A terrible scenario: The police arrest your spouse and locks them up in prison without any contact with the outside world – all because they are a lawyer who handled politically sensitive cases. This is what happened to our interviewee Luo Shengchun. She was in the US when her husband Ding Jiaxi fell into the clutches of China’s arbitrary justice system for the second time three years ago. She is now campaigning not only for his release, but also for a different approach to dictatorships in general.
China’s economic policy is again flipping several switches to rev up the growth engine. The badly battered real estate sector is receiving fresh loans and even explicit support. This is a complete change of direction: Two and a half years ago, the government was still drained the sector dry to make credit risks manageable again. But the weak economy leaves no choice: Nothing stimulates China’s growth as much as booming house development.
Your husband, human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, was arrested and detained in China in December 2019. He is accused of “undermining the authority of the state.” Do you know his current whereabouts and under what conditions he is being held?
Jiaxi is in Lin Shu Prison in Shandong Province. He lives in a small cell with about 18 people. The prison conditions are terrible, there is no basic hygiene, no hot water, no books or newspapers. The food is poor and of little nutritional value. Prisoners are only allowed in the yard for half an hour a day. There are also no pens or paper to write anything down.
Do you have the possibility to get in touch with him, for example through a lawyer?
I have not been able to talk with him since Dec 26, 2019. I can only ask his lawyer to read him my letters. The meetings between the two are not in person but through a video link at the detention center. After Jiaxi’s arrest, the lawyer was initially not allowed to see him for 13 months. Then, last year, talks were possible only every three to six months because of the Covid restrictions.
When was the last time you saw each other?
The last time we met was on January 10 – the first time since September 15. The news I received was: Jiaxi is optimistic and keeps himself fit with daily exercises despite the bad detention conditions. He asked for news from outside. He sent greetings to me, his mother, our daughters, and all his friends. He wished us a happy and healthy new year. I don’t know when the lawyer will have a chance to talk to him next.
When Xi Jinping took office, the persecution of human rights activists also intensified. Why is the government under him so afraid of lawyers like Ding Jiaxi and organizations like the New Citizens Movement, which want to strengthen civil rights and demand more transparency from government officials?
Because they are afraid of losing the power to control the people. Xi is a dictator and wants to remain the dictator forever. The human rights lawyers, on the other hand, demand freedom and democracy and work to give people the right to vote, to openly express their opinions, and to denounce inhumane and unjust things in China.
Ding was already in prison for three and a half years between 2013 and 2016. How have the prison conditions changed since then?
During his first time in prison, he was not tortured. This time he was tortured during the first six months. The prison conditions were not good even back then, but better than this time. He was allowed to read and write. The food was also better. Also, the lawyer was able to talk to him directly and send me recordings of the conversations. I was still able to see all the notices and legal documents for his first time in prison at that time. This time, the lawyer is no longer allowed to make recordings or take photos. And to this day, he is not allowed to hand over any documents to me. I have only received a notice of his arrest.
You moved to the US during his first prison sentence. After his release, Jiaxi followed you. Did you try to stop him when he planned to return to China for his work?
I was against him returning because I knew he would be arrested again. He promised he would only take low-key, peaceful actions and keep a low profile. He wanted to visit us regularly, but border protection stopped him from returning to the US the first time. So missed the graduation ceremonies of our two daughters.
Could you still understand his idealism back then?
There was actually a time when I could no longer fully support his idealism. I asked him to give up. Until they locked him away and tortured him for no reason and without notice. This kind of totalitarianism, this kind of making people disappear under force, cannot be tolerated. All of a sudden, I realized why my husband was so convinced that he had to fight these things peacefully ‘on the ground.’ I then decided to publicly stand up for him and other human rights lawyers who had been locked away, and became an activist myself, fighting against the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party.
Before he became politically active, Jiang Daxi was a successful business lawyer. What politicized him?
Jiaxi lost faith in the Chinese legal system when he saw how many people were deprived of basic rights despite the Chinese constitution, which in itself was beautifully worded. Be it the way they live, where they go to school, or what they are allowed to own. He decided to fight for the things that were written in the law. In the beginning, it was no political activism. He simply wanted to give the people of China more social justice.
What changed?
As time went by, he realized that he had to become politically active, even if he didn’t want to. He asked me to take our daughters abroad to keep them out of danger. I supported him because I knew he was doing good things for China. But I also suffered a lot because we had to part ways, but I had no choice. I love him but I also love freedom, and social justice. I knew we had to make sacrifices for his idealism. In my deepest heart, I am also an idealist. But I have never been as convinced in my actions as he is.
Did he learn about the ‘white paper protests’ while in prison?
The lawyer told him about it, along with other things that have been going on in the world. He did not directly comment on it. He knows that all video meetings are recorded. I guess he needs time to think about it.
You both suffer from health problems. Do you sometimes wish he would stop his activism?
I wish that there is still time for us to live together. I also think that there is nothing he can do in China except sit in prison as a martyr for a long time. He thinks that he will not be released any sooner, no matter what things he would agree to. He knows that he was imprisoned not only for what he did but more importantly for what he believes.
What would be the best scenario for you right now?
The best scenario for me is that the CCP collapses for whatever reason: Internal fighting or popular protests so that hopefully all political prisoners like my husband are released.
Are governments in Europe and the US exerting enough pressure to improve the situation of human rights activists like Ding Jiaxi in China?
No, I don’t think so. They can definitely do more to oppose dictators like Xi and Putin.
Luo Shengchun is a Chinese engineer specializing in materials science. Since the imprisonment of her husband, she has been committed to freedom and democracy. She lives in the USA.
The Chinese lawyer Ding Jiaxi was among the activists of the New Citizens Movement (中国新公民运动), which campaigned against corruption and for democratic change. Ding was arrested for the second time in December 2019.
China’s leadership fights the downward trend in the economy: Following the end of zero-Covid, Beijing also loosened its grip on the real estate market. That the leadership is serious about the change of direction was recently underlined at the World Economic Forum in Davos by Vice Premier Liu He, who will very likely not run for office again. “Many property developers suffered from liquidity shortages and deteriorating balance sheets,” Liu said, describing the gloomy situation. Therefore, “prompt steps must be taken” to solve the problems.
Liu’s speech in Davos was another sign that the real estate industry regulations introduced in the summer of 2020 suddenly no longer play a central role. Instead, there is fresh money. The state news agency Xinhua reported a 21-point plan to support the property sector.
The government wants
Recently, a softening of the boundaries has been observed.
Chinese growth is heavily dependent on the construction industry. In times of high investment in new projects, the labor market is stable; as a result of knock-on effects, other sectors are also booming. Conversely, the tightening of new credit had led to a wave of bankruptcies in an industry that had become too accustomed to steady growth. Most recently, Covid also weighed on the economy; Beijing failed to meet its planned growth targets.
The government, in turn, originally wanted to use the “three red lines” to ensure more integrity in the real estate sector and to mitigate risks. The corporations were supposed to get their books in order, ending the years of debt excess to prevent emerging systemic risks. These lines set
In principle, the idea was sound, say economists. The only problem was that the bar was apparently set too high. The real estate giant Evergrande was the most prominent victim of the three red lines. The fact that the real estate giant could no longer service some of its debts triggered waves in large parts of the sector. Home builders and investors no longer trusted real estate companies.
Demand for new apartments slumped. Prices on the housing market also fell sharply. And all this came amid strict Covid restrictions, which were a heavy burden on the Chinese economy, to begin with. “Using such harsh policies toward the sector was a total mistake,” Yao Yang, an economics professor at Peking University, summed up the government’s failure in a recent interview. “We had companies whose business was more or less healthy, but because of the ‘three red lines’, their business became a problem.”
In the meantime, Beijing seems to have realized that it is better to reform this key sector with gentler methods. Already at the beginning of January, Chinese Housing Minister Ni Hong promised increased efforts for a “healthy approach”. For example, the real estate sector needs to take a “high-quality development path” by 2023. Beijing’s turnaround recently triggered a strong rally in Chinese real estate stocks. Since early November, when the first measures were leaked, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng property index has gained almost 50 percent, recovering significantly from its lows.
However, according to analysts, it is also clear that a sustainable recovery will not come overnight. Further bankruptcies can be expected this year. But other groups should be able to stabilize their business as a result of the new measures. “If a patient who has been in the hospital for 18 months suddenly gets the right medicine, it still takes time for them to recover,” Neeraj Seth from the US investment company Blackrock assessed the situation to Bloomberg: “The property sector has been suffering for 18 months, it’s not going to change course in one month.” Jörn Petring
It was one of the biggest news stories on Jan. 12: The Swedish state-owned company LKAB stumbled upon more than one million tons of rare earths while searching for iron ore, more than four times the current annual global production.
Rare earths, these are 17 elements that are used in the production of permanent magnets for wind turbines, electric motors, fuel cells or light sources – in other words, for technologies that are indispensable in the climate transition. The elements are called neodymium, praseodymium, lanthanum or yttrium. Never before have they been found in such large quantities in Europe. The media attention was correspondingly great.
Up to now, Europe has obtained rare earths, which it urgently needs for a climate-friendly transformation, primarily from China. The dependence on the Asian country is great, although the rare earths – contrary to their name – are not so rare. For example, they are also found in Storkwitz in Saxony. But they are not extracted there because that would not be economically viable.
But unfortunately, the Swedish find is not a game changer that could help Europe reduce its dependence on China in this area, which is so vital for a more climate-friendly economy.
In the 2010s, 95 percent of the global production of rare earths was already mined in China. Their high technological value made them a potential bargaining chip even at that time. To this day, our supply of rare earths is dependent on China: Of the 280,000 metric tons of rare earths mined worldwide in 2021, 70 percent entered the market via China – either because they were mined in the country itself, or because China bought them before they were further used domestically or re-exported.
We need new procurement sources. But the Swedish discovery will only help us to a limited extent: The concentration of rare earths in the ore-bearing rock at the site is only 0.2 percent, as Jens Gutzmer says, head of the Helmholtz Institute for Resource Technology in Freiberg and one of the leading scientists in the field: Much lower than, for example, in the Mountain Pass mines (USA) with 3.8 percent or Bayan Obo (China), with three to five percent ore concentration. This means that a lot of rock has to be moved in the new deposits in order to extract relatively little rare earth. It makes mining expensive and the ecological damage high.
Even if the extraction of rare earths in Sweden were to reach a certain share of global production in the next 10 to 20 years, the question of their processing remains unresolved. Here, too, China currently holds a market share of 85 percent, according to the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources. And Chinese reserves of rare earths are estimated at up to 44 million tons.
So our dependence on China will remain – unless we learn to better utilize valuable raw materials such as rare earths. We would have the means to do so. Rare earths can be recycled, but although they are so important for future technologies, the circular economy for rare earths has so far only been poorly established in Europe. Time and again, the importance of rare earths for wind turbines or electric motors was pointed out, and thus for a successful energy transition.
And yet they are being wasted. This is very harmful to the climate, because mining and further processing of metals contribute between 10 and 15 percent to global carbon emissions.
Currently, the share of recycled material in the total use of rare earths in Germany is well below 10 percent. This means that more than 90 percent have to be obtained through mining. There are approaches such as substitution – there are actually wind turbines without rare earths – or expanding recycling, which receives too little attention.
The Critical Raw Materials Act announced by the EU Commission for March will have to set the right framework conditions here:
Fundamentally, the share of mining in metal use must be reduced – and with it the environmental destruction and human rights violations that so often accompany mining. Germany and Europe need a genuine raw materials transition that places the protection of people and the environment at the center of policy.
Under the current circumstances, the newly discovered Swedish deposits will be quickly used up – if they can be mined at all. Because one thing was completely lost in the media euphoria: The Sami, on whose land the rare earths were found, have not yet approved the extraction.
Michael Reckordt is Program Manager Raw Materials and Resource Justice at PowerShift – Verein für eine ökologisch-solidarische Energie-& Weltwirtschaft e.V. in Berlin.
Are you a passionate driver? You better not say that too loud, at least not in Chinese. Because while the dictionary only gives the innocuous translation “drive a car” when you type in the character combination 开车 kāichē (“steer – car”), another translation is already riding shotgun. In Chinese, driving a motor vehicle has recently become a synonym for “dropping lewd remarks” or “making suggestive innuendos”. But what do raunchy words have to do with fast cars? Stop. Before your mind drives off elsewhere, I better step on the brakes right now and tell you how the semantic story really came to be.
In recent years, a whole range of new meanings have developed around motorized transport in China’s Internet community, and they have long since found their way into everyday speech. It all started with the buzzword 老司机 lǎosījī “experienced chauffeur / experienced driver,” a synonym for someone who knows all the nooks and crannies of his profession like the back of his hand and offers others a “ride” through unfamiliar terrain. Thanks to “knowing the route” and with the help of the “lǎosījī,” others can reach their destination more easily.
Originally, “lǎosījī” was mainly used in forums and chats to refer to skilled surfers who had download links to all kinds of resources (资源 zīyuán), for example, video games, videos, music, and e-books. If these “chauffeurs” shared their sources with other users, it was called “driving the car” (开车 kāichē). And if the link got deleted, the Internet word was 翻车 fānchē – the “car rolled over”.
Then, with faster Internet and increasing data volume, livestreaming (直播 zhíbō) took on real hype as a marketing model in China. In its wake, a new group of “professional drivers” entered the scene: livestream presenters. These “chauffeurs” – strictly speaking mostly “female chauffeurs”. Instead of download links, some female “lǎosījī” not only try to gain viewers with bargains and good deals, but also charm potential buyers with their enticing looks. Skimpily dressed, they were not afraid to use double entendres and innuendos during their live streams to help boost sales. Semantic side effect: The word 开车 kāichē was now also considered a colorful euphemism for sexual innuendo of all kinds and entered the everyday language as a neologism.
A safety tip for all speed freaks: Of course, when speeding down China’s public channels, you cannot drive completely off the pornographic rails. Otherwise, the moral watchdogs will quickly catch up with you. At most, you are allowed to verbally scrape the guardrail or – as they say metaphorically in table-tennis-loving China instead – “play an edge ball” (擦边球 cābiānqiú).
As someone who learns languages, is some sweat beading on your brow in the face of potentially embarrassing misunderstandings? What if you really only want to talk about your passion for driving and fast cars in your next Chinese lesson? Well, there is some partial reassurance. Depending on the context, you will be understood correctly.
The only exception: If you declare that you drive a yellow car. Because yellow (黄 huáng) is not only the color of palace roofs in China, but also of pornography. It serves as a synonym for everything pornographic. Thus, adult flicks are often referred to as “yellow movies” (黄片 huángpiān) in Chinese. So if someone is said to enjoy driving a yellow car (开黄车 kāi huángchē), the situation is crystal clear – what is actually meant is (most likely!) a tendency to make suggestive remarks and not a preference for squeaky yellow Ferraris.
Verena Menzel runs the online language school New Chinese in Beijing.
A terrible scenario: The police arrest your spouse and locks them up in prison without any contact with the outside world – all because they are a lawyer who handled politically sensitive cases. This is what happened to our interviewee Luo Shengchun. She was in the US when her husband Ding Jiaxi fell into the clutches of China’s arbitrary justice system for the second time three years ago. She is now campaigning not only for his release, but also for a different approach to dictatorships in general.
China’s economic policy is again flipping several switches to rev up the growth engine. The badly battered real estate sector is receiving fresh loans and even explicit support. This is a complete change of direction: Two and a half years ago, the government was still drained the sector dry to make credit risks manageable again. But the weak economy leaves no choice: Nothing stimulates China’s growth as much as booming house development.
Your husband, human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, was arrested and detained in China in December 2019. He is accused of “undermining the authority of the state.” Do you know his current whereabouts and under what conditions he is being held?
Jiaxi is in Lin Shu Prison in Shandong Province. He lives in a small cell with about 18 people. The prison conditions are terrible, there is no basic hygiene, no hot water, no books or newspapers. The food is poor and of little nutritional value. Prisoners are only allowed in the yard for half an hour a day. There are also no pens or paper to write anything down.
Do you have the possibility to get in touch with him, for example through a lawyer?
I have not been able to talk with him since Dec 26, 2019. I can only ask his lawyer to read him my letters. The meetings between the two are not in person but through a video link at the detention center. After Jiaxi’s arrest, the lawyer was initially not allowed to see him for 13 months. Then, last year, talks were possible only every three to six months because of the Covid restrictions.
When was the last time you saw each other?
The last time we met was on January 10 – the first time since September 15. The news I received was: Jiaxi is optimistic and keeps himself fit with daily exercises despite the bad detention conditions. He asked for news from outside. He sent greetings to me, his mother, our daughters, and all his friends. He wished us a happy and healthy new year. I don’t know when the lawyer will have a chance to talk to him next.
When Xi Jinping took office, the persecution of human rights activists also intensified. Why is the government under him so afraid of lawyers like Ding Jiaxi and organizations like the New Citizens Movement, which want to strengthen civil rights and demand more transparency from government officials?
Because they are afraid of losing the power to control the people. Xi is a dictator and wants to remain the dictator forever. The human rights lawyers, on the other hand, demand freedom and democracy and work to give people the right to vote, to openly express their opinions, and to denounce inhumane and unjust things in China.
Ding was already in prison for three and a half years between 2013 and 2016. How have the prison conditions changed since then?
During his first time in prison, he was not tortured. This time he was tortured during the first six months. The prison conditions were not good even back then, but better than this time. He was allowed to read and write. The food was also better. Also, the lawyer was able to talk to him directly and send me recordings of the conversations. I was still able to see all the notices and legal documents for his first time in prison at that time. This time, the lawyer is no longer allowed to make recordings or take photos. And to this day, he is not allowed to hand over any documents to me. I have only received a notice of his arrest.
You moved to the US during his first prison sentence. After his release, Jiaxi followed you. Did you try to stop him when he planned to return to China for his work?
I was against him returning because I knew he would be arrested again. He promised he would only take low-key, peaceful actions and keep a low profile. He wanted to visit us regularly, but border protection stopped him from returning to the US the first time. So missed the graduation ceremonies of our two daughters.
Could you still understand his idealism back then?
There was actually a time when I could no longer fully support his idealism. I asked him to give up. Until they locked him away and tortured him for no reason and without notice. This kind of totalitarianism, this kind of making people disappear under force, cannot be tolerated. All of a sudden, I realized why my husband was so convinced that he had to fight these things peacefully ‘on the ground.’ I then decided to publicly stand up for him and other human rights lawyers who had been locked away, and became an activist myself, fighting against the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party.
Before he became politically active, Jiang Daxi was a successful business lawyer. What politicized him?
Jiaxi lost faith in the Chinese legal system when he saw how many people were deprived of basic rights despite the Chinese constitution, which in itself was beautifully worded. Be it the way they live, where they go to school, or what they are allowed to own. He decided to fight for the things that were written in the law. In the beginning, it was no political activism. He simply wanted to give the people of China more social justice.
What changed?
As time went by, he realized that he had to become politically active, even if he didn’t want to. He asked me to take our daughters abroad to keep them out of danger. I supported him because I knew he was doing good things for China. But I also suffered a lot because we had to part ways, but I had no choice. I love him but I also love freedom, and social justice. I knew we had to make sacrifices for his idealism. In my deepest heart, I am also an idealist. But I have never been as convinced in my actions as he is.
Did he learn about the ‘white paper protests’ while in prison?
The lawyer told him about it, along with other things that have been going on in the world. He did not directly comment on it. He knows that all video meetings are recorded. I guess he needs time to think about it.
You both suffer from health problems. Do you sometimes wish he would stop his activism?
I wish that there is still time for us to live together. I also think that there is nothing he can do in China except sit in prison as a martyr for a long time. He thinks that he will not be released any sooner, no matter what things he would agree to. He knows that he was imprisoned not only for what he did but more importantly for what he believes.
What would be the best scenario for you right now?
The best scenario for me is that the CCP collapses for whatever reason: Internal fighting or popular protests so that hopefully all political prisoners like my husband are released.
Are governments in Europe and the US exerting enough pressure to improve the situation of human rights activists like Ding Jiaxi in China?
No, I don’t think so. They can definitely do more to oppose dictators like Xi and Putin.
Luo Shengchun is a Chinese engineer specializing in materials science. Since the imprisonment of her husband, she has been committed to freedom and democracy. She lives in the USA.
The Chinese lawyer Ding Jiaxi was among the activists of the New Citizens Movement (中国新公民运动), which campaigned against corruption and for democratic change. Ding was arrested for the second time in December 2019.
China’s leadership fights the downward trend in the economy: Following the end of zero-Covid, Beijing also loosened its grip on the real estate market. That the leadership is serious about the change of direction was recently underlined at the World Economic Forum in Davos by Vice Premier Liu He, who will very likely not run for office again. “Many property developers suffered from liquidity shortages and deteriorating balance sheets,” Liu said, describing the gloomy situation. Therefore, “prompt steps must be taken” to solve the problems.
Liu’s speech in Davos was another sign that the real estate industry regulations introduced in the summer of 2020 suddenly no longer play a central role. Instead, there is fresh money. The state news agency Xinhua reported a 21-point plan to support the property sector.
The government wants
Recently, a softening of the boundaries has been observed.
Chinese growth is heavily dependent on the construction industry. In times of high investment in new projects, the labor market is stable; as a result of knock-on effects, other sectors are also booming. Conversely, the tightening of new credit had led to a wave of bankruptcies in an industry that had become too accustomed to steady growth. Most recently, Covid also weighed on the economy; Beijing failed to meet its planned growth targets.
The government, in turn, originally wanted to use the “three red lines” to ensure more integrity in the real estate sector and to mitigate risks. The corporations were supposed to get their books in order, ending the years of debt excess to prevent emerging systemic risks. These lines set
In principle, the idea was sound, say economists. The only problem was that the bar was apparently set too high. The real estate giant Evergrande was the most prominent victim of the three red lines. The fact that the real estate giant could no longer service some of its debts triggered waves in large parts of the sector. Home builders and investors no longer trusted real estate companies.
Demand for new apartments slumped. Prices on the housing market also fell sharply. And all this came amid strict Covid restrictions, which were a heavy burden on the Chinese economy, to begin with. “Using such harsh policies toward the sector was a total mistake,” Yao Yang, an economics professor at Peking University, summed up the government’s failure in a recent interview. “We had companies whose business was more or less healthy, but because of the ‘three red lines’, their business became a problem.”
In the meantime, Beijing seems to have realized that it is better to reform this key sector with gentler methods. Already at the beginning of January, Chinese Housing Minister Ni Hong promised increased efforts for a “healthy approach”. For example, the real estate sector needs to take a “high-quality development path” by 2023. Beijing’s turnaround recently triggered a strong rally in Chinese real estate stocks. Since early November, when the first measures were leaked, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng property index has gained almost 50 percent, recovering significantly from its lows.
However, according to analysts, it is also clear that a sustainable recovery will not come overnight. Further bankruptcies can be expected this year. But other groups should be able to stabilize their business as a result of the new measures. “If a patient who has been in the hospital for 18 months suddenly gets the right medicine, it still takes time for them to recover,” Neeraj Seth from the US investment company Blackrock assessed the situation to Bloomberg: “The property sector has been suffering for 18 months, it’s not going to change course in one month.” Jörn Petring
It was one of the biggest news stories on Jan. 12: The Swedish state-owned company LKAB stumbled upon more than one million tons of rare earths while searching for iron ore, more than four times the current annual global production.
Rare earths, these are 17 elements that are used in the production of permanent magnets for wind turbines, electric motors, fuel cells or light sources – in other words, for technologies that are indispensable in the climate transition. The elements are called neodymium, praseodymium, lanthanum or yttrium. Never before have they been found in such large quantities in Europe. The media attention was correspondingly great.
Up to now, Europe has obtained rare earths, which it urgently needs for a climate-friendly transformation, primarily from China. The dependence on the Asian country is great, although the rare earths – contrary to their name – are not so rare. For example, they are also found in Storkwitz in Saxony. But they are not extracted there because that would not be economically viable.
But unfortunately, the Swedish find is not a game changer that could help Europe reduce its dependence on China in this area, which is so vital for a more climate-friendly economy.
In the 2010s, 95 percent of the global production of rare earths was already mined in China. Their high technological value made them a potential bargaining chip even at that time. To this day, our supply of rare earths is dependent on China: Of the 280,000 metric tons of rare earths mined worldwide in 2021, 70 percent entered the market via China – either because they were mined in the country itself, or because China bought them before they were further used domestically or re-exported.
We need new procurement sources. But the Swedish discovery will only help us to a limited extent: The concentration of rare earths in the ore-bearing rock at the site is only 0.2 percent, as Jens Gutzmer says, head of the Helmholtz Institute for Resource Technology in Freiberg and one of the leading scientists in the field: Much lower than, for example, in the Mountain Pass mines (USA) with 3.8 percent or Bayan Obo (China), with three to five percent ore concentration. This means that a lot of rock has to be moved in the new deposits in order to extract relatively little rare earth. It makes mining expensive and the ecological damage high.
Even if the extraction of rare earths in Sweden were to reach a certain share of global production in the next 10 to 20 years, the question of their processing remains unresolved. Here, too, China currently holds a market share of 85 percent, according to the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources. And Chinese reserves of rare earths are estimated at up to 44 million tons.
So our dependence on China will remain – unless we learn to better utilize valuable raw materials such as rare earths. We would have the means to do so. Rare earths can be recycled, but although they are so important for future technologies, the circular economy for rare earths has so far only been poorly established in Europe. Time and again, the importance of rare earths for wind turbines or electric motors was pointed out, and thus for a successful energy transition.
And yet they are being wasted. This is very harmful to the climate, because mining and further processing of metals contribute between 10 and 15 percent to global carbon emissions.
Currently, the share of recycled material in the total use of rare earths in Germany is well below 10 percent. This means that more than 90 percent have to be obtained through mining. There are approaches such as substitution – there are actually wind turbines without rare earths – or expanding recycling, which receives too little attention.
The Critical Raw Materials Act announced by the EU Commission for March will have to set the right framework conditions here:
Fundamentally, the share of mining in metal use must be reduced – and with it the environmental destruction and human rights violations that so often accompany mining. Germany and Europe need a genuine raw materials transition that places the protection of people and the environment at the center of policy.
Under the current circumstances, the newly discovered Swedish deposits will be quickly used up – if they can be mined at all. Because one thing was completely lost in the media euphoria: The Sami, on whose land the rare earths were found, have not yet approved the extraction.
Michael Reckordt is Program Manager Raw Materials and Resource Justice at PowerShift – Verein für eine ökologisch-solidarische Energie-& Weltwirtschaft e.V. in Berlin.
Are you a passionate driver? You better not say that too loud, at least not in Chinese. Because while the dictionary only gives the innocuous translation “drive a car” when you type in the character combination 开车 kāichē (“steer – car”), another translation is already riding shotgun. In Chinese, driving a motor vehicle has recently become a synonym for “dropping lewd remarks” or “making suggestive innuendos”. But what do raunchy words have to do with fast cars? Stop. Before your mind drives off elsewhere, I better step on the brakes right now and tell you how the semantic story really came to be.
In recent years, a whole range of new meanings have developed around motorized transport in China’s Internet community, and they have long since found their way into everyday speech. It all started with the buzzword 老司机 lǎosījī “experienced chauffeur / experienced driver,” a synonym for someone who knows all the nooks and crannies of his profession like the back of his hand and offers others a “ride” through unfamiliar terrain. Thanks to “knowing the route” and with the help of the “lǎosījī,” others can reach their destination more easily.
Originally, “lǎosījī” was mainly used in forums and chats to refer to skilled surfers who had download links to all kinds of resources (资源 zīyuán), for example, video games, videos, music, and e-books. If these “chauffeurs” shared their sources with other users, it was called “driving the car” (开车 kāichē). And if the link got deleted, the Internet word was 翻车 fānchē – the “car rolled over”.
Then, with faster Internet and increasing data volume, livestreaming (直播 zhíbō) took on real hype as a marketing model in China. In its wake, a new group of “professional drivers” entered the scene: livestream presenters. These “chauffeurs” – strictly speaking mostly “female chauffeurs”. Instead of download links, some female “lǎosījī” not only try to gain viewers with bargains and good deals, but also charm potential buyers with their enticing looks. Skimpily dressed, they were not afraid to use double entendres and innuendos during their live streams to help boost sales. Semantic side effect: The word 开车 kāichē was now also considered a colorful euphemism for sexual innuendo of all kinds and entered the everyday language as a neologism.
A safety tip for all speed freaks: Of course, when speeding down China’s public channels, you cannot drive completely off the pornographic rails. Otherwise, the moral watchdogs will quickly catch up with you. At most, you are allowed to verbally scrape the guardrail or – as they say metaphorically in table-tennis-loving China instead – “play an edge ball” (擦边球 cābiānqiú).
As someone who learns languages, is some sweat beading on your brow in the face of potentially embarrassing misunderstandings? What if you really only want to talk about your passion for driving and fast cars in your next Chinese lesson? Well, there is some partial reassurance. Depending on the context, you will be understood correctly.
The only exception: If you declare that you drive a yellow car. Because yellow (黄 huáng) is not only the color of palace roofs in China, but also of pornography. It serves as a synonym for everything pornographic. Thus, adult flicks are often referred to as “yellow movies” (黄片 huángpiān) in Chinese. So if someone is said to enjoy driving a yellow car (开黄车 kāi huángchē), the situation is crystal clear – what is actually meant is (most likely!) a tendency to make suggestive remarks and not a preference for squeaky yellow Ferraris.
Verena Menzel runs the online language school New Chinese in Beijing.
