Interview with digital critic Peter Ganten + Omicron outbreak+ Taiwan outlook
Interview: Peter Ganten on China’s digital dictatorship
First Omicron outbreak in Tianjin
Military conflict over Taiwan unlikely
Sri Lanka asks for debt aid
Peace ambassador for Africa
Beijing praises crackdown in Kazakhstan
China reports record temperature
German State-Secretary travels to Vilnius
Profile: Security expert Julia Hammelehle
So To Speak: ‘YYDS” – eternal god’
Dear reader,
Peter Ganten already warned back in the 1990s that the misuse of software by governments and large corporations would putour democracy and freedom in serious danger. In China’s authoritarian and obscure use of high-tech, the psychologist and software entrepreneur now sees some of his worst digital nightmares come true. What can be done to counter the horror scenario of Social Credit and the like, before China exports it to the world? More open-source software and a finer awareness of digital autocratic tendencies, Ganten explains to our author Marcel Grzanna in our interview.
Meanwhile, China’s first local Omicron outbreak in Tianjin, a city near Beijing, is the cause of more pressing concern. Not far from one of the venues for the Winter Olympics and one of the country’s most important ports, several people were reported to have contracted the highly contagious virus variant. The “impregnable fortress,” as China now confidently calls itself in connection with Covid, is on high alert. This is because the Chinese vaccines may not offer sufficient immunity against Omicron.
In the past year, it seemed that hardly any week could go by without Chinese fighter jets entering Taiwan’s airspace. The saber-rattling has become louder. But there are also reassuring assessments. Our Beijing team reports that there is no threat of military conflict for the time being. The mutual dependence between China and Taiwan is too great. Local German companies are not worried either.
Your Fabian Peltsch
Interview
‘Unnoticed backdoors’
Peter Ganten, Chairman of the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA).
Disclaimer: This interview has been translated into English and is not considered an official translation by any party involved in the interview.
Mr. Ganten, why do you think open source software is an important element in defending democracy and global freedom?
As early as the 1990s, I became convinced that freely accessible source code, which can be viewed, modified, and used by anyone, has a social impact similar to that of the printing press. Back then, access to knowledge and thus to power was only reserved for a few, before the mass reproduction and distribution of information could set democratic development processes in motion in the long term. Today, private communication, economic activity, and governmental administrative processes are controlled and influenced by software. Whoever controls this software, controls who can communicate about what with whom. He can also control who can make what changes to processes and communication flow. Open-source software enables everyone to understand processes controlled by the software and to change them based on their own ideas or to connect them to other systems. By empowering the general public in this way, open-source software helps to counteract autocratization tendencies.
Could you give us an example?
Look to China. The country is showing us how universal and centrally controlled digitization is being used, not only to predict but also to control all processes of private communication and behavior, as well as political and economic processes. We are slowly realizing that this type of digitization is very dangerous and incompatible with our fundamental European values and our view of humanity.
Do you think it will come to that in Germany as well?
Just because we are democratic today, does not mean that we are immune to such a development. Digitization can promote autocratization tendencies all over the world. There are already examples of how it is no longer the representatives of democratically legitimized bodies, who decide who can communicate with whom about what. Instead, Internet corporations are exerting control. The best-known example of this is the silencing of a democratically elected president of the USA by Twitter – without any court ruling.
And how can open source software prevent that?
Through open-source software, we create an open, freely available toolbox of knowledge, processes, and programs, just as book printing once did in the field of knowledge. Freely accessible software and interfaces mean that the power of innovation is not limited to a few people, but that everyone can innovate. And it means that everyone can exert control. This is not the case with proprietary software, i.e., software that is the property of a specific group. The risk of misuse is correspondingly high.
Did you already realize in the 1990s that software would take on a geopolitical dimension and have a massive influence on democracy and freedom?
At that time, I certainly couldn’t have expressed it that way or predicted it in detail. But it was at least clear to me at the time that software would become very important for social developments. There was a movement early on that spilled over from US universities to Germany, that recognized an ideological struggle behind the use of open-source software. The movement held the view that proprietary software was ethically wrong and that anyone who used it was categorically evil. That was an extreme position. One that I would not endorse even today, but it makes the risk, which is undoubtedly present in proprietary software, very clear.
What was your role?
I was studying psychology back then. And I remember discussions about the consequences of scientific data being evaluated by software. The scientist collects data and leaves it to the software to assess whether a derived observation is significant, that is, most likely non-random, or not. But how does the software draw this conclusion? And is it possible that the software made a mistake? This was not in doubt by many scientists at the time. These questions made clear what influence software has on knowledge acquisition, and they show that its publication has to be part of the scientific process of acquiring knowledge. This does not only concern scientific processes, but subsequently, political decisions as well.
What does this mean for possible autocratization tendencies in today’s society?
We are relying on digital structures in private and, to an increasing degree, in government communications, as well as in innovation and value creation processes in the economy. As in the case in China, these are intensively promoted by the state. However, we have no way of understanding, influencing, or changing their functions and processes. This has a variety of negative consequences:
First, it makes us susceptible to extortion. Those who control the technology decide whether we can use it. We have just seen this again with a bug in Microsoft’s email software. The consequence was that many companies and authorities could not send emails. In the event of a crisis, arbitrary service blocks could be used as a means of exerting pressure. For example, it was a wake-up call for government and business, when Adobe products were temporarily unavailable in Venezuela in 2019 by the orders of the US government.
Second?
Security vulnerabilities are much harder to detect and even harder to fix in proprietary software. And it makes it much easier to build in unnoticed backdoors, making it an actual threat to trusted communications and information security. Third, the ability to innovate and add value to the economy declines with every piece of proprietary software. Today, production processes and customer relationships in many companies are already completely controlled by proprietary cloud services. Improvements or innovative changes are now only possible if it is in the interest of the service provider and if the provider makes it technologically possible.
If you have been warning about the dangers of proprietary software for so many years, your industry could be accused of not doing its job properly. After all, proprietary tendencies also seem to be on the rise at the state level – like in China.
You cannot deny that open source has been successful. The big winners of digitization in business rely exclusively on open source code or other software that they control. This is true for large corporations, but also governments. Amazon or Facebook have become big because they were not dependent on licenses by Oracle or Microsoft and fed their data to them. These corporations use open source as the basis for their own innovative developments, with which they create new value and retain sovereignty over their data. In many countries, especially in China, we see similar strategies to make themselves independent of American cloud providers. So there are players who have definitely understood this.
But?
In my opinion, small and medium-sized businesses and public administrations in Germany, for example, have allowed themselves to be led astray. They buy products from Microsoft and think that this alone will make them innovative. But this is only a “fake innovation”. You introduce something that others have come up with, without acquiring any significant usage rights or any innovation rights of your own. Many people do not see the danger behind this.
Which are?
You can become dependent to such a high degree, that it threatens information security, the speed of further development, and the independence of your own actions.
Who poses the greatest risk?
That is hard to say. You have to assume that digital opportunities will be misused once they become available. This applies to companies just as much as to governments, as the Snowden leaks or the Echelon crisis have shown us. In China, we see this in an extreme form. However, an authoritarian system is more likely to cover up its activities.
China-critical observers fear that China could use its growing digital sovereignty to advance its political interests in Germany in an increasingly authoritarian manner in the long term, for example by using technology to suppress critical media reports about China in Germany.
This is a horror scenario, but I believe it to be entirely possible given digital developments. At least if we don’t take appropriate countermeasures. We don’t have to let it come to that. It is in our own hands to influence things in the interest of our freedom.
Cybersecurity
Digitization
Geopolitics
Security
Feature
First local omicron outbreak in China – near Beijing
When the first Omicron infections appeared in the USA and Europe a few weeks ago, Chinese state media still described their country as an “impregnable fortress”. The belief was that the government’s strict zero-covid policy would be enough to prevent that new and much more contagious virus variant could spread in the People’s Republic. Whether this is true will now be seen in Beijing’s neighboring city of Tianjin, where the first local Omicron infections were registered.
As the authorities of the 15-million-metropolis announced on Sunday, 20 Covid infections have been identified in the city since Friday. Sequencing showed that two cases were clearly infections with the Omicron variant.
Risk for the Olympic Games
It is not yet clear whether the other 18 infections linked to the two cases are also Omicron infections. According to local media, mainly schoolchildren and their family members have been infected. Authorities expect that testing of the entire population will uncover further infections. The first two cases of Omikron had already been identified in China in December. However, these were travelers who had been quarantined in Tianjin and the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou. If all infections indeed turn out to be of the Omicron variant, this would be the first local Omicron outbreak faced by Chinese authorities. And it would be in Tianjin, of all places, a neighboring city to Beijing, where the Winter Olympics are scheduled to begin on February 4.
If the outbreak cannot be brought under control quickly, Tianjin could face a similarly severe lockdown as the people of the central Chinese metropolis of Xi’an, where around 1,500 infections have occurred in the past two weeks, although these were apparently still of the delta variant. Even after the first few cases, people were practically no longer allowed outside. This situation will remain until there are no more new infections (China.Table reported).
Important economic centers at risk of lockdown
So far, the strict approach has indeed always resulted in the mostly small outbreaks in China being brought under control again after a few weeks. But observers fear that Omicron could quickly spiral out of control, which would also have consequences for local German companies, which are already complaining that the strict measures are having an impact on their business.
In Xi’an alone, around 20 German companies have local branches, including Bosch and Siemens, which are affected by the lockdown. German business representatives in China point out that companies have learned over the past two years and have adapted to such situations. However, it would prove to be extremely difficult, if not just one city, but several regions and important economic centers had to enter into a lockdown at the same time.
Such a scenario could already beon the horizon because authorities are currently not only fighting outbreaks in Xi’an and Tianjin. New delta infections have also been registered in the province of Henan and the city of Shenzhen in southern China in recent days. Like Tianjin, Shenzhen is home to one of China’s largest shipping ports. If the situation were to get out of control, it would further impact already strained supply chains.
Chinese vaccines may prove inadequate
With the spread of Omicron, it seems more unlikely than ever that China will abandon its strict isolation measures anytime soon. The rate of fully vaccinated people in China is indeed around 85 percent, which is higher than in Germany, for example. However, new studies have recently provided evidence that the Chinese vaccines may have an insufficient antibody response against Omicron (China.Table reported).
According to vaccine researchers, the picture is not yet clear. Nevertheless, Beijing’s leadership cannot afford to take any chances. China is indeed working at full speed on its own mRNA vaccine along the lines of Biontech. However, it will be some time before it becomes available to the majority of the population (China.Table reported). Until then, Beijing is convinced that isolation is the only acceptable strategy.Gregor Koppenburg/Jörn Petring
Coronavirus
Health
Tianjin
German companies do not fear Taiwan escalation
Beijing is currently sending fighter jets into Taiwan’s air defense zone on an almost daily basis. Although this is not the same as the airspace of the island republic, the growing number of jets is seen as a clear provocation. In the past few months alone, more jets were observed than in the entire previous year (China.Table reported).
Despite Beijing’s raised fists, most observers do not consider a hot conflict in which the People’s Republic starts an attack to finally achieve the hoped-for “reunification” to be a likely scenario, be it in 2022 or in the years thereafter. From the Chinese perspective, Taiwan is a rogue province, but despite all threats, its democratic neighbor is at the same time very closely economically intertwined with the communist mainland. A full-blown crisis would have considerable consequences on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
High economic dependencies
“Taiwanese companies play a very important role in the Chinese economy. If decoupling were to go through, it would hit both economies very hard,” says Axel Limberg, who heads the representation of the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK) in Taiwan. There are currently 8,000 Taiwanese companies operating in China, which employ tens of millions of people, according to estimates. In addition, Taiwan is China’s most important supplier. Around 45 percent of Taiwanese exports go to the People’s Republic.
The economic ties go way back: Taiwanese were among the first foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the People’s Republic at the beginning of the economic opening. Like wealthy families from Hong Kong, they set up factories on the Chinese mainland – even before companies from the USA and Europe became interested in China. Initially, they produced shoes and clothing, for example, but later, Taiwanese high-tech companies also relocated their production to China.
Contract manufacturer Foxconn, which assembles a large proportion of devices for Apple and other smartphone giants, is headquartered in Taiwan, but most of its 1.3 million employees are employed in factories in China, making the Taiwanese company the largest private employer in the People’s Republic. In the central Chinese metropolis of Zhengzhou alone, which was hit by severe flooding this year, Foxconn employs more than 250,000 people in three factories.
Microchips as bargaining chip
So China does not need a war to bring Taiwan down to its knees. It would be enough to cut off the power to Taiwanese factories on the Chinese mainland. However, the economic dependence is less one-sided than it appears at first glance. After all, one of the few technological soft spots the ambitious People’s Republic still has, happens to be Taiwan’s greatest strength: the development and production of microchips.
China has announced massive investments and is making progress in developing its own processors. However, the People’s Republic is still so far behind that it has to import microchips worth around $300 billion annually (China.Table reported). To build them into electronic products for the domestic market and for export, China spends even more money onchips than on oil imports.
Taiwan owes its “silicon shield” primarily to the globally leading chip manufacturer TSMC. With a market share of more than 50 percent, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is the undisputed world’s largest chip contract manufacturer. From Apple to AMD to Tesla, numerous well-known US companies have their most sophisticated chips produced by TSMC, and most Chinese tech companies also have to rely on the Taiwanese company’s know-how for lack of alternatives.
According to Roy C. Lee, an economist at Taiwan think tank CIER, China can currently meet only 15 to 20 percent of semiconductor demand with its domestic capacity. Without chip imports from Taiwan and South Korea, China would immediately lose its position as the world’s leading center for electronic product manufacturing, Lee concludes. With this in mind, the risk of China imposing significant coercive economic measures on Taiwan is “limited”.
Flea bites have little effect
The mutual dependence is reflected in Beijing’s economic policy toward Taiwan. This year, China imposed an import ban on pineapples from Taiwan (China.Table reported). Even before the pandemic hit, China’s leadership also ensured with new rules, that fewer Chinese travel to Taiwan and support the local tourism industry. But these flea bites are having little effect on Taiwan’s booming economy. During the Covid pandemic, the island state actually grew faster than the People’s Republic last year, at 4.5 percent, for the first time in three decades.
The German business community in Taiwan seems hardly concerned. On the contrary, most companies are very satisfied with the location and are investing large sums in new production capacities, according to the AHK. “There are a variety of crisis scenarios for which German companies in Taiwan are prepared. Typhoons or other natural disasters are among them, but a warlike conflict is certainly not,” Limberg says. “There is a belief in Taiwan’s stability.” Gregor Koppenburg/Joern Petring
Chips
Export
Geopolitics
Import
Taiwan
Trade
News
Sri Lanka asks for loan deferral
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is pressing for a deferment in repaying his country’s debt to China. Rajapaksa said this during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Colombo on Sunday. Sri Lanka is currently facing a foreign exchange crisis that has brought the island nation to the brink of default. The country must repay about $4.5 billion this year, starting with a $500 million international sovereign bond (ISB) that matures on January 18.
China is Sri Lanka’s fourth-largest lender. In recent years, the People’s Republic has lent Sri Lanka the equivalent of $5 billion, which have been used to build highways, ports, an airport, and a coal-fired power plant, among other things. However, these projects have hardly paid off.
Rajapaksa’s office speaks of “great relief” should China agree to an unspecified debt restructuring. A $1.5 billion yuan-swap with China already helped Sri Lanka boost its reserves to $3.1 billion in late December. In 2017, Sri Lanka had already defaulted on its debt to China, after which Beijing secured the strategically important Hambantota port for 99 years in a debt restructuring. From then on, the transaction was regarded as a prime example of China’s “debt diplomacy.” fpe
Debt
Finance
Geopolitics
Loans
China sends peace ambassadors to Africa
China plans to send a peace envoy to the conflict-plagued Horn of Africa region. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the announcement last Thursday during a diplomatic visit to Kenya. The special envoy, who has not yet been named, is expected to focus on easing the military conflict in Ethiopia between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the new government led by Prime Minister Abi Ahmed.
According to estimates, tens of thousands have died in the civil war that broke out in early November 2020. Hundreds of thousands are on the run, millions are suffering from hunger. At a press conference in the port city of Mombasa, Wang proposed, among other things, convening a peace conference. Another hot spot in the region is Somalia, where the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab is at war with the Western-backed government.
For China, stability in the region is of great economic and geostrategic importance. In the small republic of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, which is considered stable, China has established a free trade zone and a military base. From here, the People’s Republic wants to distribute Chinese goods to all of East Africa. fpe
Africa
Geopolitics
Trade
Wang Yi
Beijing supports action in Kazakhstan
Beijing has expressed its support for Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s violent crackdown on protesters. President Xi Jinping specifically praised the Kazakh leader for his response to protests in Kazakhstan. “showing your position of responsibility and sense of duty as a politician, and of being highly responsible for your country and your people,” Xi wrote to Tokayev on Friday, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.
Earlier, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also expressed support for the crackdown, stressing that he hopes the “strong measures” will restore peace. “China supports all efforts that help the Kazakh authorities end the chaos as soon as possible and firmly opposes external forces’ acts to deliberately create social unrest and incite violence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said during a news conference in Beijing. He added that the People’s Republic would “as a brotherly neighbor” offer Kazakhstan all necessary assistance.
Kazakhstan is one of China’s most important allies in the region. Xi Jinping first presented his prestigious geopolitical project of the new Silk Road in the neighboring country. Since then, numerous investments with Chinese funds have been launched there. China also has a great interest in the stability of Kazakhstan because the People’s Republic obtains a large number of raw materials from the country, especially gas and oil. An oil pipeline runs from Kazakhstan directly to the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. China also imports coal from Kazakhstan.
On Thursday, Wang Wenbin stressed that China and Kazakhstan are “enduring and comprehensive strategic partners.” What was happening in Kazakhstan was an“internal affair“. At Kazakhstan’s request, Russia had sent soldiers to assist as part of a joint military alliance. Kazakh and Russian leaders blame foreign forces for the severe unrest. Beijing welcomes the deployment of Russian soldiers. As a brotherly neighbor and strategic partner of Kazakhstan, “China supports all efforts that help the Kazakh authorities end the chaos as soon as possible,” Foreign Office spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday in Beijing. ari
Geopolitics
Kazakhstan
Raw materials
Xinjiang
Temperatures reach record high
China has reported a new temperature record for the past year. The average temperature was 10.7 degrees. This is the highest level since data was recorded in 1961 and one degree higher than in previous years, as announced by the China Meteorological Administration. New highs were also reported for 12 provinces, including the densely populated regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This was reported by the South China Morning Post.
In terms of days with extreme temperatures, it also came close to a new high. On twelve days, the temperature was 35 degrees or more, which is the second-highest ever recorded. At the same time, northern China recorded its wettest year since 1964, with precipitation of nearly 700 millimeters, 40 percent above the average of recent years. According to a spokesman for the Meteorological Administration, extreme weather events were “widespread, frequent, intense and simultaneous” in China last year. This, he said, poses major challenges for authorities in “preventing and mitigating meteorological disasters.” Climate scientists agree that rising temperatures lead to more frequent extreme weather events. nib
Climate
Storm
Trade dispute: German State-Secretary travels to Vilnius
According to media reports, Germany is now getting involved in the trade conflict between Lithuania and China. Franziska Brantner, State-Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Economics, is planning to travel to Vilnius this week to discuss problems for German and Lithuanian companies arising from the Chinese trade blockade. The Green politician will meet representatives of various authorities, Lithuanian news site 15min reported, citing several sources. There were initially no further details about the meeting.
Germany’s position could play a key role in the dispute between Lithuania and China over the “Taiwan Office” in Vilnius. This is because the German automotive companies Hella and Continental have factories in the Lithuanian free economic zone of Kaunas. As early as December, the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce warned that German companies in Lithuania were having problems because they were no longer receiving needed components from China and the People’s Republic was blocking products from Lithuania in the customs system. In a letter, the Chamber of Commerce also warned of factory closures if the problem was not solved (China.Table reported). ari
Geopolitics
Lithuania
Trade
Profile
Julia Hammelehle – security expert with a soft spot for soccer
Julia Hammelehle analyzes the security risks of climate change
The week in which her favorite German soccer club Borussia Dortmund lost to Bayern Munich brought Julia Hammelehle at least some political satisfaction. A few days after their painful Bundesliga defeat, “her” SPD took over the chancellorship – a form of emotional redemption. In Germany, soccer and politics are sometimes not very far apart, especially when it comes to their slogans.
As a strategy consultant, Julia Hammelehle analyzes international policy fields and has been conceptualizing events and exchanges for the Munich Security Conference for two years. “Road to Munich” is the title of the pre-event program for the upcoming Security Conference, which will take place from February 18 to 20, 2022. Marketing campaigns of potential Champions League finalists are often called similar. Instead of playing on the green pitch, however, the Bayerischer Hof Hotel will be talking about climate and sustainability. Instead of a back four, new technologies and digital innovations are on the agenda.
‘China has geopolitical leverage’
Julia Hammelehle studied International Relations in Dresden and EU Politics in London. In between, she spent a semester abroad in Boston. The 25-year-old is certain that changes in climate and power policy will also have an impact on security policy. In her personal opinion, the switch to green energy could even lead to the destabilization of countries that still rely on fossil fuels.
Even more, the shift “poses challenges for countries sitting on raw materials such as lithium or cobalt that are needed for green technologies,” Hammelehle says. Europe and the US view China’s dominance in supply chains for building electric cars or solar panels with concern, according to Hammelehle. “50 to 70 percent of the world’s lithium and cobalt is processed in China. The People’s Republic dominates the entire rare elements value chain. This is not only a competitive advantage for China but also potential geopolitical leverage.”
‘The West needs a common strategy’
Therefore it would be more important than ever that the EU and its transatlantic allies recognize the People’s Republic of China as a partner, a competitor, and a systemic rival at the same time. “This is an important basis for a common strategy.” And it should focus on better protecting itself from Chinese influence and economic pressure as well as strengthening its own operational capacity, Hammelehle said. “A joint strategy must include advocating for a level playing field via investment controls, reducing dependencies and sharpening anti-coercion instruments.”
In addition, investments in innovative strength and competitiveness, especially in digital technology must be made, and new partnerships need to be deepened and established through infrastructure projects. The US has chosen another option with its diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February. “But even there, it would be important to send a common signal within the EU,” the sports fanatic explains. “But I wouldn’t like it if no athletes were sent at all.” Gabriel Bub
Climate
Geopolitics
Lithium
Security
Technology
Executive Moves
Ding Yun has been appointed as the new president of Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group. Ding has worked for Huawei since 1996. Within the company, Yun has served as Product Line President, Global Solution Sales President, Global Marketing President, and Products and Solutions President.
Liza Zhang becomes the new Managing Director of MSL China. The PR company belongs to the French Publicis Groupe S.A. Zhang was previously manager at MSL for Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Willa Yang becomes the Chief Representative for the international Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) in China. Previously, Yang held leadership positions in the China office of Wine Australia and the Australian Trade Commission.
So To Speak
YYDS
永远的神 – yǒngyuǎn de shén – YYDS
YYDS! Don’t be surprised if you hear teens in China screeching this cryptic string of letters at concerts. And don’t be surprised either when Chinese fans shower their idols with YYDS comments on the net. That’s not a typo, that’s intentional. YYDS stands for 永远的神 yǒngyuǎn de shén – “eternal god” – and is now a trendy word in China for everything, from pop idols and favorite brands to life-saving favorite colleagues who get the projector for the PowerPoint presentation up and running at the last minute.
If you scour the digital character forest of Chinese online texts, you will come across even more Latin, pardon “English” letters that stand out from the square Hanzi mass. Here is a short excursion into the world of the currently popular Chinese character words:
Let’s start with the “ABC”. No, not the alphabet, but a US-American of Chinese descent (American-Born Chinese). Let’s continue in the restaurant. Here, contrary to traditional practice, young people sometimes pay “AA” (AA付钱 fùqián – all apart) after having extensively engaged in CP (coupling or Chinese 配对 pèiduì – meaning the mental matchmaking of celebrities or acquaintances who are supposedly a perfect match) during the meal. Back home, you download an APP (下载APP xiàzǎi “ey-pi-pi” – download an app) to your cell phone, with which you watch MV (看MV kàn MV – watch music videos) or maybe secretly watch an AV (看AV kàn AV – watching an adult movie”, alternatively also called A片 piàn).
When looking for a job, you apply as an IT男 or IT女 (IT nán/nǚ – employee in the IT industry) and submit your pimped CV (交CV jiāo CV – submit your CV), in which you best make a proper “B” (装B zhuāng B – make a fuss). If you get the job, your daily work may still consist only of PPT (准备PPT zhǔnbèi PPT – preparing a PowerPoint presentation). If, on the other hand, you receive a rejection, you simply continue to spend your nights at the KTV (唱KTV chàng KTV – singing karaoke).
Good. But so much Chinglish has to be digested first. Please don’t get lost in the jungle of abbreviations, no matter what language. CU! BB!.
Verena Menzel runs the language school New Chinese in Beijing.
Interview: Peter Ganten on China’s digital dictatorship
First Omicron outbreak in Tianjin
Military conflict over Taiwan unlikely
Sri Lanka asks for debt aid
Peace ambassador for Africa
Beijing praises crackdown in Kazakhstan
China reports record temperature
German State-Secretary travels to Vilnius
Profile: Security expert Julia Hammelehle
So To Speak: ‘YYDS” – eternal god’
Dear reader,
Peter Ganten already warned back in the 1990s that the misuse of software by governments and large corporations would putour democracy and freedom in serious danger. In China’s authoritarian and obscure use of high-tech, the psychologist and software entrepreneur now sees some of his worst digital nightmares come true. What can be done to counter the horror scenario of Social Credit and the like, before China exports it to the world? More open-source software and a finer awareness of digital autocratic tendencies, Ganten explains to our author Marcel Grzanna in our interview.
Meanwhile, China’s first local Omicron outbreak in Tianjin, a city near Beijing, is the cause of more pressing concern. Not far from one of the venues for the Winter Olympics and one of the country’s most important ports, several people were reported to have contracted the highly contagious virus variant. The “impregnable fortress,” as China now confidently calls itself in connection with Covid, is on high alert. This is because the Chinese vaccines may not offer sufficient immunity against Omicron.
In the past year, it seemed that hardly any week could go by without Chinese fighter jets entering Taiwan’s airspace. The saber-rattling has become louder. But there are also reassuring assessments. Our Beijing team reports that there is no threat of military conflict for the time being. The mutual dependence between China and Taiwan is too great. Local German companies are not worried either.
Your Fabian Peltsch
Interview
‘Unnoticed backdoors’
Peter Ganten, Chairman of the Open Source Business Alliance (OSBA).
Disclaimer: This interview has been translated into English and is not considered an official translation by any party involved in the interview.
Mr. Ganten, why do you think open source software is an important element in defending democracy and global freedom?
As early as the 1990s, I became convinced that freely accessible source code, which can be viewed, modified, and used by anyone, has a social impact similar to that of the printing press. Back then, access to knowledge and thus to power was only reserved for a few, before the mass reproduction and distribution of information could set democratic development processes in motion in the long term. Today, private communication, economic activity, and governmental administrative processes are controlled and influenced by software. Whoever controls this software, controls who can communicate about what with whom. He can also control who can make what changes to processes and communication flow. Open-source software enables everyone to understand processes controlled by the software and to change them based on their own ideas or to connect them to other systems. By empowering the general public in this way, open-source software helps to counteract autocratization tendencies.
Could you give us an example?
Look to China. The country is showing us how universal and centrally controlled digitization is being used, not only to predict but also to control all processes of private communication and behavior, as well as political and economic processes. We are slowly realizing that this type of digitization is very dangerous and incompatible with our fundamental European values and our view of humanity.
Do you think it will come to that in Germany as well?
Just because we are democratic today, does not mean that we are immune to such a development. Digitization can promote autocratization tendencies all over the world. There are already examples of how it is no longer the representatives of democratically legitimized bodies, who decide who can communicate with whom about what. Instead, Internet corporations are exerting control. The best-known example of this is the silencing of a democratically elected president of the USA by Twitter – without any court ruling.
And how can open source software prevent that?
Through open-source software, we create an open, freely available toolbox of knowledge, processes, and programs, just as book printing once did in the field of knowledge. Freely accessible software and interfaces mean that the power of innovation is not limited to a few people, but that everyone can innovate. And it means that everyone can exert control. This is not the case with proprietary software, i.e., software that is the property of a specific group. The risk of misuse is correspondingly high.
Did you already realize in the 1990s that software would take on a geopolitical dimension and have a massive influence on democracy and freedom?
At that time, I certainly couldn’t have expressed it that way or predicted it in detail. But it was at least clear to me at the time that software would become very important for social developments. There was a movement early on that spilled over from US universities to Germany, that recognized an ideological struggle behind the use of open-source software. The movement held the view that proprietary software was ethically wrong and that anyone who used it was categorically evil. That was an extreme position. One that I would not endorse even today, but it makes the risk, which is undoubtedly present in proprietary software, very clear.
What was your role?
I was studying psychology back then. And I remember discussions about the consequences of scientific data being evaluated by software. The scientist collects data and leaves it to the software to assess whether a derived observation is significant, that is, most likely non-random, or not. But how does the software draw this conclusion? And is it possible that the software made a mistake? This was not in doubt by many scientists at the time. These questions made clear what influence software has on knowledge acquisition, and they show that its publication has to be part of the scientific process of acquiring knowledge. This does not only concern scientific processes, but subsequently, political decisions as well.
What does this mean for possible autocratization tendencies in today’s society?
We are relying on digital structures in private and, to an increasing degree, in government communications, as well as in innovation and value creation processes in the economy. As in the case in China, these are intensively promoted by the state. However, we have no way of understanding, influencing, or changing their functions and processes. This has a variety of negative consequences:
First, it makes us susceptible to extortion. Those who control the technology decide whether we can use it. We have just seen this again with a bug in Microsoft’s email software. The consequence was that many companies and authorities could not send emails. In the event of a crisis, arbitrary service blocks could be used as a means of exerting pressure. For example, it was a wake-up call for government and business, when Adobe products were temporarily unavailable in Venezuela in 2019 by the orders of the US government.
Second?
Security vulnerabilities are much harder to detect and even harder to fix in proprietary software. And it makes it much easier to build in unnoticed backdoors, making it an actual threat to trusted communications and information security. Third, the ability to innovate and add value to the economy declines with every piece of proprietary software. Today, production processes and customer relationships in many companies are already completely controlled by proprietary cloud services. Improvements or innovative changes are now only possible if it is in the interest of the service provider and if the provider makes it technologically possible.
If you have been warning about the dangers of proprietary software for so many years, your industry could be accused of not doing its job properly. After all, proprietary tendencies also seem to be on the rise at the state level – like in China.
You cannot deny that open source has been successful. The big winners of digitization in business rely exclusively on open source code or other software that they control. This is true for large corporations, but also governments. Amazon or Facebook have become big because they were not dependent on licenses by Oracle or Microsoft and fed their data to them. These corporations use open source as the basis for their own innovative developments, with which they create new value and retain sovereignty over their data. In many countries, especially in China, we see similar strategies to make themselves independent of American cloud providers. So there are players who have definitely understood this.
But?
In my opinion, small and medium-sized businesses and public administrations in Germany, for example, have allowed themselves to be led astray. They buy products from Microsoft and think that this alone will make them innovative. But this is only a “fake innovation”. You introduce something that others have come up with, without acquiring any significant usage rights or any innovation rights of your own. Many people do not see the danger behind this.
Which are?
You can become dependent to such a high degree, that it threatens information security, the speed of further development, and the independence of your own actions.
Who poses the greatest risk?
That is hard to say. You have to assume that digital opportunities will be misused once they become available. This applies to companies just as much as to governments, as the Snowden leaks or the Echelon crisis have shown us. In China, we see this in an extreme form. However, an authoritarian system is more likely to cover up its activities.
China-critical observers fear that China could use its growing digital sovereignty to advance its political interests in Germany in an increasingly authoritarian manner in the long term, for example by using technology to suppress critical media reports about China in Germany.
This is a horror scenario, but I believe it to be entirely possible given digital developments. At least if we don’t take appropriate countermeasures. We don’t have to let it come to that. It is in our own hands to influence things in the interest of our freedom.
Cybersecurity
Digitization
Geopolitics
Security
Feature
First local omicron outbreak in China – near Beijing
When the first Omicron infections appeared in the USA and Europe a few weeks ago, Chinese state media still described their country as an “impregnable fortress”. The belief was that the government’s strict zero-covid policy would be enough to prevent that new and much more contagious virus variant could spread in the People’s Republic. Whether this is true will now be seen in Beijing’s neighboring city of Tianjin, where the first local Omicron infections were registered.
As the authorities of the 15-million-metropolis announced on Sunday, 20 Covid infections have been identified in the city since Friday. Sequencing showed that two cases were clearly infections with the Omicron variant.
Risk for the Olympic Games
It is not yet clear whether the other 18 infections linked to the two cases are also Omicron infections. According to local media, mainly schoolchildren and their family members have been infected. Authorities expect that testing of the entire population will uncover further infections. The first two cases of Omikron had already been identified in China in December. However, these were travelers who had been quarantined in Tianjin and the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou. If all infections indeed turn out to be of the Omicron variant, this would be the first local Omicron outbreak faced by Chinese authorities. And it would be in Tianjin, of all places, a neighboring city to Beijing, where the Winter Olympics are scheduled to begin on February 4.
If the outbreak cannot be brought under control quickly, Tianjin could face a similarly severe lockdown as the people of the central Chinese metropolis of Xi’an, where around 1,500 infections have occurred in the past two weeks, although these were apparently still of the delta variant. Even after the first few cases, people were practically no longer allowed outside. This situation will remain until there are no more new infections (China.Table reported).
Important economic centers at risk of lockdown
So far, the strict approach has indeed always resulted in the mostly small outbreaks in China being brought under control again after a few weeks. But observers fear that Omicron could quickly spiral out of control, which would also have consequences for local German companies, which are already complaining that the strict measures are having an impact on their business.
In Xi’an alone, around 20 German companies have local branches, including Bosch and Siemens, which are affected by the lockdown. German business representatives in China point out that companies have learned over the past two years and have adapted to such situations. However, it would prove to be extremely difficult, if not just one city, but several regions and important economic centers had to enter into a lockdown at the same time.
Such a scenario could already beon the horizon because authorities are currently not only fighting outbreaks in Xi’an and Tianjin. New delta infections have also been registered in the province of Henan and the city of Shenzhen in southern China in recent days. Like Tianjin, Shenzhen is home to one of China’s largest shipping ports. If the situation were to get out of control, it would further impact already strained supply chains.
Chinese vaccines may prove inadequate
With the spread of Omicron, it seems more unlikely than ever that China will abandon its strict isolation measures anytime soon. The rate of fully vaccinated people in China is indeed around 85 percent, which is higher than in Germany, for example. However, new studies have recently provided evidence that the Chinese vaccines may have an insufficient antibody response against Omicron (China.Table reported).
According to vaccine researchers, the picture is not yet clear. Nevertheless, Beijing’s leadership cannot afford to take any chances. China is indeed working at full speed on its own mRNA vaccine along the lines of Biontech. However, it will be some time before it becomes available to the majority of the population (China.Table reported). Until then, Beijing is convinced that isolation is the only acceptable strategy.Gregor Koppenburg/Jörn Petring
Coronavirus
Health
Tianjin
German companies do not fear Taiwan escalation
Beijing is currently sending fighter jets into Taiwan’s air defense zone on an almost daily basis. Although this is not the same as the airspace of the island republic, the growing number of jets is seen as a clear provocation. In the past few months alone, more jets were observed than in the entire previous year (China.Table reported).
Despite Beijing’s raised fists, most observers do not consider a hot conflict in which the People’s Republic starts an attack to finally achieve the hoped-for “reunification” to be a likely scenario, be it in 2022 or in the years thereafter. From the Chinese perspective, Taiwan is a rogue province, but despite all threats, its democratic neighbor is at the same time very closely economically intertwined with the communist mainland. A full-blown crisis would have considerable consequences on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
High economic dependencies
“Taiwanese companies play a very important role in the Chinese economy. If decoupling were to go through, it would hit both economies very hard,” says Axel Limberg, who heads the representation of the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK) in Taiwan. There are currently 8,000 Taiwanese companies operating in China, which employ tens of millions of people, according to estimates. In addition, Taiwan is China’s most important supplier. Around 45 percent of Taiwanese exports go to the People’s Republic.
The economic ties go way back: Taiwanese were among the first foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the People’s Republic at the beginning of the economic opening. Like wealthy families from Hong Kong, they set up factories on the Chinese mainland – even before companies from the USA and Europe became interested in China. Initially, they produced shoes and clothing, for example, but later, Taiwanese high-tech companies also relocated their production to China.
Contract manufacturer Foxconn, which assembles a large proportion of devices for Apple and other smartphone giants, is headquartered in Taiwan, but most of its 1.3 million employees are employed in factories in China, making the Taiwanese company the largest private employer in the People’s Republic. In the central Chinese metropolis of Zhengzhou alone, which was hit by severe flooding this year, Foxconn employs more than 250,000 people in three factories.
Microchips as bargaining chip
So China does not need a war to bring Taiwan down to its knees. It would be enough to cut off the power to Taiwanese factories on the Chinese mainland. However, the economic dependence is less one-sided than it appears at first glance. After all, one of the few technological soft spots the ambitious People’s Republic still has, happens to be Taiwan’s greatest strength: the development and production of microchips.
China has announced massive investments and is making progress in developing its own processors. However, the People’s Republic is still so far behind that it has to import microchips worth around $300 billion annually (China.Table reported). To build them into electronic products for the domestic market and for export, China spends even more money onchips than on oil imports.
Taiwan owes its “silicon shield” primarily to the globally leading chip manufacturer TSMC. With a market share of more than 50 percent, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is the undisputed world’s largest chip contract manufacturer. From Apple to AMD to Tesla, numerous well-known US companies have their most sophisticated chips produced by TSMC, and most Chinese tech companies also have to rely on the Taiwanese company’s know-how for lack of alternatives.
According to Roy C. Lee, an economist at Taiwan think tank CIER, China can currently meet only 15 to 20 percent of semiconductor demand with its domestic capacity. Without chip imports from Taiwan and South Korea, China would immediately lose its position as the world’s leading center for electronic product manufacturing, Lee concludes. With this in mind, the risk of China imposing significant coercive economic measures on Taiwan is “limited”.
Flea bites have little effect
The mutual dependence is reflected in Beijing’s economic policy toward Taiwan. This year, China imposed an import ban on pineapples from Taiwan (China.Table reported). Even before the pandemic hit, China’s leadership also ensured with new rules, that fewer Chinese travel to Taiwan and support the local tourism industry. But these flea bites are having little effect on Taiwan’s booming economy. During the Covid pandemic, the island state actually grew faster than the People’s Republic last year, at 4.5 percent, for the first time in three decades.
The German business community in Taiwan seems hardly concerned. On the contrary, most companies are very satisfied with the location and are investing large sums in new production capacities, according to the AHK. “There are a variety of crisis scenarios for which German companies in Taiwan are prepared. Typhoons or other natural disasters are among them, but a warlike conflict is certainly not,” Limberg says. “There is a belief in Taiwan’s stability.” Gregor Koppenburg/Joern Petring
Chips
Export
Geopolitics
Import
Taiwan
Trade
News
Sri Lanka asks for loan deferral
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is pressing for a deferment in repaying his country’s debt to China. Rajapaksa said this during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Colombo on Sunday. Sri Lanka is currently facing a foreign exchange crisis that has brought the island nation to the brink of default. The country must repay about $4.5 billion this year, starting with a $500 million international sovereign bond (ISB) that matures on January 18.
China is Sri Lanka’s fourth-largest lender. In recent years, the People’s Republic has lent Sri Lanka the equivalent of $5 billion, which have been used to build highways, ports, an airport, and a coal-fired power plant, among other things. However, these projects have hardly paid off.
Rajapaksa’s office speaks of “great relief” should China agree to an unspecified debt restructuring. A $1.5 billion yuan-swap with China already helped Sri Lanka boost its reserves to $3.1 billion in late December. In 2017, Sri Lanka had already defaulted on its debt to China, after which Beijing secured the strategically important Hambantota port for 99 years in a debt restructuring. From then on, the transaction was regarded as a prime example of China’s “debt diplomacy.” fpe
Debt
Finance
Geopolitics
Loans
China sends peace ambassadors to Africa
China plans to send a peace envoy to the conflict-plagued Horn of Africa region. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the announcement last Thursday during a diplomatic visit to Kenya. The special envoy, who has not yet been named, is expected to focus on easing the military conflict in Ethiopia between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the new government led by Prime Minister Abi Ahmed.
According to estimates, tens of thousands have died in the civil war that broke out in early November 2020. Hundreds of thousands are on the run, millions are suffering from hunger. At a press conference in the port city of Mombasa, Wang proposed, among other things, convening a peace conference. Another hot spot in the region is Somalia, where the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab is at war with the Western-backed government.
For China, stability in the region is of great economic and geostrategic importance. In the small republic of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, which is considered stable, China has established a free trade zone and a military base. From here, the People’s Republic wants to distribute Chinese goods to all of East Africa. fpe
Africa
Geopolitics
Trade
Wang Yi
Beijing supports action in Kazakhstan
Beijing has expressed its support for Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s violent crackdown on protesters. President Xi Jinping specifically praised the Kazakh leader for his response to protests in Kazakhstan. “showing your position of responsibility and sense of duty as a politician, and of being highly responsible for your country and your people,” Xi wrote to Tokayev on Friday, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.
Earlier, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also expressed support for the crackdown, stressing that he hopes the “strong measures” will restore peace. “China supports all efforts that help the Kazakh authorities end the chaos as soon as possible and firmly opposes external forces’ acts to deliberately create social unrest and incite violence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said during a news conference in Beijing. He added that the People’s Republic would “as a brotherly neighbor” offer Kazakhstan all necessary assistance.
Kazakhstan is one of China’s most important allies in the region. Xi Jinping first presented his prestigious geopolitical project of the new Silk Road in the neighboring country. Since then, numerous investments with Chinese funds have been launched there. China also has a great interest in the stability of Kazakhstan because the People’s Republic obtains a large number of raw materials from the country, especially gas and oil. An oil pipeline runs from Kazakhstan directly to the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. China also imports coal from Kazakhstan.
On Thursday, Wang Wenbin stressed that China and Kazakhstan are “enduring and comprehensive strategic partners.” What was happening in Kazakhstan was an“internal affair“. At Kazakhstan’s request, Russia had sent soldiers to assist as part of a joint military alliance. Kazakh and Russian leaders blame foreign forces for the severe unrest. Beijing welcomes the deployment of Russian soldiers. As a brotherly neighbor and strategic partner of Kazakhstan, “China supports all efforts that help the Kazakh authorities end the chaos as soon as possible,” Foreign Office spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday in Beijing. ari
Geopolitics
Kazakhstan
Raw materials
Xinjiang
Temperatures reach record high
China has reported a new temperature record for the past year. The average temperature was 10.7 degrees. This is the highest level since data was recorded in 1961 and one degree higher than in previous years, as announced by the China Meteorological Administration. New highs were also reported for 12 provinces, including the densely populated regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This was reported by the South China Morning Post.
In terms of days with extreme temperatures, it also came close to a new high. On twelve days, the temperature was 35 degrees or more, which is the second-highest ever recorded. At the same time, northern China recorded its wettest year since 1964, with precipitation of nearly 700 millimeters, 40 percent above the average of recent years. According to a spokesman for the Meteorological Administration, extreme weather events were “widespread, frequent, intense and simultaneous” in China last year. This, he said, poses major challenges for authorities in “preventing and mitigating meteorological disasters.” Climate scientists agree that rising temperatures lead to more frequent extreme weather events. nib
Climate
Storm
Trade dispute: German State-Secretary travels to Vilnius
According to media reports, Germany is now getting involved in the trade conflict between Lithuania and China. Franziska Brantner, State-Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Economics, is planning to travel to Vilnius this week to discuss problems for German and Lithuanian companies arising from the Chinese trade blockade. The Green politician will meet representatives of various authorities, Lithuanian news site 15min reported, citing several sources. There were initially no further details about the meeting.
Germany’s position could play a key role in the dispute between Lithuania and China over the “Taiwan Office” in Vilnius. This is because the German automotive companies Hella and Continental have factories in the Lithuanian free economic zone of Kaunas. As early as December, the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce warned that German companies in Lithuania were having problems because they were no longer receiving needed components from China and the People’s Republic was blocking products from Lithuania in the customs system. In a letter, the Chamber of Commerce also warned of factory closures if the problem was not solved (China.Table reported). ari
Geopolitics
Lithuania
Trade
Profile
Julia Hammelehle – security expert with a soft spot for soccer
Julia Hammelehle analyzes the security risks of climate change
The week in which her favorite German soccer club Borussia Dortmund lost to Bayern Munich brought Julia Hammelehle at least some political satisfaction. A few days after their painful Bundesliga defeat, “her” SPD took over the chancellorship – a form of emotional redemption. In Germany, soccer and politics are sometimes not very far apart, especially when it comes to their slogans.
As a strategy consultant, Julia Hammelehle analyzes international policy fields and has been conceptualizing events and exchanges for the Munich Security Conference for two years. “Road to Munich” is the title of the pre-event program for the upcoming Security Conference, which will take place from February 18 to 20, 2022. Marketing campaigns of potential Champions League finalists are often called similar. Instead of playing on the green pitch, however, the Bayerischer Hof Hotel will be talking about climate and sustainability. Instead of a back four, new technologies and digital innovations are on the agenda.
‘China has geopolitical leverage’
Julia Hammelehle studied International Relations in Dresden and EU Politics in London. In between, she spent a semester abroad in Boston. The 25-year-old is certain that changes in climate and power policy will also have an impact on security policy. In her personal opinion, the switch to green energy could even lead to the destabilization of countries that still rely on fossil fuels.
Even more, the shift “poses challenges for countries sitting on raw materials such as lithium or cobalt that are needed for green technologies,” Hammelehle says. Europe and the US view China’s dominance in supply chains for building electric cars or solar panels with concern, according to Hammelehle. “50 to 70 percent of the world’s lithium and cobalt is processed in China. The People’s Republic dominates the entire rare elements value chain. This is not only a competitive advantage for China but also potential geopolitical leverage.”
‘The West needs a common strategy’
Therefore it would be more important than ever that the EU and its transatlantic allies recognize the People’s Republic of China as a partner, a competitor, and a systemic rival at the same time. “This is an important basis for a common strategy.” And it should focus on better protecting itself from Chinese influence and economic pressure as well as strengthening its own operational capacity, Hammelehle said. “A joint strategy must include advocating for a level playing field via investment controls, reducing dependencies and sharpening anti-coercion instruments.”
In addition, investments in innovative strength and competitiveness, especially in digital technology must be made, and new partnerships need to be deepened and established through infrastructure projects. The US has chosen another option with its diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February. “But even there, it would be important to send a common signal within the EU,” the sports fanatic explains. “But I wouldn’t like it if no athletes were sent at all.” Gabriel Bub
Climate
Geopolitics
Lithium
Security
Technology
Executive Moves
Ding Yun has been appointed as the new president of Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group. Ding has worked for Huawei since 1996. Within the company, Yun has served as Product Line President, Global Solution Sales President, Global Marketing President, and Products and Solutions President.
Liza Zhang becomes the new Managing Director of MSL China. The PR company belongs to the French Publicis Groupe S.A. Zhang was previously manager at MSL for Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Willa Yang becomes the Chief Representative for the international Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) in China. Previously, Yang held leadership positions in the China office of Wine Australia and the Australian Trade Commission.
So To Speak
YYDS
永远的神 – yǒngyuǎn de shén – YYDS
YYDS! Don’t be surprised if you hear teens in China screeching this cryptic string of letters at concerts. And don’t be surprised either when Chinese fans shower their idols with YYDS comments on the net. That’s not a typo, that’s intentional. YYDS stands for 永远的神 yǒngyuǎn de shén – “eternal god” – and is now a trendy word in China for everything, from pop idols and favorite brands to life-saving favorite colleagues who get the projector for the PowerPoint presentation up and running at the last minute.
If you scour the digital character forest of Chinese online texts, you will come across even more Latin, pardon “English” letters that stand out from the square Hanzi mass. Here is a short excursion into the world of the currently popular Chinese character words:
Let’s start with the “ABC”. No, not the alphabet, but a US-American of Chinese descent (American-Born Chinese). Let’s continue in the restaurant. Here, contrary to traditional practice, young people sometimes pay “AA” (AA付钱 fùqián – all apart) after having extensively engaged in CP (coupling or Chinese 配对 pèiduì – meaning the mental matchmaking of celebrities or acquaintances who are supposedly a perfect match) during the meal. Back home, you download an APP (下载APP xiàzǎi “ey-pi-pi” – download an app) to your cell phone, with which you watch MV (看MV kàn MV – watch music videos) or maybe secretly watch an AV (看AV kàn AV – watching an adult movie”, alternatively also called A片 piàn).
When looking for a job, you apply as an IT男 or IT女 (IT nán/nǚ – employee in the IT industry) and submit your pimped CV (交CV jiāo CV – submit your CV), in which you best make a proper “B” (装B zhuāng B – make a fuss). If you get the job, your daily work may still consist only of PPT (准备PPT zhǔnbèi PPT – preparing a PowerPoint presentation). If, on the other hand, you receive a rejection, you simply continue to spend your nights at the KTV (唱KTV chàng KTV – singing karaoke).
Good. But so much Chinglish has to be digested first. Please don’t get lost in the jungle of abbreviations, no matter what language. CU! BB!.
Verena Menzel runs the language school New Chinese in Beijing.
