We are re-sending this edition of China.Table because of a technical fault in the original version.
Hans-Peter Friedrich of the German Christian Social Union party (CSU) served as Minister of the Interior and Vice-President of the German Bundestag. But most recently he has been known for his involvement with the China Bruecke. This association is committed to maintaining good contacts with the People’s Republic. A commendable approach, say some. Others see it as Beijing’s tool for exerting influence.
Michael Radunski and Felix Lee spoke with Friedrich about his stance on China and the reason for his role in China Bruecke. He acknowledges that the Chinese population is being more closely and tightly controlled. Still, he considers China indispensable as an economic partner. And: Friedrich comments on his statement that China is “not a dictatorship” – and revises it in part.
The dwindling scope in society is also reflected in the situation of the group our second text is about. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other gender non-conforming people, i.e. LGBTQ+, find their freedom in China increasingly restricted. Authorities close their institutions and censor respective content, writes Fabian Peltsch.
In the decade before the Xi era, the CCP also demanded political silence, but granted the people freedom to lead their lives. Under Xi, the CCP again meddles more in the private sphere. Those who do not conform to his vision of the ideal Chinese can no longer hope for state support.
You just returned from China. What have you been doing there?
As a member of the Committee on Climate Action and Energy, I traveled to China to speak with representatives of the National People’s Congress. So it was mainly about European climate policy.
In such tense times, you have not spoken about foreign policy?
I am not a foreign policy politician and do not arrogate to myself the right to discuss these highly complex foreign policy issues abroad. I am an economic politician with great passion, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. In this regard, energy policy is also of great importance to me.
All right. What impressions have you gained in China?
The impacts of the zero-Covid policy, especially the economic ones, are massive. It affects us, too, because the Chinese growth figures also directly impact us.
And on society?
The level of control in China has increased noticeably in recent years. That was actually very disconcerting for me. The leadership in Beijing has used the pandemic to digitalize everything and thus intensify all means of control. What I also noticed: My feeling is that the number of Chinese flags hanging everywhere has doubled. That shows the direction in which things are going in China. The leeway is getting smaller – for everyone, foreigners and nationals alike.
How should we respond?
Not the way we do it, not with our own restrictions or investment controls. In fact, decoupling is currently taking place, no matter what the German government may call it. Several agreements, such as Industry 4.0 are expiring, state guarantees are being capped, trade fair funding for small and medium-sized enterprises is being reduced. These are big mistakes.
So what should the German government do?
I expect it to represent our interests – access for German companies to the markets, their participation in public tenders, and freedom for economic activities – proactively in Beijing and not to cower under the motto: You seal up, we’ll seal up too.
Do you see any interest in talks on the Chinese side?
Yes. The government in Beijing has a great interest in good relations with Germany – and we, our economy and our companies, also have an interest in this. In a situation like this, you have to talk and negotiate with each other. From my point of view, China and Germany are optimal partners.
An authoritarian China and a democratic Germany?
Your question illustrates the current problem: Security politicians call the shots everywhere. It’s about internal and external security, about isolation, mistrust and conflict. For a security politician, it would be easier if China did not exist. But for an economic politician it would be a problem, because a large part of our prosperity is tied to China. Over many years, the voice of economic policymakers has lost weight in foreign economic policy. That needs to change again. I look at things from the perspective of an economic politician, because that is the foundation of our prosperity. And yes, China and Germany are optimal partners here. Can’t you see the opportunity?
Which?
The combination of the innovative capacity of the German economy and the scaling of the Chinese market of 1.4 billion people. It is an optimal way to make innovations marketable.
This increases the risk of an involuntary transfer of technology.
No. Let’s look at the future using the example of the energy transition: You can have ten technologies side by side in China. The market is always sufficient to make all ten marketable in some way. Together with China, we can accomplish the energy transition. About a quarter of the world’s knowledge is there. In this challenge for humanity, we cannot simply forego this knowledge.
Then the Chinese invent and build everything themselves.
The Chinese are now technology leaders in autonomous driving and battery research. That is true. But the fact that restrictions are increasing in China means that the ability for innovation there suffers. If we then combine our innovative ability with the scale of the Chinese economy, we will have all the opportunities. We should make Chinese value creation mandatory in Germany, just as German companies in China are required to create value there.
And we just leave out human rights?
So on the subject of human rights: If you really want to achieve something for the people, no matter where, no matter in which country, then you have to do it very specifically in individual cases. The idea that we can force the Chinese to do anything from Germany is, in my opinion, absurd. If we become aware of cases and we really want to help people, we have to work specifically on these cases.
Difficult with a million detained Uyghurs.
This also requires good connections. Decoupling and isolation are not helpful here. You have to be able to talk to each other, you have to be able to negotiate. That is crucial.
However, Germany is not in a vacuum. The US is pushing for a tough stance against China.
The Americans are very harsh in their verbal descriptions of political relations, but factually the volume of business between China and America is increasing permanently. While the politicians are bickering upstairs for the gallery, big business is being done off-camera. You need to know this if you are a European politician with responsibility for the future of your own country. It is time that we define our own economic interests.
Do you believe Germany has surrendered itself to the US?
I say we have to know ourselves what we want. And if we don’t see how important open markets are for the German and European economy, then that is a grave mistake. The Americans are not to blame for that.
So open everything up? Or, to pick up on a current debate: Should the entire port of Hamburg be sold to Cosco?
An utterly irrational discussion. Firstly, it seems that it was not Cosco that first had the idea to obtain a stake, but the Port of Hamburg approached Cosco because they feared that they would be left behind compared to other European ports. Secondly, the port of Hamburg should be seen as an infrastructure where all people who want to trade, regardless of their countries, have free access. Now it is a matter of 25 percent of the operation of a single terminal. I don’t see any problem with that. On the contrary, we see that Chinese investment in Germany is declining. The Chinese see our heated discussions and say: Well, then we’ll just invest our money in other European countries.
So you founded the China Bruecke as a way out?
The China Bruecke goes back to my talks with German companies in Shanghai in 2019. Many SMEs told me that German politics did not pay enough attention to their concerns. That’s why I wanted to create a new platform for new discussion channels underneath the big politics, detached from foreign policy conflicts. Things got difficult because of Covid. But I am happy to see that the China Bruecke is now gaining momentum again.
The problem is that China has changed dramatically since then.
That’s true, but let’s leave politics aside. The Covid pandemic and the disrupted supply chains were not political decisions. But they have shown us that we need a strategy of risk diversification. But it should not be directed against a single country, not against China, not against Canada, not against the USA. Every medium-sized company considers whether it is too dependent on one customer. But that has nothing to do with China and its system. It is simply a question of economic reason.
Speaking of China’s system. You supposedly said that China is not a dictatorship. But what is it?
First of all, I must say: I find it simply astounding that individual statements from a conversation I had with a journalist are published without any agreement and taken out of context. And regarding your question: China is not a democracy. It is an authoritarian system, and its totalitarian features are clearly increasing.
So no dictatorship?
What is a dictatorship? By our definition, it is a dictatorship. But you have to realize that there are also many feedbacks in China. China is a vast country with many regional actors who have different approaches and ideas. That is all I have tried to say.
Other media call you ‘Beijing’s man in the Bundestag’ given that Beijing attempts to influence influential foreign politicians in order to change perceptions in its favor.
I think that is defamation. I can’t just accuse every Chinese person who is polite to me of trying to manipulate me. I openly say that ever since I first visited China 20 years ago, I have always maintained a very positive relationship with Chinese culture, the people and the country. As an economic politician, I am also fascinated by China’s path to a market economy. And I now see with a degree of skepticism that Xi Jinping attempts to force back the principles of the market economy. That is not for the good of the Chinese economy – and bad for us.
Hans-Peter Friedrich (66), served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2013 and as Vice-President of the German Bundestag from 2017 to 2021. He joined the Bundestag in 1998 and is responsible for climate action and energy. In 2019, he founded the China Bruecke with representatives from the business community and was its founding chair. He is also chair of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Group.
With the closure of the Beijing LGBT Center on May 15, the arguably most important and nationally known safe space for people in China who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer disappeared. Founded in 2008, the center had campaigned for their rights and offered support on issues ranging from physical and mental health to discrimination and rights.
The work of civil society groups in general, and pro-LGBTQ organizations in particular, has grown progressively more difficult in China over the past decade. As early as 2021, LGBT Rights Advocacy China, which had been fighting for homosexuals in court, was disbanded. The same year, almost 20 WeChat accounts of LGBTQ and gender study groups were suspended.
Queer dating apps and other social networking groups disappeared. In part, they became victims of so-called “shadow-banning,” which cuts them off from audiences with a large reach. Beijing’s campaign against non-governmental organizations formally sanctions this practice. Since early 2017, this NGO law has been in force in the People’s Republic, severely curtailing these groups’ work.
The Communist Party tolerates fewer and fewer organizations apart from itself. Yet these groups fulfilled an important function in the perception of LGBTQ people. The Beijing LGBT Center, for instance, had established a hotline for people at risk of suicide. In addition, the center had worked hard to increase the visibility of the community in Chinese society. For instance, it conducted the largest-ever survey on sexual and gender diversity matters in China in 2016. Chinese universities were involved in the Center’s research on several occasions.
The official reason for the closure of the LGBT Center was “unforeseen circumstances” and “force majeure”. The Center’s discretion is presumably the result of government pressure. Filmmaker Popo Fan, who helped set up the center and served as a board member for a time, wrote on his Facebook page: “This is not only a big loss for the LGBT culture and civil society in China, but also means many of the oppressed have missed their home.”
To this day, no information has been made public as to whether the center had to close due to government pressure. However, members of the center told Deutsche Welle that they had often been interrogated and harassed by the police.
Those who still publicly fight for LGBTQ rights live dangerously. “It is very risky to hold events like a Pride Parade in China now. The government could quickly classify something like this as a political protest, which could lead to prison sentences for the organizers,” Monika Ke told Table.Media (name changed).
As a journalist and trans woman, she has been particularly engaged in representing LGBTQ persons on Chinese social media. “On the one hand, people outside heteronormative roles have more visibility there than ever before. On the other hand, classic role models and family values are glorified.” Ke certainly sees the government to blame here. “Conservative anti-LGBTQ activists control these narratives closely.”
Homosexuality was officially decriminalized in the People’s Republic in 1997. However, same-sex marriage is still forbidden in its patriarchal society, and sexual orientations beyond the mainstream are often taboo in everyday life. Discrimination is also not uncommon in the workplace, Ke reports. “The official framing is that there is no persecution and oppression of LBGTQ people in China, that they are human beings like everyone else according to the constitution, and therefore a law punishing their discrimination is not necessary. But, of course, it is not that easy.”
Ke speaks from experience. She, too, experienced discrimination at work and was ultimately forced to leave the company without actually being able to defend herself against it.
One reason why the government has recently taken stronger action against LGBTQ groups may also have to do with the aging of Chinese society, something the government attempts to counteract by promoting traditional family and gender roles. Chinese state media also use the discourse in the USA and Europe to steer the discussion in China in certain directions, Ke believes. “The issue of public toilets is also hotly debated in China, or J.K. Rowling is hyped up into a kind of anti-transgender icon who has become the victim of a witch hunt.”
At the same time, many conservatives would try to portray LGBTQ topics as a conspiracy of foreign forces or excesses of capitalism attacking China’s national interests. When in fact, the Chinese public as a whole has become more tolerant, Ke says. Many young people see themselves as allies of the community.
In 2018, an attempt to ban LGBTQ content on Weibo was stopped after a collective online outcry. “At the same time, hate comments are harsher than ever,” Ke says. “Society seems to be increasingly polarized on LGBTQ issues, and of course, conservatives are gaining more power than progressives on Chinese social media. That’s not going to change anytime soon.”
It is not the daily news or hot news stories, but Taiwan’s hidden stories that interest Carina Rother the most. After all, they often tell more about the country where Rother has lived and worked as a freelance journalist for the past seven years. After studying sinology in Goettingen and London, she decided to deepen her language skills in Taiwan in 2016. She traveled to the country and has stayed ever since.
“It’s very easy to get enthusiastic about Taiwan,” she says. “Of course, there is this David-versus-Goliath status that evokes sympathy, but for me, it’s mostly the people.” Rother describes the people of Taiwan as warm and open, and it’s easy to make contacts and friendships. Quite different from her experience during her year of study in China, which always felt a little foreign to her.
The public broadcaster Radio Taiwan International is a small foreign language station with mostly regional content. It was there that Rother’s entry into journalism began. She spent three years learning old-school media relations before starting her business in 2021. Her clients are primarily German media, including the Deutschlandfunk editorial team, who was interested in why Taiwan did so well during the Covid pandemic. Today, Covid has faded into the background and Rother has more time for smaller topics, which are all the more dear to her.
She recently researched the Taiwanese custom of the name oracle for a German radio show. When a child is born in Taiwan, many parents go to a numerologist and tell them the numbers of their child’s birth (minute, hour, day and year). Based on the numbers, the zodiac sign and birth element, the numerologist designs a life oracle for the offspring. Using this, the astrologer and the parents choose a name for the child. The name is meant to harmonize with the child’s destiny and bring about a prosperous life.
In fact, it is also common in Taiwan to change one’s name if one later comes to different conclusions. Many people even change their names multiple times. “It’s these curiosities and subtleties of culture that keep puzzling me here in everyday life,” says Rother. “And I take great pleasure in explaining them to myself and eventually to the German audience.”
Engaging with Taiwanese thinking and its fundamental assumptions also motivates Rother in her work. “Taiwan is an incredibly important factor in current world politics, in the discourses around national security.” In Germany, the public still knows far too little about the country, she says – and she wants to change that.
In recent years, Rother has traveled to almost every corner of the island, taking trains to random places, renting one of the affordable scooters available everywhere in Taiwan and allowing her to reach even the most remote areas. Here she has a chance to get to know the soul of the country, which she captures in her texts and her book “Taiwan: Island of Diversity”, published this year.
Now, however, extensive exploration is on the back burner for the time being; Rother recently became a mother. Will the family stay in Taiwan? A quick “yes” is her answer. “I think it’s nice for my daughter to spend the first years of her life here because Taiwan is also part of my identity, which I want to share with her.” Svenja Napp
The heat wave in China is forcing drastic measures. To protect herself from the aggressive UV rays, this woman ventures into Beijing city traffic wearing only a face mask and gloves. In the past two weeks, temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius several times. Meteorologists already speak of the hottest summer since records began.
We are re-sending this edition of China.Table because of a technical fault in the original version.
Hans-Peter Friedrich of the German Christian Social Union party (CSU) served as Minister of the Interior and Vice-President of the German Bundestag. But most recently he has been known for his involvement with the China Bruecke. This association is committed to maintaining good contacts with the People’s Republic. A commendable approach, say some. Others see it as Beijing’s tool for exerting influence.
Michael Radunski and Felix Lee spoke with Friedrich about his stance on China and the reason for his role in China Bruecke. He acknowledges that the Chinese population is being more closely and tightly controlled. Still, he considers China indispensable as an economic partner. And: Friedrich comments on his statement that China is “not a dictatorship” – and revises it in part.
The dwindling scope in society is also reflected in the situation of the group our second text is about. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other gender non-conforming people, i.e. LGBTQ+, find their freedom in China increasingly restricted. Authorities close their institutions and censor respective content, writes Fabian Peltsch.
In the decade before the Xi era, the CCP also demanded political silence, but granted the people freedom to lead their lives. Under Xi, the CCP again meddles more in the private sphere. Those who do not conform to his vision of the ideal Chinese can no longer hope for state support.
You just returned from China. What have you been doing there?
As a member of the Committee on Climate Action and Energy, I traveled to China to speak with representatives of the National People’s Congress. So it was mainly about European climate policy.
In such tense times, you have not spoken about foreign policy?
I am not a foreign policy politician and do not arrogate to myself the right to discuss these highly complex foreign policy issues abroad. I am an economic politician with great passion, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. In this regard, energy policy is also of great importance to me.
All right. What impressions have you gained in China?
The impacts of the zero-Covid policy, especially the economic ones, are massive. It affects us, too, because the Chinese growth figures also directly impact us.
And on society?
The level of control in China has increased noticeably in recent years. That was actually very disconcerting for me. The leadership in Beijing has used the pandemic to digitalize everything and thus intensify all means of control. What I also noticed: My feeling is that the number of Chinese flags hanging everywhere has doubled. That shows the direction in which things are going in China. The leeway is getting smaller – for everyone, foreigners and nationals alike.
How should we respond?
Not the way we do it, not with our own restrictions or investment controls. In fact, decoupling is currently taking place, no matter what the German government may call it. Several agreements, such as Industry 4.0 are expiring, state guarantees are being capped, trade fair funding for small and medium-sized enterprises is being reduced. These are big mistakes.
So what should the German government do?
I expect it to represent our interests – access for German companies to the markets, their participation in public tenders, and freedom for economic activities – proactively in Beijing and not to cower under the motto: You seal up, we’ll seal up too.
Do you see any interest in talks on the Chinese side?
Yes. The government in Beijing has a great interest in good relations with Germany – and we, our economy and our companies, also have an interest in this. In a situation like this, you have to talk and negotiate with each other. From my point of view, China and Germany are optimal partners.
An authoritarian China and a democratic Germany?
Your question illustrates the current problem: Security politicians call the shots everywhere. It’s about internal and external security, about isolation, mistrust and conflict. For a security politician, it would be easier if China did not exist. But for an economic politician it would be a problem, because a large part of our prosperity is tied to China. Over many years, the voice of economic policymakers has lost weight in foreign economic policy. That needs to change again. I look at things from the perspective of an economic politician, because that is the foundation of our prosperity. And yes, China and Germany are optimal partners here. Can’t you see the opportunity?
Which?
The combination of the innovative capacity of the German economy and the scaling of the Chinese market of 1.4 billion people. It is an optimal way to make innovations marketable.
This increases the risk of an involuntary transfer of technology.
No. Let’s look at the future using the example of the energy transition: You can have ten technologies side by side in China. The market is always sufficient to make all ten marketable in some way. Together with China, we can accomplish the energy transition. About a quarter of the world’s knowledge is there. In this challenge for humanity, we cannot simply forego this knowledge.
Then the Chinese invent and build everything themselves.
The Chinese are now technology leaders in autonomous driving and battery research. That is true. But the fact that restrictions are increasing in China means that the ability for innovation there suffers. If we then combine our innovative ability with the scale of the Chinese economy, we will have all the opportunities. We should make Chinese value creation mandatory in Germany, just as German companies in China are required to create value there.
And we just leave out human rights?
So on the subject of human rights: If you really want to achieve something for the people, no matter where, no matter in which country, then you have to do it very specifically in individual cases. The idea that we can force the Chinese to do anything from Germany is, in my opinion, absurd. If we become aware of cases and we really want to help people, we have to work specifically on these cases.
Difficult with a million detained Uyghurs.
This also requires good connections. Decoupling and isolation are not helpful here. You have to be able to talk to each other, you have to be able to negotiate. That is crucial.
However, Germany is not in a vacuum. The US is pushing for a tough stance against China.
The Americans are very harsh in their verbal descriptions of political relations, but factually the volume of business between China and America is increasing permanently. While the politicians are bickering upstairs for the gallery, big business is being done off-camera. You need to know this if you are a European politician with responsibility for the future of your own country. It is time that we define our own economic interests.
Do you believe Germany has surrendered itself to the US?
I say we have to know ourselves what we want. And if we don’t see how important open markets are for the German and European economy, then that is a grave mistake. The Americans are not to blame for that.
So open everything up? Or, to pick up on a current debate: Should the entire port of Hamburg be sold to Cosco?
An utterly irrational discussion. Firstly, it seems that it was not Cosco that first had the idea to obtain a stake, but the Port of Hamburg approached Cosco because they feared that they would be left behind compared to other European ports. Secondly, the port of Hamburg should be seen as an infrastructure where all people who want to trade, regardless of their countries, have free access. Now it is a matter of 25 percent of the operation of a single terminal. I don’t see any problem with that. On the contrary, we see that Chinese investment in Germany is declining. The Chinese see our heated discussions and say: Well, then we’ll just invest our money in other European countries.
So you founded the China Bruecke as a way out?
The China Bruecke goes back to my talks with German companies in Shanghai in 2019. Many SMEs told me that German politics did not pay enough attention to their concerns. That’s why I wanted to create a new platform for new discussion channels underneath the big politics, detached from foreign policy conflicts. Things got difficult because of Covid. But I am happy to see that the China Bruecke is now gaining momentum again.
The problem is that China has changed dramatically since then.
That’s true, but let’s leave politics aside. The Covid pandemic and the disrupted supply chains were not political decisions. But they have shown us that we need a strategy of risk diversification. But it should not be directed against a single country, not against China, not against Canada, not against the USA. Every medium-sized company considers whether it is too dependent on one customer. But that has nothing to do with China and its system. It is simply a question of economic reason.
Speaking of China’s system. You supposedly said that China is not a dictatorship. But what is it?
First of all, I must say: I find it simply astounding that individual statements from a conversation I had with a journalist are published without any agreement and taken out of context. And regarding your question: China is not a democracy. It is an authoritarian system, and its totalitarian features are clearly increasing.
So no dictatorship?
What is a dictatorship? By our definition, it is a dictatorship. But you have to realize that there are also many feedbacks in China. China is a vast country with many regional actors who have different approaches and ideas. That is all I have tried to say.
Other media call you ‘Beijing’s man in the Bundestag’ given that Beijing attempts to influence influential foreign politicians in order to change perceptions in its favor.
I think that is defamation. I can’t just accuse every Chinese person who is polite to me of trying to manipulate me. I openly say that ever since I first visited China 20 years ago, I have always maintained a very positive relationship with Chinese culture, the people and the country. As an economic politician, I am also fascinated by China’s path to a market economy. And I now see with a degree of skepticism that Xi Jinping attempts to force back the principles of the market economy. That is not for the good of the Chinese economy – and bad for us.
Hans-Peter Friedrich (66), served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2013 and as Vice-President of the German Bundestag from 2017 to 2021. He joined the Bundestag in 1998 and is responsible for climate action and energy. In 2019, he founded the China Bruecke with representatives from the business community and was its founding chair. He is also chair of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Group.
With the closure of the Beijing LGBT Center on May 15, the arguably most important and nationally known safe space for people in China who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer disappeared. Founded in 2008, the center had campaigned for their rights and offered support on issues ranging from physical and mental health to discrimination and rights.
The work of civil society groups in general, and pro-LGBTQ organizations in particular, has grown progressively more difficult in China over the past decade. As early as 2021, LGBT Rights Advocacy China, which had been fighting for homosexuals in court, was disbanded. The same year, almost 20 WeChat accounts of LGBTQ and gender study groups were suspended.
Queer dating apps and other social networking groups disappeared. In part, they became victims of so-called “shadow-banning,” which cuts them off from audiences with a large reach. Beijing’s campaign against non-governmental organizations formally sanctions this practice. Since early 2017, this NGO law has been in force in the People’s Republic, severely curtailing these groups’ work.
The Communist Party tolerates fewer and fewer organizations apart from itself. Yet these groups fulfilled an important function in the perception of LGBTQ people. The Beijing LGBT Center, for instance, had established a hotline for people at risk of suicide. In addition, the center had worked hard to increase the visibility of the community in Chinese society. For instance, it conducted the largest-ever survey on sexual and gender diversity matters in China in 2016. Chinese universities were involved in the Center’s research on several occasions.
The official reason for the closure of the LGBT Center was “unforeseen circumstances” and “force majeure”. The Center’s discretion is presumably the result of government pressure. Filmmaker Popo Fan, who helped set up the center and served as a board member for a time, wrote on his Facebook page: “This is not only a big loss for the LGBT culture and civil society in China, but also means many of the oppressed have missed their home.”
To this day, no information has been made public as to whether the center had to close due to government pressure. However, members of the center told Deutsche Welle that they had often been interrogated and harassed by the police.
Those who still publicly fight for LGBTQ rights live dangerously. “It is very risky to hold events like a Pride Parade in China now. The government could quickly classify something like this as a political protest, which could lead to prison sentences for the organizers,” Monika Ke told Table.Media (name changed).
As a journalist and trans woman, she has been particularly engaged in representing LGBTQ persons on Chinese social media. “On the one hand, people outside heteronormative roles have more visibility there than ever before. On the other hand, classic role models and family values are glorified.” Ke certainly sees the government to blame here. “Conservative anti-LGBTQ activists control these narratives closely.”
Homosexuality was officially decriminalized in the People’s Republic in 1997. However, same-sex marriage is still forbidden in its patriarchal society, and sexual orientations beyond the mainstream are often taboo in everyday life. Discrimination is also not uncommon in the workplace, Ke reports. “The official framing is that there is no persecution and oppression of LBGTQ people in China, that they are human beings like everyone else according to the constitution, and therefore a law punishing their discrimination is not necessary. But, of course, it is not that easy.”
Ke speaks from experience. She, too, experienced discrimination at work and was ultimately forced to leave the company without actually being able to defend herself against it.
One reason why the government has recently taken stronger action against LGBTQ groups may also have to do with the aging of Chinese society, something the government attempts to counteract by promoting traditional family and gender roles. Chinese state media also use the discourse in the USA and Europe to steer the discussion in China in certain directions, Ke believes. “The issue of public toilets is also hotly debated in China, or J.K. Rowling is hyped up into a kind of anti-transgender icon who has become the victim of a witch hunt.”
At the same time, many conservatives would try to portray LGBTQ topics as a conspiracy of foreign forces or excesses of capitalism attacking China’s national interests. When in fact, the Chinese public as a whole has become more tolerant, Ke says. Many young people see themselves as allies of the community.
In 2018, an attempt to ban LGBTQ content on Weibo was stopped after a collective online outcry. “At the same time, hate comments are harsher than ever,” Ke says. “Society seems to be increasingly polarized on LGBTQ issues, and of course, conservatives are gaining more power than progressives on Chinese social media. That’s not going to change anytime soon.”
It is not the daily news or hot news stories, but Taiwan’s hidden stories that interest Carina Rother the most. After all, they often tell more about the country where Rother has lived and worked as a freelance journalist for the past seven years. After studying sinology in Goettingen and London, she decided to deepen her language skills in Taiwan in 2016. She traveled to the country and has stayed ever since.
“It’s very easy to get enthusiastic about Taiwan,” she says. “Of course, there is this David-versus-Goliath status that evokes sympathy, but for me, it’s mostly the people.” Rother describes the people of Taiwan as warm and open, and it’s easy to make contacts and friendships. Quite different from her experience during her year of study in China, which always felt a little foreign to her.
The public broadcaster Radio Taiwan International is a small foreign language station with mostly regional content. It was there that Rother’s entry into journalism began. She spent three years learning old-school media relations before starting her business in 2021. Her clients are primarily German media, including the Deutschlandfunk editorial team, who was interested in why Taiwan did so well during the Covid pandemic. Today, Covid has faded into the background and Rother has more time for smaller topics, which are all the more dear to her.
She recently researched the Taiwanese custom of the name oracle for a German radio show. When a child is born in Taiwan, many parents go to a numerologist and tell them the numbers of their child’s birth (minute, hour, day and year). Based on the numbers, the zodiac sign and birth element, the numerologist designs a life oracle for the offspring. Using this, the astrologer and the parents choose a name for the child. The name is meant to harmonize with the child’s destiny and bring about a prosperous life.
In fact, it is also common in Taiwan to change one’s name if one later comes to different conclusions. Many people even change their names multiple times. “It’s these curiosities and subtleties of culture that keep puzzling me here in everyday life,” says Rother. “And I take great pleasure in explaining them to myself and eventually to the German audience.”
Engaging with Taiwanese thinking and its fundamental assumptions also motivates Rother in her work. “Taiwan is an incredibly important factor in current world politics, in the discourses around national security.” In Germany, the public still knows far too little about the country, she says – and she wants to change that.
In recent years, Rother has traveled to almost every corner of the island, taking trains to random places, renting one of the affordable scooters available everywhere in Taiwan and allowing her to reach even the most remote areas. Here she has a chance to get to know the soul of the country, which she captures in her texts and her book “Taiwan: Island of Diversity”, published this year.
Now, however, extensive exploration is on the back burner for the time being; Rother recently became a mother. Will the family stay in Taiwan? A quick “yes” is her answer. “I think it’s nice for my daughter to spend the first years of her life here because Taiwan is also part of my identity, which I want to share with her.” Svenja Napp
The heat wave in China is forcing drastic measures. To protect herself from the aggressive UV rays, this woman ventures into Beijing city traffic wearing only a face mask and gloves. In the past two weeks, temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius several times. Meteorologists already speak of the hottest summer since records began.
