On October 11, 1972, China and Germany officially established diplomatic relations. And it actually took almost exactly those 50 years for the German government to be represented by a woman in Beijing for the first time. Patricia Flor has only been in post for a few months – and her start was anything but ordinary: Because of the limited entry possibilities, the ambassador took a charter flight to China and first had to go into quarantine without official accreditation. Now, Flor gives her first interview with a German publication: China.Table.
Amelie Richter spoke with Berlin’s first woman in the People’s Republic about how she plans to circumvent China’s censorship, the role of the EU in Germany’s position toward China, and how a feminist foreign policy is to change China’s society.
Back in 1972, economic policy vision was apparently not a German characteristic. The initiation of diplomatic relations with China was more the result of Chinese lobbying than of decisive German action. After all, no one could have predicted that after Mao Zedong’s death, the world’s poorhouse would evolve into the second-largest economy in just a few decades.
50 years later, we are apparently still fumbling in the dark. Word has spread that there is a lot of money to be made in China. But how our country, a liberal democracy and a country heavily scarred by dictatorships, is supposed to deal with the increasingly strong claims to supremacy of an authoritarian state with fairly poor civil and human rights track records, still remains a mystery to us.
In his essay on the complicated relations between Germany and China, Michael Radunski therefore draws a critical conclusion: “We obviously do not know ourselves what we want to stand for. And as long as we are not sure about this, more disappointments will follow when dealing with the People’s Republic.”
Patricia Flor still has not found her favorite restaurant with the best Jiaozi in Beijing – there was hardly any time for culinary excursions during the first two months of the new German ambassador’s stay in Beijing. The 60-year-old took up her new post just over three months ago. “I immediately met many of my ambassador colleagues, which was very interesting. The ambassadors from local countries, that is Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, have their own take on things. That was very valuable for me.”
Flor’s appointment as ambassador happened under exceptional circumstances. The Nuremberg native succeeded Jan Hecker, who unexpectedly passed away last year after only a few weeks in office. Besides, Flor’s appointment was anything but regular. Because of the still limited entry possibilities, the ambassador took a charter flight from the Chamber of Commerce Abroad to China. Before she could submit her accreditation, she sat in quarantine at her residence.
She is the first woman to hold Germany’s highest representative post in the People’s Republic, and that has already changed a few things. The ambassador is active on Twitter and Chinese social media. She also comments and shares critical posts. In Beijing, she has already visited the German school, met with the German Academic Exchange Service and Chinese alumni. She has also already been summoned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry – to talk about the Taiwan issue. “A special honor,” Flor says sarcastically.
Madam Ambassador, you are the first German representative in China to very actively share photos on Weibo and Twitter. Why?
The German Embassy already used Weibo, WeChat and Toutiao and had around 800,000 followers there. In this respect, it was not a new beginning. What is new is Twitter, a social media account that is also personally connected to me. In Japan, I’ve already noticed that you can reach a large audience with Twitter.
Social media as mouthpieces for diplomatic communication?
From my perspective, we are in China in a country where it is not very easy to reach a broad audience with all topics. That’s why it was very important to me that we also use Twitter. Of course, this requires Chinese users to connect via a VPN. And we can also reach many people outside of China and around the world through this channel. Twitter also enables us to post content that otherwise disappears relatively quickly from Chinese platforms because it is blocked by censors.
Is there a public relations strategy with you as ambassador?
Strategic communication is more important than ever in times of disinformation. On the one hand, we have an interest in bringing German foreign policy to the public. On the other hand, we want to explain what is currently happening in Germany. The term “Zeitenwende” (turning point), for example, means nothing to anyone here in China at first. That means we have to explain why many things have changed for us in Germany – because of Covid, disruption of supply chains, but also because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Is there an underlying goal behind social media communication?
We want to convey our positions, values, principles and interests. And that’s why I also share content, like for example the report by the former UN Commissioner for Human Rights on Xinjiang, or on other human rights issues. Issues like equality, gender, non-discrimination, diversity are also important to us and we also want to actively contribute to the social discussion here. What is also important to us: global issues. Take the climate crisis as an example. We have a feature on the climate crisis on our channels every Friday. Because I personally think that awareness of the issue is not yet sufficiently developed here in China.
You have already met the German foreign correspondents, business representatives and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). But Chinese human rights activists were also there, and you shared photos of them. Was that your way of sending a signal, right at the start of your term?
Of course. Communicating that this is an important part of my work was important to me. We seek contact and meetings with all of China’s representatives. Of course, also with the official representatives, with the government, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries, but also with human rights activists in China. That is important. In the mentioned case, it was about human rights defenders in the literal sense, namely lawyers who have stood up for human rights in courts here. I believe it is very important to show here: We stand in solidarity with these representatives of China. We seek and maintain contact with them and will continue to do so. In short, Germany is committed to its values and principles, even if that is not always easy.
Before you took your current post, you served for the EU in Japan. How does EU diplomacy differ from Germany’s China strategy at the moment?
In my view, they are two sides of the same coin. The EU adopted a strategy on China in 2019, which already set out the triad: China as a partner, but also as a competitor and a systemic rival. In addition, of course, there is the framework of the EU internal market and EU human rights policy. The German strategy is embedded in this EU framework. We should not forget that we are stronger together. Especially where we also speak in a joint voice as the EU – Germany, all the other member states and the EU together, that’s how we will always be heard. We should also not underestimate the weight of the European market. After all, economic relations play a major role in our relationship with China.
Will this triad also appear in the German strategy? And when can we expect Berlin’s China strategy?
The strategy is currently being worked on in Berlin under the auspices of the Federal Foreign Office. At present, I cannot say anything about its content or timeframe. But as the Minister has already said: China has changed in recent years, so our approach to China must also change.
In 50 years of diplomatic relations, you are the first female German ambassador to Beijing. What do you do differently as a woman?
Basically, it has always been important for me to be very visible in public. Why? Being the first German ambassador or the first woman to hold a post always has a symbolic power. You are a role model for many women in the respective country. I think that’s very important because it encourages women to aspire to such offices. It’s not just a women’s issue, but rather a cross-sectional issue.
In what way?
The point is not to deal only with issues to which women in particular have a connection. It’s about asking, for example, how many women are on the boards of Chinese companies, sit on the Politburo or hold prominent public positions. This also helps to enrich and promote the social discussion on issues of equality in the respective host country. However, at the same time, whether you are a man or a woman, you have certain responsibilities as an ambassador, and of course your gender does not change that. Even if each ambassador naturally shapes the office with his or her own personality.
You see yourself as a representative of a feminist foreign policy. The term has also been used by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Why is a feminist foreign policy so important right now?
If women are not actively involved, for example in peace negotiations, in deliberations on how to adapt social systems or how to mitigate the energy crisis, then we completely ignore the interests and needs of 50 percent of the population. Yet, at the same time, we know that women are the main victims of conflicts and war – this can currently be seen in Ukraine – and that peace agreements last longer if women have been involved in them. That is why we need a feminist foreign policy.
What does that specifically look like?
In all areas on which we work as an embassy, we ask ourselves the questions: Are the rights of all, including women, but also other social groups, respected here? How are they involved? Are they represented in relevant processes? Are they also getting resources? There are very interesting studies that have proven that diverse teams – with men and women, with old and young – bring better results. If we don’t take advantage of this, we will lose out in business, in research and science – and here at the Federal Foreign Office.
Diversity is rather poorly represented in the Chinese leadership. What form does Germany’s feminist foreign policy take in China? And what needs to be changed in order to achieve this?
In China, a new law against domestic violence was passed a few years ago. There has also been a law on the protection of women’s rights for the past 30 years. But if you look at other basic documents, such as the 14th Five-Year Plan, it is striking that there are no concrete women- or equality-related goals and indicators. The question of how laws are implemented and what social reality looks like also arises here in China – as in so many other countries. Some time ago, we in Germany and Europe were not as far along as we are today, and we still have a lot to do.
What particularly strikes you about women’s rights in China?
There are very traditional roles in issues like “Who takes care of the children, who is responsible for the family, who takes parental leave?” These roles are still very pronounced here. And there are still taboos. I will try to take up these issues here and encourage the exchange of experiences with women in Germany and in Europe. After all, we have developed instruments, both legal and other requirements, with which we have advanced equality in practice. And perhaps such an exchange of experience would also offer some ideas for this country.
You now look back on a long diplomatic career. But you also have a past as a journalist. Don’t you sometimes have those moments when you just want to stop beating around the bush and talk straight and undiplomatic about what’s going on?
That is precisely the job of diplomats. It’s not like you never talk straight. Rather, the crucial thing is that as a diplomat you know when to be diplomatic, cautious or polite, and when to speak frankly. Of course, the difference with journalism is that you rarely speak frankly in public. At least not when you know that you’re hurting your counterpart in a way that could affect bilateral relations.
So is it better to wear kid gloves on the outside?
For me as a diplomat, the goal is always to achieve something. I have already been involved in acute conflicts where it was also a matter of getting humanitarian aid to a conflict-ridden location. If this can only be done through communication behind closed doors, then I would refrain from using clear words and not talk about it publicly. As a diplomat, you have to weigh carefully how you use the instrument of language – because that is our best weapon.
Wu Ken visibly tried hard as he addressed the invited guests at the Ritz-Carlton in the heart of Berlin. It actually was the official reception for China’s National Day, but China’s ambassador spoke almost exclusively about 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and China. He praised the courage of the early years and extolled the prosperous cooperation: Today, for example, a trade volume of almost half a million euros is generated per minute, about a thousand times more than in the 1970s. For him, the relations between China and Germany are like a rich and timeless CD that he still enjoys listening to, even after countless times.
However, the evening also showed that the German side is not particularly interested in joining in the cheers. The highest-ranking representative of political Berlin was Minister of State Katja Keul. Otherwise, mainly prominent figures from the past attended the event, such as former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and ex-BND chief August Hanning.
The current government voices mostly criticism, anyway. In any case, the current government is mainly critical: At the World Economic Forum in Davos in May, Economy Minister Robert Habeck declared that the People’s Republic would be treated differently in the future than it had been in the past. Among other things, he cited the atrocities committed by Beijing against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as a reason. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a similar point, saying that China was increasingly showing that rules did not necessarily apply when it came to its own interests. This endangers the basis for our collective, peaceful life, the foreign minister said in July.
Things have turned frosty between China and Germany. Even Ambassador Wu unintentionally revealed the country’s differences in his speech when he praised the logo that China created for the 50th anniversary. Germany had created a completely different logo for the same occasion. This may sound like nothing more than a side note, but it raises the question: How can you celebrate 50 years of mutual relations if you cannot even agree on a common logo?
One man who has played a very personal role in shaping these relations is Volker Stanzel. The former German ambassador to China admits that Sino-German relations are currently troubled. However, this does not apply to society as a whole: “We are currently hearing a lot about how bad relations are. At the same time, our entrepreneurs say that things are going quite well and, above all, will continue to go well in the future.”
However, there are problems in areas where things have gone well in the past, but which have been radically curtailed under China’s leader Xi Jinping: civil-social exchange, whether in art, culture or science. “These ties have really dried up under Xi,” says Stanzel, who nevertheless urges composure. Relations between China and Germany can be compared to waves: After a high, unfortunately, comes a low.
Things were always that way since 1972, when it all began. At that time, Xinhua journalist Wang Shu (王殊) and conservative politician Gerhard Schroeder, who should not be confused with the later German chancellor, arranged the establishment of diplomatic relations in just a few weeks (China.Table reported). Helmut Schmidt, as minister, urged Chancellor Willy Brandt to accept a corresponding offer from China. On October 11, 1972, the official communiqué was signed.
It was a historic coincidence. Although a veritable rush to Beijing had broken out – in 1971 China joined the UN, in February 1972 Nixon was the first US president to travel to the People’s Republic, and in September Beijing and Tokyo established relations – Germany had neither an economic nor a geopolitical interest in the People’s Republic. China was bitterly poor and had been engulfed in political chaos for six years. After a catastrophic famine a decade before, Mao Zedong had unleashed the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s. Red Guards rampaged throughout the country, killing millions.
And so the opening of diplomatic relations was mainly in China’s interest; Beijing wanted to free itself from the grip of the Soviet Union and gain swift approval in the West. “Accordingly, our relations with China got off to a very cautious start,” says Stanzel diplomatically.
Then came the great upswing with the reform and liberalization policy under Deng Xiaoping. Bold companies, such as Volkswagen, ventured into China. But just a few years later, the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989 seemed to usher in the end. “At that time, everything seemed to fall apart,” Stanzel recalls. “We were all deeply shocked and desperate. None of us knew to go on in China at all.” Stanzel himself was dispatched to Beijing in 1990 to find out just that.
And in the 2000s, too, a China euphoria was followed by great disillusionment: China had just joined the World Trade Organization – and made it clear that Beijing had no intention to keep its many promises about a market-economy development.
But we in Germany also experienced shifting stances toward China. To mention just two quite contrasting examples: On the one hand, then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited the Chinese People’s Liberation Army only a few years after Tiananmen. On the other hand, the Dalai Lama had been invited to speak in the German parliament.
But China-extremes are not limited to German politics: Germany’s broad media spectrum, for example, intensively praised China as an economic miracle at one end, as if the path to the future were only possible by holding the People’s Republic’s hand, and at the other end, warned of the danger from the Far East.
Some companies invested billions in their “second home,” while others withdrew from the country as a precaution or never set up shop in the first place because of unfair competitive conditions. Other times, China’s movie industry was glorified as the reincarnation of pure cineasticism. It seems as if Germany is periodically gripped by a recurring phenomenon: Chinoiserie – the inspiration by a country that is nevertheless foreign – in all its different facets.
And so some may now complain that there were no big celebrations to mark “50 years of diplomatic relations”. Yes, it would have been a good opportunity to bring at least some warmth back into the currently extremely frosty relations.
But instead of a specific date, the focus should actually be on something else: a genuine exchange. Of course, this includes the often-cited curiosity. But also a certain self-confidence. Because only when you know yourself, your values, and your goals, can you engage in a genuine exchange with your counterpart. Otherwise, you will be all too easily led astray – and incredulous euphoria will inevitably be followed by the next big disappointment. The German government announced a China strategy months ago. And repeatedly postponed it.
There is a good reason why voices in Germany keep accusing China of having a clear goal, which it is pursuing with determination. This is true – and yet it is also cheap. Because instead of complaining about China’s strategy, it would be high time to develop a strategy ourselves. So that both sides feel like celebrating on the next anniversary.
Tesla set another record in China. In September, the US EV manufacturer sold 83,135 vehicles. This represents an increase of about 8 percent over the previous month and a 48.4 percent increase over a year. This breaks Tesla’s previous record of monthly sales of 78,906 models set in June this year. The figures were collected by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
One reason for Tesla’s success is the Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai. It is the only foreign company to own a full-scale vehicle assembly plant in China. Most recently, the facilities in the Lingang free trade zone were modernized, increasing capacity by around 30 percent. Tesla is now able to produce around one million Model 3 and Model Y vehicles per year there.
However, there is still a huge distance to the Chinese market leaders. For example, the Chinese manufacturer BYD sold 200,973 cars in September – almost 15 percent more than in August.
As reported by the South China Morning Post, analysts believe Tesla will soon lower the prices of vehicles manufactured in Shanghai in an effort to grab a larger share of the Chinese EV market. rad
Elon Musk once again causes a stir. Following his controversial proposals for ending the Ukraine war, the US billionaire created a new uproar at the beginning of the week with ideas for resolving the Taiwan conflict. The government in Taipei on Monday called Musk’s idea of making Taiwan a “special administrative zone” under Chinese rule “unacceptable.”
Such proposals would reflect the business interests of the Tesla boss in China. The collective will of the people in Taiwan, on the other hand, would be completely ignored by Musk, said a spokesman for the Mainland China Relations Council (MAC) in Taipei. Musk previously voiced his ideas in an interview with the British newspaper Financial Times. In the interview, Musk had called a conflict over Taiwan inevitable and showed his concern that the world economy would suffer a severe blow.
In contrast, the interview received a very different reception in China. The government in Beijing welcomed the proposal, which it said was in line with its “one country, two systems” approach. A spokesman held out the prospect of a “high degree of autonomy” for Taiwan if the island were to be integrated into the People’s Republic as a “special administrative zone. rad
In 2003, Ioana Kraft was one of the China pioneers whose significance only becomes clear in retrospect. At the time, she was greeted by white figures in full-body protective suits upon her first arrival in Shanghai. Back then, the first original SARS (still without “-CoV-2”) was raging in China. “Little did I know that 20 years later, this image would shape our lives in such a way,” Kraft says. The Da Bai now iconically represent lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere. As a phenomenon, however, they are not new, as Kraft knows from back then.
Born in Romania, she grew up in Germany and Algeria and settled in China. This is how Ioana Kraft’s life can be summarized in a nutshell. The lawyer has headed the regional office of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai since 2009.
After graduating from law school, Kraft first worked at the Chair of Private International Law and Comparative Law in Dusseldorf. In 2003, she received an offer to work for a law firm in Shanghai. She did not hesitate for a moment, but certainly imagined her arrival in her new home country to be different. But SARS also ended and a normal Shanghai life began – a development that she would also welcome today.
Once in Shanghai, her path led her to the EU Chamber of Commerce in 2004, where she rose to head the Shanghai office in 2009. “What fascinated me was the curiosity of the Chinese about everything new. It was a spirit of optimism like I had never experienced before,” Kraft recalls of that time when she gradually discovered China and especially the metropolis of Shanghai for herself.
The EU Chamber structures its work similarly to the German Chambers of Commerce Abroad, for example, only with the interests of the entire Union in mind. “We have good contacts with local government authorities and raise the problems and recommendations of our members in regular dialogs,” Kraft explains.
In doing so the chamber must always maintain a constructive tone, so that recommendations are actually put into practice. The limits for the Shanghai office begin where political issues affect national concerns and are dealt with accordingly in Beijing.
Like so many other Europeans currently working in China, she talks about the acute problems. “Not only the Ukraine war, but also China’s ongoing zero-Covid policy and issues such as alleged human rights violations and the exercise of trade coercion on individual member states will further strain relations,” Kraft believes.
However, the recent past has also shown that, despite growing differences at the political level, dialogue at the technical level continues to be fruitful. This applies, for example, to the area of financial services and the implementation of the EU-China agreement on the protection of geographical indications (GIs). It also includes a mutual commitment to build communication mechanisms on critical raw materials.
But big obstacles remain, not least due to the strict zero-Covid policy. For Kraft, who was once greeted by Chinese in hazmat suits upon her arrival, her image of Shanghai also changed since the outbreak of the pandemic. “Part of what fascinated me has unfortunately been lost in the last few months with the Covid restrictions.” The city has become lethargic, she observes.
On the other hand, the otherwise aloof city dwellers behave more caringly and would now pay more attention to the cohesion in the neighborhood. “Many didn’t expect this kind of cohesion,” says Kraft. Even after almost 20 years, the big metropolis is still full of surprises. Constantin Eckner
China’s men’s table tennis team has won gold in the world championship team competition for the tenth time in succession. For the sixth time during this impressive series, the German team only lost in the final. Dang Qiu (foreground) and the German national team lost 0:3 in Chengdu at the weekend against the undisputed best table tennis players in the world.
On October 11, 1972, China and Germany officially established diplomatic relations. And it actually took almost exactly those 50 years for the German government to be represented by a woman in Beijing for the first time. Patricia Flor has only been in post for a few months – and her start was anything but ordinary: Because of the limited entry possibilities, the ambassador took a charter flight to China and first had to go into quarantine without official accreditation. Now, Flor gives her first interview with a German publication: China.Table.
Amelie Richter spoke with Berlin’s first woman in the People’s Republic about how she plans to circumvent China’s censorship, the role of the EU in Germany’s position toward China, and how a feminist foreign policy is to change China’s society.
Back in 1972, economic policy vision was apparently not a German characteristic. The initiation of diplomatic relations with China was more the result of Chinese lobbying than of decisive German action. After all, no one could have predicted that after Mao Zedong’s death, the world’s poorhouse would evolve into the second-largest economy in just a few decades.
50 years later, we are apparently still fumbling in the dark. Word has spread that there is a lot of money to be made in China. But how our country, a liberal democracy and a country heavily scarred by dictatorships, is supposed to deal with the increasingly strong claims to supremacy of an authoritarian state with fairly poor civil and human rights track records, still remains a mystery to us.
In his essay on the complicated relations between Germany and China, Michael Radunski therefore draws a critical conclusion: “We obviously do not know ourselves what we want to stand for. And as long as we are not sure about this, more disappointments will follow when dealing with the People’s Republic.”
Patricia Flor still has not found her favorite restaurant with the best Jiaozi in Beijing – there was hardly any time for culinary excursions during the first two months of the new German ambassador’s stay in Beijing. The 60-year-old took up her new post just over three months ago. “I immediately met many of my ambassador colleagues, which was very interesting. The ambassadors from local countries, that is Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, have their own take on things. That was very valuable for me.”
Flor’s appointment as ambassador happened under exceptional circumstances. The Nuremberg native succeeded Jan Hecker, who unexpectedly passed away last year after only a few weeks in office. Besides, Flor’s appointment was anything but regular. Because of the still limited entry possibilities, the ambassador took a charter flight from the Chamber of Commerce Abroad to China. Before she could submit her accreditation, she sat in quarantine at her residence.
She is the first woman to hold Germany’s highest representative post in the People’s Republic, and that has already changed a few things. The ambassador is active on Twitter and Chinese social media. She also comments and shares critical posts. In Beijing, she has already visited the German school, met with the German Academic Exchange Service and Chinese alumni. She has also already been summoned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry – to talk about the Taiwan issue. “A special honor,” Flor says sarcastically.
Madam Ambassador, you are the first German representative in China to very actively share photos on Weibo and Twitter. Why?
The German Embassy already used Weibo, WeChat and Toutiao and had around 800,000 followers there. In this respect, it was not a new beginning. What is new is Twitter, a social media account that is also personally connected to me. In Japan, I’ve already noticed that you can reach a large audience with Twitter.
Social media as mouthpieces for diplomatic communication?
From my perspective, we are in China in a country where it is not very easy to reach a broad audience with all topics. That’s why it was very important to me that we also use Twitter. Of course, this requires Chinese users to connect via a VPN. And we can also reach many people outside of China and around the world through this channel. Twitter also enables us to post content that otherwise disappears relatively quickly from Chinese platforms because it is blocked by censors.
Is there a public relations strategy with you as ambassador?
Strategic communication is more important than ever in times of disinformation. On the one hand, we have an interest in bringing German foreign policy to the public. On the other hand, we want to explain what is currently happening in Germany. The term “Zeitenwende” (turning point), for example, means nothing to anyone here in China at first. That means we have to explain why many things have changed for us in Germany – because of Covid, disruption of supply chains, but also because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Is there an underlying goal behind social media communication?
We want to convey our positions, values, principles and interests. And that’s why I also share content, like for example the report by the former UN Commissioner for Human Rights on Xinjiang, or on other human rights issues. Issues like equality, gender, non-discrimination, diversity are also important to us and we also want to actively contribute to the social discussion here. What is also important to us: global issues. Take the climate crisis as an example. We have a feature on the climate crisis on our channels every Friday. Because I personally think that awareness of the issue is not yet sufficiently developed here in China.
You have already met the German foreign correspondents, business representatives and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). But Chinese human rights activists were also there, and you shared photos of them. Was that your way of sending a signal, right at the start of your term?
Of course. Communicating that this is an important part of my work was important to me. We seek contact and meetings with all of China’s representatives. Of course, also with the official representatives, with the government, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries, but also with human rights activists in China. That is important. In the mentioned case, it was about human rights defenders in the literal sense, namely lawyers who have stood up for human rights in courts here. I believe it is very important to show here: We stand in solidarity with these representatives of China. We seek and maintain contact with them and will continue to do so. In short, Germany is committed to its values and principles, even if that is not always easy.
Before you took your current post, you served for the EU in Japan. How does EU diplomacy differ from Germany’s China strategy at the moment?
In my view, they are two sides of the same coin. The EU adopted a strategy on China in 2019, which already set out the triad: China as a partner, but also as a competitor and a systemic rival. In addition, of course, there is the framework of the EU internal market and EU human rights policy. The German strategy is embedded in this EU framework. We should not forget that we are stronger together. Especially where we also speak in a joint voice as the EU – Germany, all the other member states and the EU together, that’s how we will always be heard. We should also not underestimate the weight of the European market. After all, economic relations play a major role in our relationship with China.
Will this triad also appear in the German strategy? And when can we expect Berlin’s China strategy?
The strategy is currently being worked on in Berlin under the auspices of the Federal Foreign Office. At present, I cannot say anything about its content or timeframe. But as the Minister has already said: China has changed in recent years, so our approach to China must also change.
In 50 years of diplomatic relations, you are the first female German ambassador to Beijing. What do you do differently as a woman?
Basically, it has always been important for me to be very visible in public. Why? Being the first German ambassador or the first woman to hold a post always has a symbolic power. You are a role model for many women in the respective country. I think that’s very important because it encourages women to aspire to such offices. It’s not just a women’s issue, but rather a cross-sectional issue.
In what way?
The point is not to deal only with issues to which women in particular have a connection. It’s about asking, for example, how many women are on the boards of Chinese companies, sit on the Politburo or hold prominent public positions. This also helps to enrich and promote the social discussion on issues of equality in the respective host country. However, at the same time, whether you are a man or a woman, you have certain responsibilities as an ambassador, and of course your gender does not change that. Even if each ambassador naturally shapes the office with his or her own personality.
You see yourself as a representative of a feminist foreign policy. The term has also been used by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Why is a feminist foreign policy so important right now?
If women are not actively involved, for example in peace negotiations, in deliberations on how to adapt social systems or how to mitigate the energy crisis, then we completely ignore the interests and needs of 50 percent of the population. Yet, at the same time, we know that women are the main victims of conflicts and war – this can currently be seen in Ukraine – and that peace agreements last longer if women have been involved in them. That is why we need a feminist foreign policy.
What does that specifically look like?
In all areas on which we work as an embassy, we ask ourselves the questions: Are the rights of all, including women, but also other social groups, respected here? How are they involved? Are they represented in relevant processes? Are they also getting resources? There are very interesting studies that have proven that diverse teams – with men and women, with old and young – bring better results. If we don’t take advantage of this, we will lose out in business, in research and science – and here at the Federal Foreign Office.
Diversity is rather poorly represented in the Chinese leadership. What form does Germany’s feminist foreign policy take in China? And what needs to be changed in order to achieve this?
In China, a new law against domestic violence was passed a few years ago. There has also been a law on the protection of women’s rights for the past 30 years. But if you look at other basic documents, such as the 14th Five-Year Plan, it is striking that there are no concrete women- or equality-related goals and indicators. The question of how laws are implemented and what social reality looks like also arises here in China – as in so many other countries. Some time ago, we in Germany and Europe were not as far along as we are today, and we still have a lot to do.
What particularly strikes you about women’s rights in China?
There are very traditional roles in issues like “Who takes care of the children, who is responsible for the family, who takes parental leave?” These roles are still very pronounced here. And there are still taboos. I will try to take up these issues here and encourage the exchange of experiences with women in Germany and in Europe. After all, we have developed instruments, both legal and other requirements, with which we have advanced equality in practice. And perhaps such an exchange of experience would also offer some ideas for this country.
You now look back on a long diplomatic career. But you also have a past as a journalist. Don’t you sometimes have those moments when you just want to stop beating around the bush and talk straight and undiplomatic about what’s going on?
That is precisely the job of diplomats. It’s not like you never talk straight. Rather, the crucial thing is that as a diplomat you know when to be diplomatic, cautious or polite, and when to speak frankly. Of course, the difference with journalism is that you rarely speak frankly in public. At least not when you know that you’re hurting your counterpart in a way that could affect bilateral relations.
So is it better to wear kid gloves on the outside?
For me as a diplomat, the goal is always to achieve something. I have already been involved in acute conflicts where it was also a matter of getting humanitarian aid to a conflict-ridden location. If this can only be done through communication behind closed doors, then I would refrain from using clear words and not talk about it publicly. As a diplomat, you have to weigh carefully how you use the instrument of language – because that is our best weapon.
Wu Ken visibly tried hard as he addressed the invited guests at the Ritz-Carlton in the heart of Berlin. It actually was the official reception for China’s National Day, but China’s ambassador spoke almost exclusively about 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and China. He praised the courage of the early years and extolled the prosperous cooperation: Today, for example, a trade volume of almost half a million euros is generated per minute, about a thousand times more than in the 1970s. For him, the relations between China and Germany are like a rich and timeless CD that he still enjoys listening to, even after countless times.
However, the evening also showed that the German side is not particularly interested in joining in the cheers. The highest-ranking representative of political Berlin was Minister of State Katja Keul. Otherwise, mainly prominent figures from the past attended the event, such as former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and ex-BND chief August Hanning.
The current government voices mostly criticism, anyway. In any case, the current government is mainly critical: At the World Economic Forum in Davos in May, Economy Minister Robert Habeck declared that the People’s Republic would be treated differently in the future than it had been in the past. Among other things, he cited the atrocities committed by Beijing against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as a reason. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a similar point, saying that China was increasingly showing that rules did not necessarily apply when it came to its own interests. This endangers the basis for our collective, peaceful life, the foreign minister said in July.
Things have turned frosty between China and Germany. Even Ambassador Wu unintentionally revealed the country’s differences in his speech when he praised the logo that China created for the 50th anniversary. Germany had created a completely different logo for the same occasion. This may sound like nothing more than a side note, but it raises the question: How can you celebrate 50 years of mutual relations if you cannot even agree on a common logo?
One man who has played a very personal role in shaping these relations is Volker Stanzel. The former German ambassador to China admits that Sino-German relations are currently troubled. However, this does not apply to society as a whole: “We are currently hearing a lot about how bad relations are. At the same time, our entrepreneurs say that things are going quite well and, above all, will continue to go well in the future.”
However, there are problems in areas where things have gone well in the past, but which have been radically curtailed under China’s leader Xi Jinping: civil-social exchange, whether in art, culture or science. “These ties have really dried up under Xi,” says Stanzel, who nevertheless urges composure. Relations between China and Germany can be compared to waves: After a high, unfortunately, comes a low.
Things were always that way since 1972, when it all began. At that time, Xinhua journalist Wang Shu (王殊) and conservative politician Gerhard Schroeder, who should not be confused with the later German chancellor, arranged the establishment of diplomatic relations in just a few weeks (China.Table reported). Helmut Schmidt, as minister, urged Chancellor Willy Brandt to accept a corresponding offer from China. On October 11, 1972, the official communiqué was signed.
It was a historic coincidence. Although a veritable rush to Beijing had broken out – in 1971 China joined the UN, in February 1972 Nixon was the first US president to travel to the People’s Republic, and in September Beijing and Tokyo established relations – Germany had neither an economic nor a geopolitical interest in the People’s Republic. China was bitterly poor and had been engulfed in political chaos for six years. After a catastrophic famine a decade before, Mao Zedong had unleashed the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s. Red Guards rampaged throughout the country, killing millions.
And so the opening of diplomatic relations was mainly in China’s interest; Beijing wanted to free itself from the grip of the Soviet Union and gain swift approval in the West. “Accordingly, our relations with China got off to a very cautious start,” says Stanzel diplomatically.
Then came the great upswing with the reform and liberalization policy under Deng Xiaoping. Bold companies, such as Volkswagen, ventured into China. But just a few years later, the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989 seemed to usher in the end. “At that time, everything seemed to fall apart,” Stanzel recalls. “We were all deeply shocked and desperate. None of us knew to go on in China at all.” Stanzel himself was dispatched to Beijing in 1990 to find out just that.
And in the 2000s, too, a China euphoria was followed by great disillusionment: China had just joined the World Trade Organization – and made it clear that Beijing had no intention to keep its many promises about a market-economy development.
But we in Germany also experienced shifting stances toward China. To mention just two quite contrasting examples: On the one hand, then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited the Chinese People’s Liberation Army only a few years after Tiananmen. On the other hand, the Dalai Lama had been invited to speak in the German parliament.
But China-extremes are not limited to German politics: Germany’s broad media spectrum, for example, intensively praised China as an economic miracle at one end, as if the path to the future were only possible by holding the People’s Republic’s hand, and at the other end, warned of the danger from the Far East.
Some companies invested billions in their “second home,” while others withdrew from the country as a precaution or never set up shop in the first place because of unfair competitive conditions. Other times, China’s movie industry was glorified as the reincarnation of pure cineasticism. It seems as if Germany is periodically gripped by a recurring phenomenon: Chinoiserie – the inspiration by a country that is nevertheless foreign – in all its different facets.
And so some may now complain that there were no big celebrations to mark “50 years of diplomatic relations”. Yes, it would have been a good opportunity to bring at least some warmth back into the currently extremely frosty relations.
But instead of a specific date, the focus should actually be on something else: a genuine exchange. Of course, this includes the often-cited curiosity. But also a certain self-confidence. Because only when you know yourself, your values, and your goals, can you engage in a genuine exchange with your counterpart. Otherwise, you will be all too easily led astray – and incredulous euphoria will inevitably be followed by the next big disappointment. The German government announced a China strategy months ago. And repeatedly postponed it.
There is a good reason why voices in Germany keep accusing China of having a clear goal, which it is pursuing with determination. This is true – and yet it is also cheap. Because instead of complaining about China’s strategy, it would be high time to develop a strategy ourselves. So that both sides feel like celebrating on the next anniversary.
Tesla set another record in China. In September, the US EV manufacturer sold 83,135 vehicles. This represents an increase of about 8 percent over the previous month and a 48.4 percent increase over a year. This breaks Tesla’s previous record of monthly sales of 78,906 models set in June this year. The figures were collected by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
One reason for Tesla’s success is the Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai. It is the only foreign company to own a full-scale vehicle assembly plant in China. Most recently, the facilities in the Lingang free trade zone were modernized, increasing capacity by around 30 percent. Tesla is now able to produce around one million Model 3 and Model Y vehicles per year there.
However, there is still a huge distance to the Chinese market leaders. For example, the Chinese manufacturer BYD sold 200,973 cars in September – almost 15 percent more than in August.
As reported by the South China Morning Post, analysts believe Tesla will soon lower the prices of vehicles manufactured in Shanghai in an effort to grab a larger share of the Chinese EV market. rad
Elon Musk once again causes a stir. Following his controversial proposals for ending the Ukraine war, the US billionaire created a new uproar at the beginning of the week with ideas for resolving the Taiwan conflict. The government in Taipei on Monday called Musk’s idea of making Taiwan a “special administrative zone” under Chinese rule “unacceptable.”
Such proposals would reflect the business interests of the Tesla boss in China. The collective will of the people in Taiwan, on the other hand, would be completely ignored by Musk, said a spokesman for the Mainland China Relations Council (MAC) in Taipei. Musk previously voiced his ideas in an interview with the British newspaper Financial Times. In the interview, Musk had called a conflict over Taiwan inevitable and showed his concern that the world economy would suffer a severe blow.
In contrast, the interview received a very different reception in China. The government in Beijing welcomed the proposal, which it said was in line with its “one country, two systems” approach. A spokesman held out the prospect of a “high degree of autonomy” for Taiwan if the island were to be integrated into the People’s Republic as a “special administrative zone. rad
In 2003, Ioana Kraft was one of the China pioneers whose significance only becomes clear in retrospect. At the time, she was greeted by white figures in full-body protective suits upon her first arrival in Shanghai. Back then, the first original SARS (still without “-CoV-2”) was raging in China. “Little did I know that 20 years later, this image would shape our lives in such a way,” Kraft says. The Da Bai now iconically represent lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere. As a phenomenon, however, they are not new, as Kraft knows from back then.
Born in Romania, she grew up in Germany and Algeria and settled in China. This is how Ioana Kraft’s life can be summarized in a nutshell. The lawyer has headed the regional office of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai since 2009.
After graduating from law school, Kraft first worked at the Chair of Private International Law and Comparative Law in Dusseldorf. In 2003, she received an offer to work for a law firm in Shanghai. She did not hesitate for a moment, but certainly imagined her arrival in her new home country to be different. But SARS also ended and a normal Shanghai life began – a development that she would also welcome today.
Once in Shanghai, her path led her to the EU Chamber of Commerce in 2004, where she rose to head the Shanghai office in 2009. “What fascinated me was the curiosity of the Chinese about everything new. It was a spirit of optimism like I had never experienced before,” Kraft recalls of that time when she gradually discovered China and especially the metropolis of Shanghai for herself.
The EU Chamber structures its work similarly to the German Chambers of Commerce Abroad, for example, only with the interests of the entire Union in mind. “We have good contacts with local government authorities and raise the problems and recommendations of our members in regular dialogs,” Kraft explains.
In doing so the chamber must always maintain a constructive tone, so that recommendations are actually put into practice. The limits for the Shanghai office begin where political issues affect national concerns and are dealt with accordingly in Beijing.
Like so many other Europeans currently working in China, she talks about the acute problems. “Not only the Ukraine war, but also China’s ongoing zero-Covid policy and issues such as alleged human rights violations and the exercise of trade coercion on individual member states will further strain relations,” Kraft believes.
However, the recent past has also shown that, despite growing differences at the political level, dialogue at the technical level continues to be fruitful. This applies, for example, to the area of financial services and the implementation of the EU-China agreement on the protection of geographical indications (GIs). It also includes a mutual commitment to build communication mechanisms on critical raw materials.
But big obstacles remain, not least due to the strict zero-Covid policy. For Kraft, who was once greeted by Chinese in hazmat suits upon her arrival, her image of Shanghai also changed since the outbreak of the pandemic. “Part of what fascinated me has unfortunately been lost in the last few months with the Covid restrictions.” The city has become lethargic, she observes.
On the other hand, the otherwise aloof city dwellers behave more caringly and would now pay more attention to the cohesion in the neighborhood. “Many didn’t expect this kind of cohesion,” says Kraft. Even after almost 20 years, the big metropolis is still full of surprises. Constantin Eckner
China’s men’s table tennis team has won gold in the world championship team competition for the tenth time in succession. For the sixth time during this impressive series, the German team only lost in the final. Dang Qiu (foreground) and the German national team lost 0:3 in Chengdu at the weekend against the undisputed best table tennis players in the world.
