First, the more-than-frosty meeting in Alaska between Foreign Ministers Antony Blinken and Wang Yi, then the round of sanctions from Beijing against critical European voices. Diplomatically, the last few months have been from rather bumpy to openly aggressive for the Beijing-Brussels-Washington triangle. But on one issue, the EU states, the US, and China now find themselves at the same table: the global fight to save the climate. China’s President Xi Jinping has accepted the invitation of his US counterpart Joe Biden and will attend the video climate summit in person.
As the world’s most populous country, China emits around 28 percent of global greenhouse gases – more than the USA and the EU combined. The global community needs the People’s Republic to make real progress on climate protection. However, China also has its own interest in this because the People’s Republic is already feeling the effects of climate change. Christiane Kühl analyses the fruits of China’s climate efforts ahead of the high-level online meeting.
China’s CO2 balance is also to be improved with electric cars. The Chinese manufacturer BYD presented the EA-1 compact car at the Shanghai auto show. Frank Sieren spoke with the lead car designer Wolfgang Egger there and asked the question: How do you make a compact car palatable to Chinese customers, while other manufacturers continue to focus on SUVs and large sedans?
Marcel Grzanna spoke with the Dalai Lama’s former special envoy, Kelsang Gyaltsen, for today’s edition. At the end of May, the newly elected Tibetan government-in-exile will begin its work in Dharamsala, India. Gyaltsen explains the challenges facing Tibetans and warns of dangerous parallels between Beijing’s current crackdown on the Uyghurs and what the Chinese government has practiced in Tibet.
So now it’s clear: China’s President Xi Jinping will attend the virtual climate summit hosted by his US counterpart Joe Biden starting today, Thursday. He will give an “important” speech, foreign office spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what Xi has to say.
As the world’s most populous country, China emits around 28 percent of global greenhouse gases – more than the USA and the EU combined. At the same time, China is already feeling the effects of climate change – droughts, for example, are on the rise in the already arid north of the country – and therefore also wants to invest heavily in climate protection out of self-interest. In September 2020, Xi announced that China would become carbon neutral by 2060. China wants to reach its emissions peak before 2030. The two together are also called the “30/60 target”. The EU wants to be carbon neutral by 2050 – and actually wants China to be as well.
China is urgently needed for global climate protection. Its record so far is confusing to mixed. Ambitious targets and record investments in renewable energies are offset by approvals for huge coal-fired power plant capacities – of which no one currently knows how much will ever be built. Coal is the subject of internal wrangling. The new five-year plan 2021-2025 does not contain any concrete climate protection measures.
These are to be included in the concrete action plans of the individual sectors and provinces, which are currently being developed on the basis of the five-year plan. The ministerial and regional plans will be ready around the end of 2021, expects Byford Tsang of the climate think tank E3G. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly sent strong political signals to trim China’s bureaucracy to meet the new climate targets. “Officials in ministries and provinces are now competing with each other to come up with the most ambitious decarbonization action plans,” Tsang said. The Chinese Ministry of Environment had issued guidelines earlier this year calling for pilot projects and clear emissions targets on the ground. Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Hainan have already published their climate targets – from which they are now deriving their action plans. Shanghai, for example, wants to reach the emissions peak as early as 2025 and announced an action plan for saving energy and reducing emissions in key sectors such as energy and chemicals.
Meanwhile, the sector ministries are developing their own targets and plans. For the steel and aluminum sectors, initial drafts stipulate that they must reach the emissions peak as early as 2025. According to Tsang, the steel sector should then reduce its emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and produce 20 percent of its crude steel with electric arc furnaces. Compared to traditional blast furnaces, these require only a fraction of the energy per ton of steel. Emissions per ton of steel are already falling – but absolute steel production is still rising, by a good five percent in 2020. The Ministry of Industry wants to gradually reduce steel production – because there would be no other way to achieve these targets. The same applies to all heavy industries.
The first examples already exist. The steel stronghold of Tangshan, northeast of Beijing, recently announced that it would limit the total amount of steel produced locally on a pilot basis and gradually extend this to the coke, cement, and foundry industries. Baotou in Inner Mongolia reduced its aluminum smelting capacity to meet its own energy targets, China.Table reported.
None of this is easy. “High-carbon companies and industries in China will have to exit the market in the next 30 years if they can’t cut their emissions – and this will bring huge financial risks,” Ma Jun, a former member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee and now at Tsinghua University, said at the Boao Forum. Companies in heavily polluting industries are facing a drop in sales, leading to more non-performing loans, Bloomberg news agency quoted him as saying.
China’s coal era must also come to an end as soon as possible. “We talked a lot about coal,” US climate envoy John Kerry said after meetings with his counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Shanghai. “So if there will be announcement on China raising near-term climate ambition, it will certainly be Coal.” tweeted Yan Qin, a carbon markets analyst at research firm Refinitiv, in reference to Xi’s appearance at the climate summit. Probably also with an eye on the coal and heavy industry provinces, China’s stimulus plan to overcome the COVID crisis relied as before on classic infrastructure programs also in favor of sectors that are problematic in terms of climate policy. As a result, coal mining in China’s mines rose by 15 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, coal consumption in heavy industry by 10 percent, and the generation of electricity from coal and gas by 14 percent, as climate expert Lauri Myllyvirta tweeted.
Contrast this with the boom in renewable energy. “In the last five years, China has added three and a half times more solar and wind capacity than the EU,” writes Byford Tsang. “China makes about 70 percent of the world’s solar panels, and Chinese manufacturers have captured more than a third of the global market for wind turbines.” China’s solar firms owe their rise in no small part to government subsidies as well as informal barriers to foreigners in their vast home market. There, the share of wind and solar power in actual electricity consumption is expected to rise from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 11 percent in 2021 and 16.5 percent in 2025, according to new plans from the National Energy Agency (NEA). “That would mean about 100 additional gigawatts each year,” said Yan Qin, who this week called the plan a “strong push” for wind and solar. China has been working for some time to improve the flow of wind and solar power into its grids.
The government is also promoting the development of fuel cells through subsidies – as a result, hydrogen propulsion is slowly getting off the ground. According to a report in the South China Morning Post, the Shenzhen-based startup Qingliqingwei, for example, has produced a fleet of fuel cell trucks that it rents out – among other things, as delivery vans to online department stores such as JD.com. Hydrogen, however, is only truly climate-friendly if it is produced with the help of renewable energy. Activities such as the entry of solar module manufacturer Longi into the hydrogen sector are therefore interesting.
Many observers emphasize the extent to which the 30/60 goals have found their way into government communication – which, despite all the problems, is a strong sign. The 30/60 targets have become an overarching principle that guides China’s development, says Byford Tsang. According to the state news agency Xinhua, Beijing sees the achievement of these new targets as a “test of the party’s ability to govern”. There should be no lack of determination.
Most car manufacturers treat their compact cars rather carelessly. Accordingly, the cars are unimaginative. Why are you now focusing on this with such an elaborate design?
I was always told that small cars are much less accepted in China than in Europe. The Chinese simply prefer large cars and apartments. We have been discussing this at BYD for some time and have come to the conclusion that this will not always be the case in China either. The personality of the customer is not only manifested in the size of the car but increasingly in the design. After all, we have also gone through such developments in Europe. In the seventies, there was also a strong trend in Europe towards large, not necessarily very characteristic, cars.
And that is changing now in China? If you go through the trade fair, you get a different impression. SUVs and large sedans, on the one hand, mini cars for €4000 on the other.
I am convinced that diversity is the future. Customers who drive battery cars are increasingly enjoying compact, urban, but also particularly well-designed cars with enough space for everyday use. We want to lead this trend.
A difficult task since the margin for compact cars is much smaller. After all, the cars must not cost much…
…and they are also very small in terms of dimensions, which doesn’t make designing any easier. But the challenge of developing something crisp and unique is all the greater. The technology is right for BYD. The platforms, the connectivity, the range, it’s all there. Now the time is ripe for a compact icon.
So something like the Beetle in the past or the new Mini or the new Fiat 500 today?
Exactly. That is the task we have set ourselves. That’s a list we’d like to be included in. A car that radiates a positive attitude towards life.
What does it take to create an icon?
The design has to get by with very few strokes. You can’t forget it, you have to recognize it immediately and think of it with pleasure. And you have to build a lifestyle concept around the furnishings. Different lifestyles that you can choose individually. The sky is the limit. Our EA1 is as individual a Volkswagen as possible.
However, BYD is competing against already very successful brands. For example, against Volkswagen’s ID3. Won’t the price of the car be decisive in the end?
Price alone is not enough. The face of the car, the charisma, is perhaps even more important, as exemplified by the Mini and Fiat 500. And we also want to do something special within the BYD car family. With the EA-1, it’s the water world. So the lines already have a motif: the waves. And you can see that in the C-pillar. This car has curves, it’s not so angular. And it has feeling. In the cars of the last few years, these have been somewhat neglected. We have to take countermeasures and become more design-oriented rather than marketing-oriented.
What does that mean?
For example, by using previously taboo colors in car manufacturing: pink. Of course, you can’t just use any pink. You have to coordinate that exactly. Then it can be very beautiful.
So something trendy?
I wouldn’t limit it like that, but rather talk about more diversity for young people in the cities. And this trend here in China will hopefully also lead to an opening internationally. The car manufacturers have to become more playful again.
But isn’t that the strength of the Europeans, at best the French and Italians?
That used to be a strength. Europe has sometimes become a little bogged down in terms of design. Nowadays, designers have more room to maneuver in a Chinese company. There are fewer barriers to creating something new in these very dynamic societies. And Chinese companies also have less of a legacy to carry around with them. They are not crushed by tradition.
What is the disadvantage of working in China?
One drawback is the speed. It’s simply twice as fast. But I’m not even sure if it’s just a disadvantage. It takes more energy, but it’s also much more exciting. The processes are shorter, more flexible, and sometimes a step is skipped completely. That’s when you take a deep breath. The willingness to take risks is simply higher. In return, things are allowed to go wrong from time to time. And it’s constantly being developed. We have already done a facelift after one year because times have changed.
Do we actually need more car models in these times of plenty?
We need more distinctive models again and less confusable cars with feeling. With their own character. Not machines.
So advantage through feeling instead of advantage through technology?
In any case, engine technology is no longer so important today, since there is no longer an internal combustion engine in the car. For a long time, the engine was the heart of the car. That is no longer the case with an e-car.
And the battery?
No, not even the battery. Not even BYD’s, which is at the forefront of technology worldwide. They cover the range. But the manufacturers will converge on that. For customers, there are now two aspects that increasingly determine the purchase of a car: design and digital connectivity.
That sounds more like a neutral world car than a car that tells you about where it came from.
At BYD, we think it’s very important to show where the car comes from. This was also more pronounced in Europe in the past because when it becomes visible where you come from, it creates cultural diversity. And that is important today.
So, where is the Chinese element in BYD cars?
You can see this in two places in particular: at the front in the light line, the mustache of the Chinese dragon. Not too dominant, but still visible as a cultural quotation. In a way, positive Chinese energy and pride in one’s own culture are created.
With autonomous driving, it will be over with the beautiful lines. The cars have horns and sensors peeking out everywhere.
That’s not going to catch on. If you look at the solutions here at the trade show, the focus is now very much on how you can make the technology disappear in favor of a beautiful design without having to compromise on safety. This is a very exciting time.
What exactly?
In the end, it is the hope that a European designer who is inspired by a Chinese company and the cultural characteristics there – who virtually absorbs them – will succeed in leading a new iconic trend from China that will also become relevant for Europe. A trend that will help everyone to look forward again. To become more open, to shape the future in a more playful way. At any rate, the time is now ripe for this.
The Dalai Lama’s former special envoy laments a growing distancing of the world from Tibetans. “The closer the economic ties of the states to the People’s Republic of China have become in recent years, the greater the distance that the policies of these states have taken on the Tibet issue,” said Kelsang Gyaltsen in an interview with China.Table. The now 70-year-old represented the Tibetan government-in-exile for many years alongside the Dalai Lama in autonomy talks with the Communist Party. In 2008, Beijing discontinued the dialogue.
Consideration for the sensitivities of the Chinese government has grown enormously in the recent past, Gyaltsen said. For example, political foundations of German parties have “quietly” terminated their cooperation with the Tibetans. This gradual isolation “we feel of course”.
Under these difficult conditions, the newly elected Tibetan government-in-exile will begin its work in Dharamsala, India, at the end of May. In a multi-stage election process that lasted several months, tens of thousands of Tibetans in exile from 26 countries had elected a new parliament and a new president, the Sikyong. The official results will be announced in mid-May. But it is already clear that former government spokesman Penpa Tsering will be in charge in the future. In the decisive ballot, the 53-year-old narrowly prevailed over Kaydor Aukatsang, who worked for many years as an advisor to the predecessor president. The parliament consists of 45 members.
Speaking to China.Table, the defeated candidate announced his full support for the new government. Aukatsang had campaigned for his election in numerous Tibetan communities, focusing on modernizing the government-in-exile, among other issues. “It is important that the handling of the Tibet issue arrives in the 21st century. Our movement also needs to intensively embrace the new technological possibilities of digitalization to remain visibly on the agenda in the future,” Aukatsang said. Both for communication and administration, the available digital means are not yet sufficiently used.
This is especially important in order to win over the new generation of expatriate Tibetans, who were born in the 1990s and later, to their own cause. “It is a huge task to hold the Tibetan community together against the centrifugal forces of globalization. We as an ethnic group abroad also need to show our young people prospects if we want to integrate them,” says Aukatsang. This includes providing young women and men with appropriate access to networks and opportunities for further development.
Since the invasion of the Chinese military in 1951, the ethnic group has been fighting unsuccessfully against the occupation. Around three million Tibetans live in the autonomous region on Chinese territory. Another four million or so inhabit parts of the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Gansu. Tibet’s government-in-exile fled abroad in 1959. Until 2011, the Dalai Lama was not only their spiritual leader but also their political leader. Since then, the exiled president has been in charge. The last time there were violent protests with many deaths in Tibet against Chinese rule was in 2008. Hundreds of monks had set themselves on fire in protest, many of them died. The consequence of the events was increased security and a political purge.
A concession by the current Chinese government under President Xi Jinping seems impossible. Instead, the exiles hope to strengthen their coalitions with other oppressed population groups in the People’s Republic. Example: Xinjiang. Since the 1980s, Uyghurs and Tibetans have maintained exchanges with each other. The Muslim population in Xinjiang also complains about oppression. The US government speaks of genocide.
“What is happening now in Xinjiang is in many ways similar to what the Chinese government practiced for decades in Tibet: an erasure of language and culture,” says Aukatsang. The foreign representatives of both ethnic groups want to deepen their exchange. They are not in competition with each other for greater attention in the world, he said. “On the contrary, we are all in the same boat, and the world should understand that it’s not just Uyghur or Tibetan interests at stake, but the core interests of the global, democratic order.”
Technical means alone will not solve the problems of the Tibetans. Their greatest adversary is the economic power of the People’s Republic of China, which is increasingly plunging the global community into a dilemma. Beijing uses its market as a lure and does not shy away from using it to put pressure on foreign companies and governments. For example, it is demanding that other states no longer offer the Dalai Lama a political stage. The last time Chancellor Angela Merkel did this was in 2007 in the Chancellor’s Office, even before the financial crisis, in the wake of which China had finally risen to become a global economic power. As a result, numerous German companies suffered from delays in licensing.
“I decide for myself who I receive and where,” Merkel had said at the time. Since then, however, the balance of power in the world has changed in favor of the Chinese government.
Initially, Mike Hofmann just wanted to go to China. “The coverage of the Summer Olympics awakened the China fever in me in 2008,” says the 37-year-old manager. Shortly after completing his studies, he was lured to Beijing by a six-month internship at Daimler.
That was 14 years ago – and today Mike Hofmann is still there. Beijing has become his new home. This is where he took his first job and where he married a Chinese woman. The former Daimler intern has now become the Managing Director of Melchers China at the Beijing location today.
The Bremen-based family business advises and represents more than 80 clients on the Chinese market, including big names such as the watch manufacturer Breitling. As early as 1866, the company established itself in China as one of the first German traditional trading houses. To this day, the retail focus is on luxury goods, among other things, but the mechanical engineering sector and aviation are also business areas. Mike Hofmann himself is in charge of a comparatively young sector besides aviation: For one year the trading house has joined forces with the German pharmaceutical company Dr. Franz Köhler Chemistry from Bensheim to Joint Venture Koehler Pharmaceuticals in the health care industry. The company specializes in the business of organ-protective solutions in heart and transplant surgery. “Especially in pandemic times, it is true pioneering work to bring the joint venture forward,” Hofmann says.
In general, the COVID-19 crisis has turned the work of the approximately 200 employees at Melchers China upside down. “We look after customers who take on the maintenance or cabin outfitting of aircraft,” says Hofmann.
But even without the pandemic, his work has changed a lot in recent years. “Until recently, German SMEs said, ‘I don’t want to have that much to do with China.‘” The main thing was to get the product to the customer. That has changed a lot with China’s growing importance. “Meanwhile, more and more European SMEs even want to have their own branch in China,” says Hofmann. So his job and Melcher’s orientation have also changed – away from the classic trading house and towards a service provider. Accounting, legal advice, personnel management – in the past, Hofmann and the trading house had little to do with these.
Three years ago, Mike Hofmann was still in charge of the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad in Beijing. Then he longed for a new challenge. “Melchers was structurally reorganizing at the time. That appealed to me.” In addition to his full-time job, Hofmann supports female executives and young professionals as a mentor for the nonprofit organization Viva Beijing Professional and is pursuing a doctorate in strategic management. Leon Kirschgens
The oil painting “Slave and Lion” by Xu Beihong is said to be the “most highly valued Asian work of art,” according to Christie’s. The 1924 painting is currently on display in Hong Kong and will travel to Beijing and Shanghai before being auctioned at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong at the end of May. It is expected to fetch between $45 million and $58 million. In 2006, Christie’s had already auctioned Xu’s work at a record price of HK$53.9 million (equivalent to just under $7 million).
First, the more-than-frosty meeting in Alaska between Foreign Ministers Antony Blinken and Wang Yi, then the round of sanctions from Beijing against critical European voices. Diplomatically, the last few months have been from rather bumpy to openly aggressive for the Beijing-Brussels-Washington triangle. But on one issue, the EU states, the US, and China now find themselves at the same table: the global fight to save the climate. China’s President Xi Jinping has accepted the invitation of his US counterpart Joe Biden and will attend the video climate summit in person.
As the world’s most populous country, China emits around 28 percent of global greenhouse gases – more than the USA and the EU combined. The global community needs the People’s Republic to make real progress on climate protection. However, China also has its own interest in this because the People’s Republic is already feeling the effects of climate change. Christiane Kühl analyses the fruits of China’s climate efforts ahead of the high-level online meeting.
China’s CO2 balance is also to be improved with electric cars. The Chinese manufacturer BYD presented the EA-1 compact car at the Shanghai auto show. Frank Sieren spoke with the lead car designer Wolfgang Egger there and asked the question: How do you make a compact car palatable to Chinese customers, while other manufacturers continue to focus on SUVs and large sedans?
Marcel Grzanna spoke with the Dalai Lama’s former special envoy, Kelsang Gyaltsen, for today’s edition. At the end of May, the newly elected Tibetan government-in-exile will begin its work in Dharamsala, India. Gyaltsen explains the challenges facing Tibetans and warns of dangerous parallels between Beijing’s current crackdown on the Uyghurs and what the Chinese government has practiced in Tibet.
So now it’s clear: China’s President Xi Jinping will attend the virtual climate summit hosted by his US counterpart Joe Biden starting today, Thursday. He will give an “important” speech, foreign office spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what Xi has to say.
As the world’s most populous country, China emits around 28 percent of global greenhouse gases – more than the USA and the EU combined. At the same time, China is already feeling the effects of climate change – droughts, for example, are on the rise in the already arid north of the country – and therefore also wants to invest heavily in climate protection out of self-interest. In September 2020, Xi announced that China would become carbon neutral by 2060. China wants to reach its emissions peak before 2030. The two together are also called the “30/60 target”. The EU wants to be carbon neutral by 2050 – and actually wants China to be as well.
China is urgently needed for global climate protection. Its record so far is confusing to mixed. Ambitious targets and record investments in renewable energies are offset by approvals for huge coal-fired power plant capacities – of which no one currently knows how much will ever be built. Coal is the subject of internal wrangling. The new five-year plan 2021-2025 does not contain any concrete climate protection measures.
These are to be included in the concrete action plans of the individual sectors and provinces, which are currently being developed on the basis of the five-year plan. The ministerial and regional plans will be ready around the end of 2021, expects Byford Tsang of the climate think tank E3G. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly sent strong political signals to trim China’s bureaucracy to meet the new climate targets. “Officials in ministries and provinces are now competing with each other to come up with the most ambitious decarbonization action plans,” Tsang said. The Chinese Ministry of Environment had issued guidelines earlier this year calling for pilot projects and clear emissions targets on the ground. Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Hainan have already published their climate targets – from which they are now deriving their action plans. Shanghai, for example, wants to reach the emissions peak as early as 2025 and announced an action plan for saving energy and reducing emissions in key sectors such as energy and chemicals.
Meanwhile, the sector ministries are developing their own targets and plans. For the steel and aluminum sectors, initial drafts stipulate that they must reach the emissions peak as early as 2025. According to Tsang, the steel sector should then reduce its emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and produce 20 percent of its crude steel with electric arc furnaces. Compared to traditional blast furnaces, these require only a fraction of the energy per ton of steel. Emissions per ton of steel are already falling – but absolute steel production is still rising, by a good five percent in 2020. The Ministry of Industry wants to gradually reduce steel production – because there would be no other way to achieve these targets. The same applies to all heavy industries.
The first examples already exist. The steel stronghold of Tangshan, northeast of Beijing, recently announced that it would limit the total amount of steel produced locally on a pilot basis and gradually extend this to the coke, cement, and foundry industries. Baotou in Inner Mongolia reduced its aluminum smelting capacity to meet its own energy targets, China.Table reported.
None of this is easy. “High-carbon companies and industries in China will have to exit the market in the next 30 years if they can’t cut their emissions – and this will bring huge financial risks,” Ma Jun, a former member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee and now at Tsinghua University, said at the Boao Forum. Companies in heavily polluting industries are facing a drop in sales, leading to more non-performing loans, Bloomberg news agency quoted him as saying.
China’s coal era must also come to an end as soon as possible. “We talked a lot about coal,” US climate envoy John Kerry said after meetings with his counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Shanghai. “So if there will be announcement on China raising near-term climate ambition, it will certainly be Coal.” tweeted Yan Qin, a carbon markets analyst at research firm Refinitiv, in reference to Xi’s appearance at the climate summit. Probably also with an eye on the coal and heavy industry provinces, China’s stimulus plan to overcome the COVID crisis relied as before on classic infrastructure programs also in favor of sectors that are problematic in terms of climate policy. As a result, coal mining in China’s mines rose by 15 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, coal consumption in heavy industry by 10 percent, and the generation of electricity from coal and gas by 14 percent, as climate expert Lauri Myllyvirta tweeted.
Contrast this with the boom in renewable energy. “In the last five years, China has added three and a half times more solar and wind capacity than the EU,” writes Byford Tsang. “China makes about 70 percent of the world’s solar panels, and Chinese manufacturers have captured more than a third of the global market for wind turbines.” China’s solar firms owe their rise in no small part to government subsidies as well as informal barriers to foreigners in their vast home market. There, the share of wind and solar power in actual electricity consumption is expected to rise from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 11 percent in 2021 and 16.5 percent in 2025, according to new plans from the National Energy Agency (NEA). “That would mean about 100 additional gigawatts each year,” said Yan Qin, who this week called the plan a “strong push” for wind and solar. China has been working for some time to improve the flow of wind and solar power into its grids.
The government is also promoting the development of fuel cells through subsidies – as a result, hydrogen propulsion is slowly getting off the ground. According to a report in the South China Morning Post, the Shenzhen-based startup Qingliqingwei, for example, has produced a fleet of fuel cell trucks that it rents out – among other things, as delivery vans to online department stores such as JD.com. Hydrogen, however, is only truly climate-friendly if it is produced with the help of renewable energy. Activities such as the entry of solar module manufacturer Longi into the hydrogen sector are therefore interesting.
Many observers emphasize the extent to which the 30/60 goals have found their way into government communication – which, despite all the problems, is a strong sign. The 30/60 targets have become an overarching principle that guides China’s development, says Byford Tsang. According to the state news agency Xinhua, Beijing sees the achievement of these new targets as a “test of the party’s ability to govern”. There should be no lack of determination.
Most car manufacturers treat their compact cars rather carelessly. Accordingly, the cars are unimaginative. Why are you now focusing on this with such an elaborate design?
I was always told that small cars are much less accepted in China than in Europe. The Chinese simply prefer large cars and apartments. We have been discussing this at BYD for some time and have come to the conclusion that this will not always be the case in China either. The personality of the customer is not only manifested in the size of the car but increasingly in the design. After all, we have also gone through such developments in Europe. In the seventies, there was also a strong trend in Europe towards large, not necessarily very characteristic, cars.
And that is changing now in China? If you go through the trade fair, you get a different impression. SUVs and large sedans, on the one hand, mini cars for €4000 on the other.
I am convinced that diversity is the future. Customers who drive battery cars are increasingly enjoying compact, urban, but also particularly well-designed cars with enough space for everyday use. We want to lead this trend.
A difficult task since the margin for compact cars is much smaller. After all, the cars must not cost much…
…and they are also very small in terms of dimensions, which doesn’t make designing any easier. But the challenge of developing something crisp and unique is all the greater. The technology is right for BYD. The platforms, the connectivity, the range, it’s all there. Now the time is ripe for a compact icon.
So something like the Beetle in the past or the new Mini or the new Fiat 500 today?
Exactly. That is the task we have set ourselves. That’s a list we’d like to be included in. A car that radiates a positive attitude towards life.
What does it take to create an icon?
The design has to get by with very few strokes. You can’t forget it, you have to recognize it immediately and think of it with pleasure. And you have to build a lifestyle concept around the furnishings. Different lifestyles that you can choose individually. The sky is the limit. Our EA1 is as individual a Volkswagen as possible.
However, BYD is competing against already very successful brands. For example, against Volkswagen’s ID3. Won’t the price of the car be decisive in the end?
Price alone is not enough. The face of the car, the charisma, is perhaps even more important, as exemplified by the Mini and Fiat 500. And we also want to do something special within the BYD car family. With the EA-1, it’s the water world. So the lines already have a motif: the waves. And you can see that in the C-pillar. This car has curves, it’s not so angular. And it has feeling. In the cars of the last few years, these have been somewhat neglected. We have to take countermeasures and become more design-oriented rather than marketing-oriented.
What does that mean?
For example, by using previously taboo colors in car manufacturing: pink. Of course, you can’t just use any pink. You have to coordinate that exactly. Then it can be very beautiful.
So something trendy?
I wouldn’t limit it like that, but rather talk about more diversity for young people in the cities. And this trend here in China will hopefully also lead to an opening internationally. The car manufacturers have to become more playful again.
But isn’t that the strength of the Europeans, at best the French and Italians?
That used to be a strength. Europe has sometimes become a little bogged down in terms of design. Nowadays, designers have more room to maneuver in a Chinese company. There are fewer barriers to creating something new in these very dynamic societies. And Chinese companies also have less of a legacy to carry around with them. They are not crushed by tradition.
What is the disadvantage of working in China?
One drawback is the speed. It’s simply twice as fast. But I’m not even sure if it’s just a disadvantage. It takes more energy, but it’s also much more exciting. The processes are shorter, more flexible, and sometimes a step is skipped completely. That’s when you take a deep breath. The willingness to take risks is simply higher. In return, things are allowed to go wrong from time to time. And it’s constantly being developed. We have already done a facelift after one year because times have changed.
Do we actually need more car models in these times of plenty?
We need more distinctive models again and less confusable cars with feeling. With their own character. Not machines.
So advantage through feeling instead of advantage through technology?
In any case, engine technology is no longer so important today, since there is no longer an internal combustion engine in the car. For a long time, the engine was the heart of the car. That is no longer the case with an e-car.
And the battery?
No, not even the battery. Not even BYD’s, which is at the forefront of technology worldwide. They cover the range. But the manufacturers will converge on that. For customers, there are now two aspects that increasingly determine the purchase of a car: design and digital connectivity.
That sounds more like a neutral world car than a car that tells you about where it came from.
At BYD, we think it’s very important to show where the car comes from. This was also more pronounced in Europe in the past because when it becomes visible where you come from, it creates cultural diversity. And that is important today.
So, where is the Chinese element in BYD cars?
You can see this in two places in particular: at the front in the light line, the mustache of the Chinese dragon. Not too dominant, but still visible as a cultural quotation. In a way, positive Chinese energy and pride in one’s own culture are created.
With autonomous driving, it will be over with the beautiful lines. The cars have horns and sensors peeking out everywhere.
That’s not going to catch on. If you look at the solutions here at the trade show, the focus is now very much on how you can make the technology disappear in favor of a beautiful design without having to compromise on safety. This is a very exciting time.
What exactly?
In the end, it is the hope that a European designer who is inspired by a Chinese company and the cultural characteristics there – who virtually absorbs them – will succeed in leading a new iconic trend from China that will also become relevant for Europe. A trend that will help everyone to look forward again. To become more open, to shape the future in a more playful way. At any rate, the time is now ripe for this.
The Dalai Lama’s former special envoy laments a growing distancing of the world from Tibetans. “The closer the economic ties of the states to the People’s Republic of China have become in recent years, the greater the distance that the policies of these states have taken on the Tibet issue,” said Kelsang Gyaltsen in an interview with China.Table. The now 70-year-old represented the Tibetan government-in-exile for many years alongside the Dalai Lama in autonomy talks with the Communist Party. In 2008, Beijing discontinued the dialogue.
Consideration for the sensitivities of the Chinese government has grown enormously in the recent past, Gyaltsen said. For example, political foundations of German parties have “quietly” terminated their cooperation with the Tibetans. This gradual isolation “we feel of course”.
Under these difficult conditions, the newly elected Tibetan government-in-exile will begin its work in Dharamsala, India, at the end of May. In a multi-stage election process that lasted several months, tens of thousands of Tibetans in exile from 26 countries had elected a new parliament and a new president, the Sikyong. The official results will be announced in mid-May. But it is already clear that former government spokesman Penpa Tsering will be in charge in the future. In the decisive ballot, the 53-year-old narrowly prevailed over Kaydor Aukatsang, who worked for many years as an advisor to the predecessor president. The parliament consists of 45 members.
Speaking to China.Table, the defeated candidate announced his full support for the new government. Aukatsang had campaigned for his election in numerous Tibetan communities, focusing on modernizing the government-in-exile, among other issues. “It is important that the handling of the Tibet issue arrives in the 21st century. Our movement also needs to intensively embrace the new technological possibilities of digitalization to remain visibly on the agenda in the future,” Aukatsang said. Both for communication and administration, the available digital means are not yet sufficiently used.
This is especially important in order to win over the new generation of expatriate Tibetans, who were born in the 1990s and later, to their own cause. “It is a huge task to hold the Tibetan community together against the centrifugal forces of globalization. We as an ethnic group abroad also need to show our young people prospects if we want to integrate them,” says Aukatsang. This includes providing young women and men with appropriate access to networks and opportunities for further development.
Since the invasion of the Chinese military in 1951, the ethnic group has been fighting unsuccessfully against the occupation. Around three million Tibetans live in the autonomous region on Chinese territory. Another four million or so inhabit parts of the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Gansu. Tibet’s government-in-exile fled abroad in 1959. Until 2011, the Dalai Lama was not only their spiritual leader but also their political leader. Since then, the exiled president has been in charge. The last time there were violent protests with many deaths in Tibet against Chinese rule was in 2008. Hundreds of monks had set themselves on fire in protest, many of them died. The consequence of the events was increased security and a political purge.
A concession by the current Chinese government under President Xi Jinping seems impossible. Instead, the exiles hope to strengthen their coalitions with other oppressed population groups in the People’s Republic. Example: Xinjiang. Since the 1980s, Uyghurs and Tibetans have maintained exchanges with each other. The Muslim population in Xinjiang also complains about oppression. The US government speaks of genocide.
“What is happening now in Xinjiang is in many ways similar to what the Chinese government practiced for decades in Tibet: an erasure of language and culture,” says Aukatsang. The foreign representatives of both ethnic groups want to deepen their exchange. They are not in competition with each other for greater attention in the world, he said. “On the contrary, we are all in the same boat, and the world should understand that it’s not just Uyghur or Tibetan interests at stake, but the core interests of the global, democratic order.”
Technical means alone will not solve the problems of the Tibetans. Their greatest adversary is the economic power of the People’s Republic of China, which is increasingly plunging the global community into a dilemma. Beijing uses its market as a lure and does not shy away from using it to put pressure on foreign companies and governments. For example, it is demanding that other states no longer offer the Dalai Lama a political stage. The last time Chancellor Angela Merkel did this was in 2007 in the Chancellor’s Office, even before the financial crisis, in the wake of which China had finally risen to become a global economic power. As a result, numerous German companies suffered from delays in licensing.
“I decide for myself who I receive and where,” Merkel had said at the time. Since then, however, the balance of power in the world has changed in favor of the Chinese government.
Initially, Mike Hofmann just wanted to go to China. “The coverage of the Summer Olympics awakened the China fever in me in 2008,” says the 37-year-old manager. Shortly after completing his studies, he was lured to Beijing by a six-month internship at Daimler.
That was 14 years ago – and today Mike Hofmann is still there. Beijing has become his new home. This is where he took his first job and where he married a Chinese woman. The former Daimler intern has now become the Managing Director of Melchers China at the Beijing location today.
The Bremen-based family business advises and represents more than 80 clients on the Chinese market, including big names such as the watch manufacturer Breitling. As early as 1866, the company established itself in China as one of the first German traditional trading houses. To this day, the retail focus is on luxury goods, among other things, but the mechanical engineering sector and aviation are also business areas. Mike Hofmann himself is in charge of a comparatively young sector besides aviation: For one year the trading house has joined forces with the German pharmaceutical company Dr. Franz Köhler Chemistry from Bensheim to Joint Venture Koehler Pharmaceuticals in the health care industry. The company specializes in the business of organ-protective solutions in heart and transplant surgery. “Especially in pandemic times, it is true pioneering work to bring the joint venture forward,” Hofmann says.
In general, the COVID-19 crisis has turned the work of the approximately 200 employees at Melchers China upside down. “We look after customers who take on the maintenance or cabin outfitting of aircraft,” says Hofmann.
But even without the pandemic, his work has changed a lot in recent years. “Until recently, German SMEs said, ‘I don’t want to have that much to do with China.‘” The main thing was to get the product to the customer. That has changed a lot with China’s growing importance. “Meanwhile, more and more European SMEs even want to have their own branch in China,” says Hofmann. So his job and Melcher’s orientation have also changed – away from the classic trading house and towards a service provider. Accounting, legal advice, personnel management – in the past, Hofmann and the trading house had little to do with these.
Three years ago, Mike Hofmann was still in charge of the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad in Beijing. Then he longed for a new challenge. “Melchers was structurally reorganizing at the time. That appealed to me.” In addition to his full-time job, Hofmann supports female executives and young professionals as a mentor for the nonprofit organization Viva Beijing Professional and is pursuing a doctorate in strategic management. Leon Kirschgens
The oil painting “Slave and Lion” by Xu Beihong is said to be the “most highly valued Asian work of art,” according to Christie’s. The 1924 painting is currently on display in Hong Kong and will travel to Beijing and Shanghai before being auctioned at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong at the end of May. It is expected to fetch between $45 million and $58 million. In 2006, Christie’s had already auctioned Xu’s work at a record price of HK$53.9 million (equivalent to just under $7 million).
