxury segment at Mercedes China. For his new post, he will be moving from Beijing to Shanghai.
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Dessert
China has always been a paradise for fossil enthusiasts. A team of Chinese and Canadian paleontologists made a particularly spectacular find not far from Lujiatun in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning. The researchers led by Gang Han of Hainan Tropical Ocean University conclude in the journal Scientific Reports that the twisted pile of bones is a mammal wedged in battle and a dinosaur. What is particularly astonishing is that the mammal obviously has the upper hand in the fight against the three times heavier dinosaur. The fight over life and death was ultimately interrupted by a volcanic eruption, which preserved the bones of the two primordial animals in a mudslide of volcanic ash and water.
