Socialism actually promises full employment and freedom from exploitation. However, socialism with Chinese characteristics is increasingly struggling to achieve this. At least the young population has a hard time finding a job. And those who do have one are often bullied at work. As a consequence, many employees refuse to follow the classic career path, writes Gregor Koppenburg.
From the perspective of the state leadership, this brings several problems. On the one hand, the youth could vent their frustration on the CP. On the other hand, the willingness to slave away for growth dwindles. The promise of advancement fades, and with it, the motivation for the extraordinary effort that has driven development for decades.
At the very least, exchange with China is back on track. Everyone wants to talk to the leadership, including the Europeans. After Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron, who are traveling to Beijing this week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has now also announced her visit. They all hope that China can really do something for Ukraine. Anyone who has read China.Table’s analyses knows that the chances of this happening are slim. But von der Leyen and Macron at least want to try.
Amelie Richter highlights the contradiction between Macron’s and von der Leyen’s interests in her analysis. The latter is in favor of a reassessment of business interests. But the French President is arriving with a business delegation that is also hoping for big contracts with China. With this, Macron is not sending a signal for “de-risking”.
Incidentally, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will have her big moment on US territory at the same time and meet the Speaker of the House of Representatives. For China, this would actually rule out a protest in the form of live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait. A military drill would be a loss of face for the helpless EU representatives. If Tsai did not plan this deliberately, it is a fortunate coincidence for her.
The past years have left heavy scars on the Chinese job market. Covid measures, crackdowns on tech companies and in the education sector, but also financial woes in the real estate sector have led to many layoffs. The mood in the country of economic awakening has tilted, which puts pressure on politicians.
The problem is twofold. On the one hand, fewer young people are finding jobs. This in turn strengthens employers who immediately take advantage of the situation to exploit employees. This ultimately results in considerable dissatisfaction among those who do have a job. In a report by the job portal Zhaopin, more than 90 percent of respondents claim to be unhappy with their jobs.
The implications are far-reaching. People are becoming inactive and are turning away from the labor market. This goes so far “that they refuse to perform to the point of sabotage” Wu Tingying, a psychologist at Beijing’s Kaiyuan Hospital, told Table.Media.
Even after the end of the pandemic, unemployment remains high by Chinese standards. According to government statistics, the very young employees are most affected. Although the number is falling, unemployment among the group of 16 to 24-year-olds is still 18 percent. In the age groups above, it was only 4.8 percent.
This means that the problems on the job market mainly affect young people. Those with no or low qualifications suffer the most, but so do university graduates. Because during three Covid years, the universities have continued to teach diligently. Then there are the returnees from abroad. Some of them are coming back with degrees from prestigious universities in their pockets. This raises the bar for a successful application.
In many cases – particularly in the Chinese middle class – the large number of applicants and employees can cause or exacerbate the arrogant behavior of companies. The young Chinese call the disrespectful, choleric behavior of their bosses “PUA”.
The term is derived from “pick-up artists“, but its meaning has changed considerably. In China, it now stands for bosses who rule their companies like tyrants, discredit their employees’ abilities and blatantly exploit them. “Your self-esteem is attacked. You are given the feeling that you can’t do anything or that you can only get results with help,” says a young accountant.
For one thing, costs created by Covid are directly passed on to the employees. Thirteenth month salaries (年底奖金), traditionally handed out in red envelopes at Chinese New Year, are cut or canceled. They are commonly seen as an unofficial compensation for overtime or a reward for good performance. “You can’t really sue for this money because it is not legally required,” says a young architect who is thinking about changing jobs.
She also describes the working relationship with her boss as PUA: “If I show up at the office at 9:01 instead of 9:00 in the morning, I get my salary deducted. But if I stay two hours longer every evening or work on weekends, I don’t get any compensation or time off for that.” In her case, the boss even decided retroactively that employees would only receive about 2300 yuan (300 euros) for one month of full-time remote work.
Even with newly found jobs, the devil is in the detail. For example, it has long been common practice to hire young applicants as full-time interns, but not give them permanent employment. Similar tricks are used with probationary periods. Employees are hired during the high season with a three-month probationary period at a lower salary and only to be fired once the probationary period ends under a pretext to avoid paying the full wage.
These are conditions that existed before in small to medium-sized companies, but are now intensified by Covid aftershocks. For many, filing a lawsuit is not an option because they are afraid of completely poisoning their relationship with their employer. Most of them do not want to quit now either, because they are afraid they will not find a new job.
And so it is hardly a surprise that discontent among young workers has been rising steadily in recent years. Initially, the term “Tang Ping” (躺平 / “lying flat”) spread across social media. In a nutshell, it means that people are only doing the bare minimum to keep their heads above water financially. Career? No, thanks. It has become a common word to express exhaustion.
Then, as the Covid measures were tightened last year and the social and job situation continued to deteriorate, the trend of “bailan” (摆烂 / let it rot) became even more visible. Many consider this term to be a new escalation stage of the Tang Ping. Chinese state media, for example, have been ranting against these trends for years, calling its followers “lazy”.
As psychologist Wu Tingying sees it, the two tendencies are very different despite their similarities. “Tang ping is primarily concerned with the individual alone, while bailan aims to harm the group. It is something aggressive, selfish, destructive.”
However, both trends show that there is little hope for more and more young workers to survive in the workplace. “They are protective mechanisms against too much pressure,” says the psychologist. And to reduce this pressure, China would above all need one thing in the next few years: more jobs.
The message of the Chinese state media is now: The prospects for people seeking employment are rosy. In particular, offline job platforms with high numbers of successfully placed jobs are being hailed. The reality, however, is that most jobs are placed via online job exchanges like Zhaopin or Boss. And good jobs are scarce there.
There is no end to the travel from Europe: After the meeting with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the next Europeans, France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, are heading to Beijing this week.
And it continues after the Easter holidays: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit the Chinese capital as part of an Asia tour. Baerbock is expected to visit China, South Korea and attend the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Japan from 12 to 18 April, as circles confirmed to Table.Media. The German government’s China strategy is also expected to play a role in the talks during Baerbock’s visit. Further items on the agenda are not yet known.
Macron, von der Leyen and China’s head of state Xi Jinping plan to meet on Thursday. According to the Élysée, there will be a dinner with both Europeans the evening before. A bilateral meeting between von der Leyen and Xi is currently not on the official agenda.
Macron will also meet with Premier Li Qiang and the President of the National People’s Congress, Zhao Leji, on Thursday. He will then continue to Guangdong. France’s President will be accompanied by a business delegation of around 50 members.
Von der Leyen was a guest in Paris on Monday to discuss the joint trip. Over lunch, the “analyses on important points that we should raise with President Xi” were exchanged, von der Leyen posted on Twitter. Preparation was necessary, as the Head of the EU Commission and France’s President had not always shown the same direction on key issues on the China agenda recently.
After Sánchez already urged Xi last week to seek talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Macron now wants to try and win Beijing’s support for ending the war against Ukraine. Given the “close relations” between China and Russia, it is obvious that the People’s Republic is one of the few countries in the world, “if not the only country in the world”, that could be a “game changer” in the conflict, according to Élysée circles. Macron spoke to Zelenskiy on the phone on Saturday.
Von der Leyen, for her part, painted a sober picture of the expectation regarding an official intervention by Beijing in her China speech last week. The images of the meeting between Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin would have said more “than a thousand words”. Xi was sticking to the “borderless friendship” with Putin, von der Leyen emphasized.
Some see Beijing as a beacon of hope, while others believe the Chinese are hopelessly lost as mediators for Ukraine. But it is precisely here that the EU must find a single voice, says French China observer Antoine Bondaz. Bondaz focuses on Asia and the People’s Republic for the French think tank Fondation pour la recherche stratégique (FRS). Macron and von der Leyen must show “sustained unity” in Beijing, Bondaz told Table.Media.
“Playing ‘good cop’ versus ‘bad cop’ in Beijing between Macron and von der Leyen would immediately weaken the European narrative,” Bondaz believes. In fact, Macron’s priority is to demonstrate European unity in Beijing.
France’s expectations of China as a mediator should nevertheless be “limited and realistic”, Bondaz demands. In order for Beijing not to provide military aid to Moscow, it would need warnings rather than concessions. However, France, as a nuclear weapons state, has the legitimacy to ask China for an official reaction to Russia’s intention to station nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Foreign policy plays a rather subordinate role in France – as is so often the case, but nevertheless particularly noticeable at the moment. The violent protests and strikes over the pension reform have pushed topics like the Ukraine war and also Macron’s trip to China rather to the fringes of discourse. A debate on the government’s approach towards Beijing, as is the case in Berlin in the Chancellery and ministries in light of the planned China strategy, does not exist in this form in Paris.
In her speech, von der Leyen called for “de-risking”, not decoupling, economic relations with China. To what extent Macron’s trip will bring economic benefits will probably emerge as the week progresses: Airbus is negotiating a new round of aircraft orders with China, Reuters reported on Monday, citing French government and industry sources.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury is also part of the business delegation. The closing of mega-contracts for Airbus and other companies has almost become a tradition. In 2019, Airbus received a 30-billion-euro order from the People’s Republic. The French government has “no intention” of disengaging from China, the Élysée said before the trip. However, the EU’s trade defense measures would be supported.
Given the hardening of Chinese policy, Europeans should be able to respond in a united way and enforce newly created economic policy instruments now, says French European politician Marie-Pierre Vedrenne. “Both Macron and Ursula von der Leyen have already made it clear that Europe is ready for dialogue and trade with China, but on an equal footing,” Vedrenne told Table.Media. “Our trade policy with China must respect Europe’s values and independence.” This would include the use of new and planned trade policy instruments.
The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) demanded that von der Leyen also address the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) during her visit. “Because after all Chinese sanctions against EU individuals and institutions have been lifted, the agreement could be taken out of the freezer,” Ulrich Ackermann, head of VDMA foreign trade, said.
In her speech, however, von der Leyen rejected the idea of resuming work on CAI in the near future. The framework conditions had changed significantly in the past years since the political agreement, said the EU Commission President.
Trumpf is one of the world’s largest suppliers of laser technology, machine tools and electronics. The company has its headquarters in Ditzingen near Stuttgart. Gang Yang is responsible for the fact that Trumpf has also made a home in China. To keep it that way, you have to pursue a smart strategy that also maneuvers you successfully through challenging times, explains the president of Trumpf Group China.
To achieve this, Yang commutes every day from Shanghai to the Taicang industrial park, about an hour away, where many German companies have set up shop. Trumpf’s Chinese headquarters is also located here. From there, Yang oversees 1,500 employees and six other sites. Trumpf produces and sells high-quality laser technology, filigree punching, welding and bending machines, as well as electronic products such as plasma generators in China. Annual sales are 600 million euros.
Yang emphasizes how proud Taicang is of the company’s German roots, especially when it comes to quality and know-how. “The Trumpf brand is highly regarded, so we definitely benefit from our German reputation,” he says. But Trumpf also needs to become more Chinese, he adds. That means becoming more flexible, more dynamic and faster, Yang says.
The decisive factor here is localization. Yang explains: Since 2009, Trumpf has been trying to increase the shares of production, innovation and suppliers in China. What was a response to market demands ten years ago is now an important hedge, he says, given the political tensions between China and the West. “We still want to be able to serve Chinese customers in the event of geopolitical tensions.”
Yang has been working for Trumpf since 2015. He initially served as Director of International Sales at the headquarters in Ditzingen and later as Strategy Director and President for Trumpf China. Speaking to China.Table, Yang recalls his first day at work in Ditzingen. He says every employee welcomed him with a smile. “That made a big impression on me. You had the feeling that you were part of the family from the very first second,” says Yang.
This bond with the company is also crucial to attracting bright minds to Taicang, he explains. “We want Trumpf to be perceived not only as an employer, but also as a family.” And for that, employees need to feel comfortable. That’s not easy to do in China, he says, where competitors often come to market with a 996-workweek (working from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week). This is because Trumpf must always be available for its customers, but at the same time must not overburden its own employees. According to Yang, this is why the 996 model does not exist at Trumpf.
Nevertheless, high stress has long been part of everyday life for the industrial engineer. When his family came to Berlin in the late 1980s, he did not speak a word of German. Yet he was enrolled in school just two months after his arrival. He quickly learned the language. Reflecting on his German Abitur, he says today, “I’m very proud to have never failed an exam.” Yang went on to earn his doctorate in logistics at TU Berlin.
Yang is cautiously optimistic about the future. China’s massive expansion of renewables and e-mobility is good for Trumpf, he says. Where it might hit a snag: China’s population is steadily declining, he says, and geopolitical tensions are hampering supply chains. “We are very positive about the chances of success,” Yang says. “But we’ll have to work hard to achieve success.” Jonathan Lehrer
On the banks of the River Qiantang in Hangzhou, a group of wheelchair athletes is counting down to this year’s Asian Para Games. Asia’s largest tournament for handicapped athletes is a parallel event to the Asian Games and will be held this year from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8. The sporting event has been held every four years since 2010. However, the one in Jakarta was held five years ago due to the pandemic.
Socialism actually promises full employment and freedom from exploitation. However, socialism with Chinese characteristics is increasingly struggling to achieve this. At least the young population has a hard time finding a job. And those who do have one are often bullied at work. As a consequence, many employees refuse to follow the classic career path, writes Gregor Koppenburg.
From the perspective of the state leadership, this brings several problems. On the one hand, the youth could vent their frustration on the CP. On the other hand, the willingness to slave away for growth dwindles. The promise of advancement fades, and with it, the motivation for the extraordinary effort that has driven development for decades.
At the very least, exchange with China is back on track. Everyone wants to talk to the leadership, including the Europeans. After Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron, who are traveling to Beijing this week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has now also announced her visit. They all hope that China can really do something for Ukraine. Anyone who has read China.Table’s analyses knows that the chances of this happening are slim. But von der Leyen and Macron at least want to try.
Amelie Richter highlights the contradiction between Macron’s and von der Leyen’s interests in her analysis. The latter is in favor of a reassessment of business interests. But the French President is arriving with a business delegation that is also hoping for big contracts with China. With this, Macron is not sending a signal for “de-risking”.
Incidentally, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will have her big moment on US territory at the same time and meet the Speaker of the House of Representatives. For China, this would actually rule out a protest in the form of live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait. A military drill would be a loss of face for the helpless EU representatives. If Tsai did not plan this deliberately, it is a fortunate coincidence for her.
The past years have left heavy scars on the Chinese job market. Covid measures, crackdowns on tech companies and in the education sector, but also financial woes in the real estate sector have led to many layoffs. The mood in the country of economic awakening has tilted, which puts pressure on politicians.
The problem is twofold. On the one hand, fewer young people are finding jobs. This in turn strengthens employers who immediately take advantage of the situation to exploit employees. This ultimately results in considerable dissatisfaction among those who do have a job. In a report by the job portal Zhaopin, more than 90 percent of respondents claim to be unhappy with their jobs.
The implications are far-reaching. People are becoming inactive and are turning away from the labor market. This goes so far “that they refuse to perform to the point of sabotage” Wu Tingying, a psychologist at Beijing’s Kaiyuan Hospital, told Table.Media.
Even after the end of the pandemic, unemployment remains high by Chinese standards. According to government statistics, the very young employees are most affected. Although the number is falling, unemployment among the group of 16 to 24-year-olds is still 18 percent. In the age groups above, it was only 4.8 percent.
This means that the problems on the job market mainly affect young people. Those with no or low qualifications suffer the most, but so do university graduates. Because during three Covid years, the universities have continued to teach diligently. Then there are the returnees from abroad. Some of them are coming back with degrees from prestigious universities in their pockets. This raises the bar for a successful application.
In many cases – particularly in the Chinese middle class – the large number of applicants and employees can cause or exacerbate the arrogant behavior of companies. The young Chinese call the disrespectful, choleric behavior of their bosses “PUA”.
The term is derived from “pick-up artists“, but its meaning has changed considerably. In China, it now stands for bosses who rule their companies like tyrants, discredit their employees’ abilities and blatantly exploit them. “Your self-esteem is attacked. You are given the feeling that you can’t do anything or that you can only get results with help,” says a young accountant.
For one thing, costs created by Covid are directly passed on to the employees. Thirteenth month salaries (年底奖金), traditionally handed out in red envelopes at Chinese New Year, are cut or canceled. They are commonly seen as an unofficial compensation for overtime or a reward for good performance. “You can’t really sue for this money because it is not legally required,” says a young architect who is thinking about changing jobs.
She also describes the working relationship with her boss as PUA: “If I show up at the office at 9:01 instead of 9:00 in the morning, I get my salary deducted. But if I stay two hours longer every evening or work on weekends, I don’t get any compensation or time off for that.” In her case, the boss even decided retroactively that employees would only receive about 2300 yuan (300 euros) for one month of full-time remote work.
Even with newly found jobs, the devil is in the detail. For example, it has long been common practice to hire young applicants as full-time interns, but not give them permanent employment. Similar tricks are used with probationary periods. Employees are hired during the high season with a three-month probationary period at a lower salary and only to be fired once the probationary period ends under a pretext to avoid paying the full wage.
These are conditions that existed before in small to medium-sized companies, but are now intensified by Covid aftershocks. For many, filing a lawsuit is not an option because they are afraid of completely poisoning their relationship with their employer. Most of them do not want to quit now either, because they are afraid they will not find a new job.
And so it is hardly a surprise that discontent among young workers has been rising steadily in recent years. Initially, the term “Tang Ping” (躺平 / “lying flat”) spread across social media. In a nutshell, it means that people are only doing the bare minimum to keep their heads above water financially. Career? No, thanks. It has become a common word to express exhaustion.
Then, as the Covid measures were tightened last year and the social and job situation continued to deteriorate, the trend of “bailan” (摆烂 / let it rot) became even more visible. Many consider this term to be a new escalation stage of the Tang Ping. Chinese state media, for example, have been ranting against these trends for years, calling its followers “lazy”.
As psychologist Wu Tingying sees it, the two tendencies are very different despite their similarities. “Tang ping is primarily concerned with the individual alone, while bailan aims to harm the group. It is something aggressive, selfish, destructive.”
However, both trends show that there is little hope for more and more young workers to survive in the workplace. “They are protective mechanisms against too much pressure,” says the psychologist. And to reduce this pressure, China would above all need one thing in the next few years: more jobs.
The message of the Chinese state media is now: The prospects for people seeking employment are rosy. In particular, offline job platforms with high numbers of successfully placed jobs are being hailed. The reality, however, is that most jobs are placed via online job exchanges like Zhaopin or Boss. And good jobs are scarce there.
There is no end to the travel from Europe: After the meeting with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the next Europeans, France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, are heading to Beijing this week.
And it continues after the Easter holidays: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit the Chinese capital as part of an Asia tour. Baerbock is expected to visit China, South Korea and attend the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Japan from 12 to 18 April, as circles confirmed to Table.Media. The German government’s China strategy is also expected to play a role in the talks during Baerbock’s visit. Further items on the agenda are not yet known.
Macron, von der Leyen and China’s head of state Xi Jinping plan to meet on Thursday. According to the Élysée, there will be a dinner with both Europeans the evening before. A bilateral meeting between von der Leyen and Xi is currently not on the official agenda.
Macron will also meet with Premier Li Qiang and the President of the National People’s Congress, Zhao Leji, on Thursday. He will then continue to Guangdong. France’s President will be accompanied by a business delegation of around 50 members.
Von der Leyen was a guest in Paris on Monday to discuss the joint trip. Over lunch, the “analyses on important points that we should raise with President Xi” were exchanged, von der Leyen posted on Twitter. Preparation was necessary, as the Head of the EU Commission and France’s President had not always shown the same direction on key issues on the China agenda recently.
After Sánchez already urged Xi last week to seek talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Macron now wants to try and win Beijing’s support for ending the war against Ukraine. Given the “close relations” between China and Russia, it is obvious that the People’s Republic is one of the few countries in the world, “if not the only country in the world”, that could be a “game changer” in the conflict, according to Élysée circles. Macron spoke to Zelenskiy on the phone on Saturday.
Von der Leyen, for her part, painted a sober picture of the expectation regarding an official intervention by Beijing in her China speech last week. The images of the meeting between Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin would have said more “than a thousand words”. Xi was sticking to the “borderless friendship” with Putin, von der Leyen emphasized.
Some see Beijing as a beacon of hope, while others believe the Chinese are hopelessly lost as mediators for Ukraine. But it is precisely here that the EU must find a single voice, says French China observer Antoine Bondaz. Bondaz focuses on Asia and the People’s Republic for the French think tank Fondation pour la recherche stratégique (FRS). Macron and von der Leyen must show “sustained unity” in Beijing, Bondaz told Table.Media.
“Playing ‘good cop’ versus ‘bad cop’ in Beijing between Macron and von der Leyen would immediately weaken the European narrative,” Bondaz believes. In fact, Macron’s priority is to demonstrate European unity in Beijing.
France’s expectations of China as a mediator should nevertheless be “limited and realistic”, Bondaz demands. In order for Beijing not to provide military aid to Moscow, it would need warnings rather than concessions. However, France, as a nuclear weapons state, has the legitimacy to ask China for an official reaction to Russia’s intention to station nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Foreign policy plays a rather subordinate role in France – as is so often the case, but nevertheless particularly noticeable at the moment. The violent protests and strikes over the pension reform have pushed topics like the Ukraine war and also Macron’s trip to China rather to the fringes of discourse. A debate on the government’s approach towards Beijing, as is the case in Berlin in the Chancellery and ministries in light of the planned China strategy, does not exist in this form in Paris.
In her speech, von der Leyen called for “de-risking”, not decoupling, economic relations with China. To what extent Macron’s trip will bring economic benefits will probably emerge as the week progresses: Airbus is negotiating a new round of aircraft orders with China, Reuters reported on Monday, citing French government and industry sources.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury is also part of the business delegation. The closing of mega-contracts for Airbus and other companies has almost become a tradition. In 2019, Airbus received a 30-billion-euro order from the People’s Republic. The French government has “no intention” of disengaging from China, the Élysée said before the trip. However, the EU’s trade defense measures would be supported.
Given the hardening of Chinese policy, Europeans should be able to respond in a united way and enforce newly created economic policy instruments now, says French European politician Marie-Pierre Vedrenne. “Both Macron and Ursula von der Leyen have already made it clear that Europe is ready for dialogue and trade with China, but on an equal footing,” Vedrenne told Table.Media. “Our trade policy with China must respect Europe’s values and independence.” This would include the use of new and planned trade policy instruments.
The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) demanded that von der Leyen also address the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) during her visit. “Because after all Chinese sanctions against EU individuals and institutions have been lifted, the agreement could be taken out of the freezer,” Ulrich Ackermann, head of VDMA foreign trade, said.
In her speech, however, von der Leyen rejected the idea of resuming work on CAI in the near future. The framework conditions had changed significantly in the past years since the political agreement, said the EU Commission President.
Trumpf is one of the world’s largest suppliers of laser technology, machine tools and electronics. The company has its headquarters in Ditzingen near Stuttgart. Gang Yang is responsible for the fact that Trumpf has also made a home in China. To keep it that way, you have to pursue a smart strategy that also maneuvers you successfully through challenging times, explains the president of Trumpf Group China.
To achieve this, Yang commutes every day from Shanghai to the Taicang industrial park, about an hour away, where many German companies have set up shop. Trumpf’s Chinese headquarters is also located here. From there, Yang oversees 1,500 employees and six other sites. Trumpf produces and sells high-quality laser technology, filigree punching, welding and bending machines, as well as electronic products such as plasma generators in China. Annual sales are 600 million euros.
Yang emphasizes how proud Taicang is of the company’s German roots, especially when it comes to quality and know-how. “The Trumpf brand is highly regarded, so we definitely benefit from our German reputation,” he says. But Trumpf also needs to become more Chinese, he adds. That means becoming more flexible, more dynamic and faster, Yang says.
The decisive factor here is localization. Yang explains: Since 2009, Trumpf has been trying to increase the shares of production, innovation and suppliers in China. What was a response to market demands ten years ago is now an important hedge, he says, given the political tensions between China and the West. “We still want to be able to serve Chinese customers in the event of geopolitical tensions.”
Yang has been working for Trumpf since 2015. He initially served as Director of International Sales at the headquarters in Ditzingen and later as Strategy Director and President for Trumpf China. Speaking to China.Table, Yang recalls his first day at work in Ditzingen. He says every employee welcomed him with a smile. “That made a big impression on me. You had the feeling that you were part of the family from the very first second,” says Yang.
This bond with the company is also crucial to attracting bright minds to Taicang, he explains. “We want Trumpf to be perceived not only as an employer, but also as a family.” And for that, employees need to feel comfortable. That’s not easy to do in China, he says, where competitors often come to market with a 996-workweek (working from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week). This is because Trumpf must always be available for its customers, but at the same time must not overburden its own employees. According to Yang, this is why the 996 model does not exist at Trumpf.
Nevertheless, high stress has long been part of everyday life for the industrial engineer. When his family came to Berlin in the late 1980s, he did not speak a word of German. Yet he was enrolled in school just two months after his arrival. He quickly learned the language. Reflecting on his German Abitur, he says today, “I’m very proud to have never failed an exam.” Yang went on to earn his doctorate in logistics at TU Berlin.
Yang is cautiously optimistic about the future. China’s massive expansion of renewables and e-mobility is good for Trumpf, he says. Where it might hit a snag: China’s population is steadily declining, he says, and geopolitical tensions are hampering supply chains. “We are very positive about the chances of success,” Yang says. “But we’ll have to work hard to achieve success.” Jonathan Lehrer
On the banks of the River Qiantang in Hangzhou, a group of wheelchair athletes is counting down to this year’s Asian Para Games. Asia’s largest tournament for handicapped athletes is a parallel event to the Asian Games and will be held this year from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8. The sporting event has been held every four years since 2010. However, the one in Jakarta was held five years ago due to the pandemic.
