Products from German industrial companies have most likely found their way into a research facility of the Chinese nuclear program. This is suggested by an extensive investigation by the Japanese newspaper Nikkei. Given the current geopolitical environment, this is a serious accusation. The companies deny having made direct supplies.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk explains what manufacturers of so-called dual-use goods can do to protect themselves against the unwanted – and illegal – transfer of their machines. Among other things, experts recommend that companies sign watertight contracts with their business partners. And sever all business relationships and contact the authorities at any sign of a violation.
The ugly parts of China’s internet are just as ugly as in the rest of the world. Since October 7, they have become even uglier. Anti-Semitic comments have increased dramatically, negative stereotypes have become more prominent and conspiracy theories are making the rounds. Fabian Peltsch looked into the reasons for the hatred towards Jews on the People’s Republic’s social media. One of his discoveries: Many Chinese people associate the Palestinian struggle with the former humiliation of China at the hands of colonial powers, which is one of the reasons why they take such a radical stance. Unreflected criticism of the US also finds expression in the stirred-up atmosphere.
Products made by German companies DMG Mori, OPS-Ingersoll and Heidenhain may have found their way into a research facility of the Chinese nuclear program. A report by the Japanese business newspaper Nikkei suggests this after analyzing Internet sources. The Nikkei reporters spent almost a whole year on this investigation.
These three cases show how tough it is to deal with dual-use goods. In the current geopolitical environment, reports of the military-related use of engineering products are being taken ever more seriously. Both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s increasing hostility have cast a negative light on technology exports with potential military applications. At the same time, it is impossible for suppliers to keep track of the following:
Thanks to the high precision and complexity required, German and Japanese technology continues to be in high demand in China’s nuclear industry.
The report presents the clearest evidence for the use of a five-axis milling machine from the German-Japanese manufacturer DMG Mori at a nuclear facility in Sichuan province, namely at the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP). CAEP was founded in 1958 and played a key role in the development of the Chinese atomic bomb. It is still officially regarded as a weapons development institution. It employs more than 24,000 people, most working on a five-square-kilometer campus in Mianyang (Sichuan).
The China Defense Universities Tracker by the renowned Australian Strategic Policy Institute places CAEP in its most dangerous category. It is China’s “sole nuclear warheads research, development and production facility,” and the risk of warhead research technologies being used is very high.
Almost all of DMG Mori’s equipment falls under the EU’s dual-use regulation, as the company confirms. “The broader the range of applications, the more likely it is that authorization is required,” says Ewald Plum, an expert in customs law at the consulting and auditing firm Roedl & Partner in Stuttgart.
Companies are obliged to identify the end user before shipping, says Plum. This also applies to parts that are used in other products. If military applications are involved or approval is required, they require an end-use certificate from the Chinese customer. In the event of any evidence suggesting that this has been breached and the machine has ended up in a military facility after all, Plum recommends contacting the inspection authorities immediately.
Analysts discovered the DMG Mori machine in a recruitment video. The video presents a young CNC operator as a prime example of a career as a technician in the nuclear industry. “I just want to become a skilled workman who can contribute to the national defense projects in the new era that General Secretary Xi Jinping spoke of,” Nikkei quotes from the video.
Milling machines can be used to manufacture all kinds of metal workpieces. They are used regularly in all sectors and branches of industry, practically everywhere where something is produced.
DMG Mori commented extensively on the machine in the video sent to Table.Media. The company said it did not directly supply the machine. Although it was a DMG Mori machine, the model could not be identified. “As a manufacturer of machine tools, we take decisive action against the unauthorized relocation of machines.”
DMG Mori claims to have developed a method to track the relocation of the machines. Special sensors are installed for this purpose. If the device registers that it is being dismantled, it switches itself off permanently. It can then only be reactivated by a service technician. However: “There is no legal way for us to prevent the relocation of machines. There is no technical way to control or switch off machines remotely.” The company would continue to adhere strictly to laws.
The complexity of dual-use is also illustrated by the case of special technology supplier Heidenhain. CAEP procurement documents indicate the purchase of machines from the Chinese manufacturer Guangdong Jinke Machine Tool by the nuclear research facility. So far, nothing suspicious – if these machines had not used components with software from Heidenhain.
CNC software controls the machine’s milling heads. If the supply partnership is as portrayed by the Nikkei newspaper, then Heidenhain would have delivered its product to a Chinese partner that usually manufactures machines for ordinary industry. The products then found their way into a weapons laboratory without the knowledge of the German supplier.
Heidenhain rejects criticism: “With regard to our compliance with all relevant export control rules, we have not been able to identify any violations.” The company said it was cooperating closely with the authorities. It aims to “guarantee the greatest possible transparency in the supply chain with regard to potential end customers and applications.” As part of a complex supply chain, not all steps can be monitored and tracked. “We condemn vehemently any unauthorized use of our products in military applications.”
In Germany, exporting data processing programs for military use is also subject to approval, like all other dual-use goods. However, it only applies to
According to Plum, the software installed on a machine shares the fate of the entire machine. Supplying an inconspicuous Chinese machine manufacturer, therefore, either does not require approval or has a high chance of being approved. The bitter pill to swallow, however, is that every milling machine CAEP was interested in uses German software.
Another German product also appears in the Nikkei investigation. The company OPS-Ingersoll Funkenerosion also manufactures machine tools. It was mentioned in a CAEP procurement document as a desired product. It is unclear whether the machine was ever supplied.
The striking number of German suppliers supplying high-tech products to China’s nuclear factory should prompt the German government to take a closer look. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) already has a large number of audits underway. “China is the biggest problem at the moment when it comes to export controls,” says Ulrich Ackermann, Director of Foreign Trade at the mechanical engineering association VDMA. “China requests are automatically considered political and therefore go to the ministry.”
According to VDMA President Karl Haeusgen, companies currently have to wait six to nine months for approval of more complex dual-use goods. Economy Minister Robert Habeck expressed his regret that this was the case, but cited the overstretched capacity of the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (Bafa) due to the Russia sanctions.
Industry insiders confirm the long approval times of well over six months. Nevertheless, the customs law expert Plum at Roedl & Partner recommends companies request a so-called “zero notice” as a precautionary measure. This means the company asks the Bafa to check whether a specific export requires a license.
Ultimately, however, there is always a risk involved in markets such as China. “There is never one hundred percent certainty in foreign trade law,” says Plum. It is more important to minimize the remaining risk. This requires watertight contracts with business partners. If they do not abide by the contract and a machine subject to approval ends up in the hands of China’s military, for example, Plum recommends severing the business relationship immediately. And to inform the authorities.
The Nikkei report comes at a bad time for DMG Mori: The company recently made headlines in August after its CEO was arrested for a suspected violation of the Arms Control Act. The case concerned the delivery of milling machines to a Russian weapons manufacturer.
DMG Mori denies supplying the machines. The company portrays the incident as a chain of unfortunate circumstances: Russian employees allegedly resold stored machines on-site without authorization. This was beyond the control of the management and DMG Mori had not violated any applicable laws, the company claims.
Heidenhain was also criticized for its alleged ongoing involvement in Russia. All these examples – the machines for China and the trouble in Russia – show the pitfalls of trade with authoritarian states. Collaboration: Till Hoppe
There have been anti-Semitic comments on China’s social media channels for years. The ugly corners of the internet are no different there than anywhere else in the world. However, since the Hamas attack on October 7 and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli military, verbal hatred has increased sharply. Israeli Jews should not be surprised if they are digging their own grave, writes nationalist blogger Ziwu Xiashi, who has over a million followers on Weibo alone: “In the past, the German Nazis didn’t let you live, and now you won’t let the Palestinians live.” The post has over a thousand likes. Under it are comments such as: “Israeli neo-Nazis are evil.”
Prior to the Gaza war, generally those who cited the stereotypes believed they were stated as a positive. In other words, those making statements such as “Jews are good at making money,” “Jews control Wall Street and global finance,” “Jews have significant influence over US foreign policy,” or “Jews value education,” says Ross Darrell Feingold, founding chairman of the Chabad Taipei Jewish Center, a Jewish community center in Taiwan that opened in 2011. The risk analyst has lived in Southeast Asia for over 20 years and has often witnessed everyday antisemitism. He believes that such ideas have seeped in from the West in particular, although the alleged influence of Jews on world events even had a positive, admiring connotation for a long time. However, this changed abruptly after October 7. Now, “the stereotypes of Jews are stated in negative terms, such as Jews’ control of US foreign policy allows Israel to do what it wants in Gaza without any repercussions.”
Conspiracy theories are also making the rounds. One claims that Jewish capitalists who had fled to China and Japan shortly before and during the Second World War had planned, together with the Japanese, to conquer China and occupy certain areas for a permanent Jewish settlement. One historical background to this myth is the so-called Fugu Plan, a scrapped idea by the Japanese Empire to allow large-scale immigration of Jewish refugees from the German Empire to Japan as economic and political backing.
Another conspiracy theory says that China’s negative international reputation is the fault of the Jews. After all, they control large media companies and their reporting – an idea that was already propagated in the fateful anti-Semitic pamphlet “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” at the beginning of the 20th century. “Conspiratorial discourses are symptomatic of a lack of control. They tend to become popular during times of social instability,” explains Mary Ainslie. The associate professor at the University of Nottingham in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo researches antisemitism in Southeast Asia. “Currently China’s economy is not performing so well and social divisions are increasing.”
This intensifies the search for secret puppet masters. “Conspiracy discourse in Chinese cyberspace is generally anti-Western and involves Western attempts to discredit China,” says Ainslie. As Jews and Israel are generally strongly associated with the USA, anti-Semitic clichés are incorporated into this anti-Western discourse. Feingold, who himself has over 60,000 followers on the Chinese social media news site TouTiao, agrees: “Most netizens fail to understand the distinction between opposing Israel’s policy, and antisemitism. They circulate “memes” that negatively depict Jews or Israel, such as a hook-nosed caricature of Jews or a Jew (or Israel) with tentacles wrapped around the globe.”
China’s censorship authorities, which keep a close eye on what can and cannot be found on the Chinese internet, hardly ever delete anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments. The fact that certain clichés are repeated in the state media is fitting. During the last Israel-Palestine crisis in 2021, the state broadcaster CGTN aired a report in which presenter Zheng Junfeng explained that Jews controlled global finances and had a powerful lobby in the US to protect Israel. Israel’s embassy in Beijing described the report as “blatant antisemitism.” On October 10, state broadcaster CCTV again claimed in a program about “exposing the Israeli elements of US elections in history” that “Jews represent a mere 3 percent of [US] population but control more than 70 percent of its wealth.”
Feingold believes that despite close economic ties with Israel, particularly in the tech sector, Beijing is returning to its former position during the Cold War. Back then, the CCP supported the Palestinian national movement in the name of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist solidarity. Today, Beijing uses international conflicts primarily to criticize the USA and the Western community of values. This is another reason why reporting in the Chinese media and discussions on social media are currently predominantly in favor of the Palestinians, says Feingold.
Many Chinese associate the Palestinian struggle with China’s former humiliation at the hands of colonial powers. The state-run newspaper China Daily published an editorial this month striking a similar tone, declaring that the United States is on the “wrong side of history” in Gaza because it “blindly supports Israel.”
Feingold also points out that anti-Semitic stereotypes, such as the moneyed Jew with a thirst for world domination, are common throughout Asia: “There is little cognizance of how wrong and inappropriate these views are.” Anti-Semitic discourse in Asia must be seen in its specific context, adds Ainslie. “In Islamic countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, anti-Israel and antisemitic discourses are based upon forms of religious identity and also notions of race and class. In Taiwan and China, positioning oneself within this conflict is about signaling your relationship in relation to the US and the West.”
Sinolytics is a European research-based consultancy entirely focused on China. It advises European companies on their strategic orientation and specific business activities in the People’s Republic.
Other societies and their political systems are always easier to characterize than our own. It is much harder to use stereotypes and generalizations to simplify the natural complexity with which we are confronted daily.
In this respect, we should thank incumbent Education and Research Minister Stark-Watzinger for her recent generalization: “The (Communist) Party may be hiding behind every Chinese researcher.” Because it allows us to look at Germany in the year 2023 with relative clarity and significantly reduced complexity.
It is evidently a society where it has become the norm to make public statements that imply in a generalized form that ethnic groups, ethnicities or races have a negative influence on Germany and where there are no consequences to be feared.
The fact that Ms. Stark-Watzinger’s statement is a transgression can be easily explained by conducting a thought experiment: Replace “Chinese researchers” and “the Communist Party” with “Jewish researchers” and Benjamin Netanyahu’s “right-wing conservative Likud party” or “Indian researchers” and Narendra Modi’s “Hindu nationalist BJP party.”
Another question is when or how a researcher of Chinese origin is identified. Does the researcher have to be born in China? Do both parents have to be born in China, or is one enough? What about Singapore Chinese, American Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese or Vietnamese Chinese? Or is it enough if the grandparents’ generation comes from China in order to come under general suspicion?
When the seven-year-old daughter of a Chinese scientist friend in Heidelberg asked, “Mummy, are you with the party too?” at dinner last week, it became clear that female researchers were just as affected by Ms. Stark-Watzinger’s statement as their male colleagues.
Like the statement by the Federal Minister of Education and Research, the debate about it is also thought-provoking – especially as there has been no constitutional examination to date. Ms. Stark-Watzinger’s statement is neither simply undiplomatic nor careless, nor can it be brushed aside by saying that the Minister could theoretically be right, as China is known to have an entirely different political system.
For one, Ms. Stark-Watzinger posted her statement personally on her social media channels, among other places, which means that it must be assumed that the communication was intentional. Secondly, we are not in China, but in Germany – and Ms. Stark-Watzinger is not speaking as an individual, but as a member of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and acting Federal Minister of Education and Research. This fact holds considerable weight!
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany is not indifferent to who says what. Article 65, sentence 2 of the Basic Law stipulates the so-called principle of departmentalization, according to which federal ministers conduct the affairs of their department independently and on their own responsibility. This means that Ms. Stark-Watzinger has the authority to issue directives and sets goals, tasks and political guidelines for the Education and Research division under her jurisdiction. In other words, as a federal minister, the Hessian FDP politician is in a position of power and her statements have a direct and indirect effect on the administration under her authority, from the ministry and its affiliated federal offices to national research institutions and universities.
The fact that statements and directives made by the federal minister regarding Chinese research or researchers have indeed had an impact has already been evident in recent months. At that time, the focus was still more specifically on grants or research projects co-financed by China. With her most recent statement, however, the Federal Minister made a generalization that severely conflicts with Article 3 sentence 3 of the German Basic Law: “No person shall be favoured or disfavoured because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith or religious or political opinions. No person shall be disfavoured because of disability.”
So is Germany in the year 2023, a society in which ministers have to resign for incorrectly citing sources in their dissertations, but incumbent federal ministers can clearly act in violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution without any consequences – as long as the media narrative permits it?
Daniel Frerichs heads the Huangpu District Economic Development Office for Europe in Guangzhou. Before moving to China in 2011, he gained consulting experience in Munich, Berlin and Brussels with the Pragma Institute, which he founded. Among other things, he worked there for five years as part of the management team of Austrian furniture company Julius Blum. Daniel Frerichs is the author of various studies about China.
Painting with machines: When workers in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu dry rice, it can – from above and without sound – put viewers in an almost meditative mood.
Products from German industrial companies have most likely found their way into a research facility of the Chinese nuclear program. This is suggested by an extensive investigation by the Japanese newspaper Nikkei. Given the current geopolitical environment, this is a serious accusation. The companies deny having made direct supplies.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk explains what manufacturers of so-called dual-use goods can do to protect themselves against the unwanted – and illegal – transfer of their machines. Among other things, experts recommend that companies sign watertight contracts with their business partners. And sever all business relationships and contact the authorities at any sign of a violation.
The ugly parts of China’s internet are just as ugly as in the rest of the world. Since October 7, they have become even uglier. Anti-Semitic comments have increased dramatically, negative stereotypes have become more prominent and conspiracy theories are making the rounds. Fabian Peltsch looked into the reasons for the hatred towards Jews on the People’s Republic’s social media. One of his discoveries: Many Chinese people associate the Palestinian struggle with the former humiliation of China at the hands of colonial powers, which is one of the reasons why they take such a radical stance. Unreflected criticism of the US also finds expression in the stirred-up atmosphere.
Products made by German companies DMG Mori, OPS-Ingersoll and Heidenhain may have found their way into a research facility of the Chinese nuclear program. A report by the Japanese business newspaper Nikkei suggests this after analyzing Internet sources. The Nikkei reporters spent almost a whole year on this investigation.
These three cases show how tough it is to deal with dual-use goods. In the current geopolitical environment, reports of the military-related use of engineering products are being taken ever more seriously. Both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s increasing hostility have cast a negative light on technology exports with potential military applications. At the same time, it is impossible for suppliers to keep track of the following:
Thanks to the high precision and complexity required, German and Japanese technology continues to be in high demand in China’s nuclear industry.
The report presents the clearest evidence for the use of a five-axis milling machine from the German-Japanese manufacturer DMG Mori at a nuclear facility in Sichuan province, namely at the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP). CAEP was founded in 1958 and played a key role in the development of the Chinese atomic bomb. It is still officially regarded as a weapons development institution. It employs more than 24,000 people, most working on a five-square-kilometer campus in Mianyang (Sichuan).
The China Defense Universities Tracker by the renowned Australian Strategic Policy Institute places CAEP in its most dangerous category. It is China’s “sole nuclear warheads research, development and production facility,” and the risk of warhead research technologies being used is very high.
Almost all of DMG Mori’s equipment falls under the EU’s dual-use regulation, as the company confirms. “The broader the range of applications, the more likely it is that authorization is required,” says Ewald Plum, an expert in customs law at the consulting and auditing firm Roedl & Partner in Stuttgart.
Companies are obliged to identify the end user before shipping, says Plum. This also applies to parts that are used in other products. If military applications are involved or approval is required, they require an end-use certificate from the Chinese customer. In the event of any evidence suggesting that this has been breached and the machine has ended up in a military facility after all, Plum recommends contacting the inspection authorities immediately.
Analysts discovered the DMG Mori machine in a recruitment video. The video presents a young CNC operator as a prime example of a career as a technician in the nuclear industry. “I just want to become a skilled workman who can contribute to the national defense projects in the new era that General Secretary Xi Jinping spoke of,” Nikkei quotes from the video.
Milling machines can be used to manufacture all kinds of metal workpieces. They are used regularly in all sectors and branches of industry, practically everywhere where something is produced.
DMG Mori commented extensively on the machine in the video sent to Table.Media. The company said it did not directly supply the machine. Although it was a DMG Mori machine, the model could not be identified. “As a manufacturer of machine tools, we take decisive action against the unauthorized relocation of machines.”
DMG Mori claims to have developed a method to track the relocation of the machines. Special sensors are installed for this purpose. If the device registers that it is being dismantled, it switches itself off permanently. It can then only be reactivated by a service technician. However: “There is no legal way for us to prevent the relocation of machines. There is no technical way to control or switch off machines remotely.” The company would continue to adhere strictly to laws.
The complexity of dual-use is also illustrated by the case of special technology supplier Heidenhain. CAEP procurement documents indicate the purchase of machines from the Chinese manufacturer Guangdong Jinke Machine Tool by the nuclear research facility. So far, nothing suspicious – if these machines had not used components with software from Heidenhain.
CNC software controls the machine’s milling heads. If the supply partnership is as portrayed by the Nikkei newspaper, then Heidenhain would have delivered its product to a Chinese partner that usually manufactures machines for ordinary industry. The products then found their way into a weapons laboratory without the knowledge of the German supplier.
Heidenhain rejects criticism: “With regard to our compliance with all relevant export control rules, we have not been able to identify any violations.” The company said it was cooperating closely with the authorities. It aims to “guarantee the greatest possible transparency in the supply chain with regard to potential end customers and applications.” As part of a complex supply chain, not all steps can be monitored and tracked. “We condemn vehemently any unauthorized use of our products in military applications.”
In Germany, exporting data processing programs for military use is also subject to approval, like all other dual-use goods. However, it only applies to
According to Plum, the software installed on a machine shares the fate of the entire machine. Supplying an inconspicuous Chinese machine manufacturer, therefore, either does not require approval or has a high chance of being approved. The bitter pill to swallow, however, is that every milling machine CAEP was interested in uses German software.
Another German product also appears in the Nikkei investigation. The company OPS-Ingersoll Funkenerosion also manufactures machine tools. It was mentioned in a CAEP procurement document as a desired product. It is unclear whether the machine was ever supplied.
The striking number of German suppliers supplying high-tech products to China’s nuclear factory should prompt the German government to take a closer look. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) already has a large number of audits underway. “China is the biggest problem at the moment when it comes to export controls,” says Ulrich Ackermann, Director of Foreign Trade at the mechanical engineering association VDMA. “China requests are automatically considered political and therefore go to the ministry.”
According to VDMA President Karl Haeusgen, companies currently have to wait six to nine months for approval of more complex dual-use goods. Economy Minister Robert Habeck expressed his regret that this was the case, but cited the overstretched capacity of the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (Bafa) due to the Russia sanctions.
Industry insiders confirm the long approval times of well over six months. Nevertheless, the customs law expert Plum at Roedl & Partner recommends companies request a so-called “zero notice” as a precautionary measure. This means the company asks the Bafa to check whether a specific export requires a license.
Ultimately, however, there is always a risk involved in markets such as China. “There is never one hundred percent certainty in foreign trade law,” says Plum. It is more important to minimize the remaining risk. This requires watertight contracts with business partners. If they do not abide by the contract and a machine subject to approval ends up in the hands of China’s military, for example, Plum recommends severing the business relationship immediately. And to inform the authorities.
The Nikkei report comes at a bad time for DMG Mori: The company recently made headlines in August after its CEO was arrested for a suspected violation of the Arms Control Act. The case concerned the delivery of milling machines to a Russian weapons manufacturer.
DMG Mori denies supplying the machines. The company portrays the incident as a chain of unfortunate circumstances: Russian employees allegedly resold stored machines on-site without authorization. This was beyond the control of the management and DMG Mori had not violated any applicable laws, the company claims.
Heidenhain was also criticized for its alleged ongoing involvement in Russia. All these examples – the machines for China and the trouble in Russia – show the pitfalls of trade with authoritarian states. Collaboration: Till Hoppe
There have been anti-Semitic comments on China’s social media channels for years. The ugly corners of the internet are no different there than anywhere else in the world. However, since the Hamas attack on October 7 and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli military, verbal hatred has increased sharply. Israeli Jews should not be surprised if they are digging their own grave, writes nationalist blogger Ziwu Xiashi, who has over a million followers on Weibo alone: “In the past, the German Nazis didn’t let you live, and now you won’t let the Palestinians live.” The post has over a thousand likes. Under it are comments such as: “Israeli neo-Nazis are evil.”
Prior to the Gaza war, generally those who cited the stereotypes believed they were stated as a positive. In other words, those making statements such as “Jews are good at making money,” “Jews control Wall Street and global finance,” “Jews have significant influence over US foreign policy,” or “Jews value education,” says Ross Darrell Feingold, founding chairman of the Chabad Taipei Jewish Center, a Jewish community center in Taiwan that opened in 2011. The risk analyst has lived in Southeast Asia for over 20 years and has often witnessed everyday antisemitism. He believes that such ideas have seeped in from the West in particular, although the alleged influence of Jews on world events even had a positive, admiring connotation for a long time. However, this changed abruptly after October 7. Now, “the stereotypes of Jews are stated in negative terms, such as Jews’ control of US foreign policy allows Israel to do what it wants in Gaza without any repercussions.”
Conspiracy theories are also making the rounds. One claims that Jewish capitalists who had fled to China and Japan shortly before and during the Second World War had planned, together with the Japanese, to conquer China and occupy certain areas for a permanent Jewish settlement. One historical background to this myth is the so-called Fugu Plan, a scrapped idea by the Japanese Empire to allow large-scale immigration of Jewish refugees from the German Empire to Japan as economic and political backing.
Another conspiracy theory says that China’s negative international reputation is the fault of the Jews. After all, they control large media companies and their reporting – an idea that was already propagated in the fateful anti-Semitic pamphlet “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” at the beginning of the 20th century. “Conspiratorial discourses are symptomatic of a lack of control. They tend to become popular during times of social instability,” explains Mary Ainslie. The associate professor at the University of Nottingham in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo researches antisemitism in Southeast Asia. “Currently China’s economy is not performing so well and social divisions are increasing.”
This intensifies the search for secret puppet masters. “Conspiracy discourse in Chinese cyberspace is generally anti-Western and involves Western attempts to discredit China,” says Ainslie. As Jews and Israel are generally strongly associated with the USA, anti-Semitic clichés are incorporated into this anti-Western discourse. Feingold, who himself has over 60,000 followers on the Chinese social media news site TouTiao, agrees: “Most netizens fail to understand the distinction between opposing Israel’s policy, and antisemitism. They circulate “memes” that negatively depict Jews or Israel, such as a hook-nosed caricature of Jews or a Jew (or Israel) with tentacles wrapped around the globe.”
China’s censorship authorities, which keep a close eye on what can and cannot be found on the Chinese internet, hardly ever delete anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments. The fact that certain clichés are repeated in the state media is fitting. During the last Israel-Palestine crisis in 2021, the state broadcaster CGTN aired a report in which presenter Zheng Junfeng explained that Jews controlled global finances and had a powerful lobby in the US to protect Israel. Israel’s embassy in Beijing described the report as “blatant antisemitism.” On October 10, state broadcaster CCTV again claimed in a program about “exposing the Israeli elements of US elections in history” that “Jews represent a mere 3 percent of [US] population but control more than 70 percent of its wealth.”
Feingold believes that despite close economic ties with Israel, particularly in the tech sector, Beijing is returning to its former position during the Cold War. Back then, the CCP supported the Palestinian national movement in the name of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist solidarity. Today, Beijing uses international conflicts primarily to criticize the USA and the Western community of values. This is another reason why reporting in the Chinese media and discussions on social media are currently predominantly in favor of the Palestinians, says Feingold.
Many Chinese associate the Palestinian struggle with China’s former humiliation at the hands of colonial powers. The state-run newspaper China Daily published an editorial this month striking a similar tone, declaring that the United States is on the “wrong side of history” in Gaza because it “blindly supports Israel.”
Feingold also points out that anti-Semitic stereotypes, such as the moneyed Jew with a thirst for world domination, are common throughout Asia: “There is little cognizance of how wrong and inappropriate these views are.” Anti-Semitic discourse in Asia must be seen in its specific context, adds Ainslie. “In Islamic countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, anti-Israel and antisemitic discourses are based upon forms of religious identity and also notions of race and class. In Taiwan and China, positioning oneself within this conflict is about signaling your relationship in relation to the US and the West.”
Sinolytics is a European research-based consultancy entirely focused on China. It advises European companies on their strategic orientation and specific business activities in the People’s Republic.
Other societies and their political systems are always easier to characterize than our own. It is much harder to use stereotypes and generalizations to simplify the natural complexity with which we are confronted daily.
In this respect, we should thank incumbent Education and Research Minister Stark-Watzinger for her recent generalization: “The (Communist) Party may be hiding behind every Chinese researcher.” Because it allows us to look at Germany in the year 2023 with relative clarity and significantly reduced complexity.
It is evidently a society where it has become the norm to make public statements that imply in a generalized form that ethnic groups, ethnicities or races have a negative influence on Germany and where there are no consequences to be feared.
The fact that Ms. Stark-Watzinger’s statement is a transgression can be easily explained by conducting a thought experiment: Replace “Chinese researchers” and “the Communist Party” with “Jewish researchers” and Benjamin Netanyahu’s “right-wing conservative Likud party” or “Indian researchers” and Narendra Modi’s “Hindu nationalist BJP party.”
Another question is when or how a researcher of Chinese origin is identified. Does the researcher have to be born in China? Do both parents have to be born in China, or is one enough? What about Singapore Chinese, American Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese or Vietnamese Chinese? Or is it enough if the grandparents’ generation comes from China in order to come under general suspicion?
When the seven-year-old daughter of a Chinese scientist friend in Heidelberg asked, “Mummy, are you with the party too?” at dinner last week, it became clear that female researchers were just as affected by Ms. Stark-Watzinger’s statement as their male colleagues.
Like the statement by the Federal Minister of Education and Research, the debate about it is also thought-provoking – especially as there has been no constitutional examination to date. Ms. Stark-Watzinger’s statement is neither simply undiplomatic nor careless, nor can it be brushed aside by saying that the Minister could theoretically be right, as China is known to have an entirely different political system.
For one, Ms. Stark-Watzinger posted her statement personally on her social media channels, among other places, which means that it must be assumed that the communication was intentional. Secondly, we are not in China, but in Germany – and Ms. Stark-Watzinger is not speaking as an individual, but as a member of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and acting Federal Minister of Education and Research. This fact holds considerable weight!
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany is not indifferent to who says what. Article 65, sentence 2 of the Basic Law stipulates the so-called principle of departmentalization, according to which federal ministers conduct the affairs of their department independently and on their own responsibility. This means that Ms. Stark-Watzinger has the authority to issue directives and sets goals, tasks and political guidelines for the Education and Research division under her jurisdiction. In other words, as a federal minister, the Hessian FDP politician is in a position of power and her statements have a direct and indirect effect on the administration under her authority, from the ministry and its affiliated federal offices to national research institutions and universities.
The fact that statements and directives made by the federal minister regarding Chinese research or researchers have indeed had an impact has already been evident in recent months. At that time, the focus was still more specifically on grants or research projects co-financed by China. With her most recent statement, however, the Federal Minister made a generalization that severely conflicts with Article 3 sentence 3 of the German Basic Law: “No person shall be favoured or disfavoured because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith or religious or political opinions. No person shall be disfavoured because of disability.”
So is Germany in the year 2023, a society in which ministers have to resign for incorrectly citing sources in their dissertations, but incumbent federal ministers can clearly act in violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution without any consequences – as long as the media narrative permits it?
Daniel Frerichs heads the Huangpu District Economic Development Office for Europe in Guangzhou. Before moving to China in 2011, he gained consulting experience in Munich, Berlin and Brussels with the Pragma Institute, which he founded. Among other things, he worked there for five years as part of the management team of Austrian furniture company Julius Blum. Daniel Frerichs is the author of various studies about China.
Painting with machines: When workers in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu dry rice, it can – from above and without sound – put viewers in an almost meditative mood.
