For the past couple of weeks, several companies in China have been operating in a so-called closed loop. This means that employees eat, sleep and live at their workplace – usually in or near factories. With European labor laws in mind, this seems unthinkable. But even in the People’s Republic, a six-day week with twelve-hour shifts, as Tesla aims for in its closed-loop system, is not actually legal, writes Nico Beckert. But there are exceptions. He took a closer look at the supposed sideline of China’s zero-covid policy and discovered a huge gray area.
The Chinese Covid strategy not only came under criticism from the World Health Organization this week – the positive external effects of China’s vaccine diplomacy on the country’s reputation are also visibly fading. Vaccine shipments from the People’s Republic have almost come to a standstill in 2022, Stefan Schmalz, a political economy expert, and economist Philipp Koencke reported at the Table.Live briefing. One reason for the mood change was that Beijing charged a lot for its shipments, while the vaccines did not have the desired effect.
Explosive news reached the world from Hong Kong on Wednesday evening: Cardinal Joseph Zen has been arrested. The well-known critic of the Chinese government and its religious policies is charged with conspiring with foreign forces. Zen was a thorn in the side of both the Vatican and the Communist Party, as Marcel Grzanna summarizes. The arrest, however, does not mean any improvement in relations between the Holy See and Beijing.
Many companies resort to a drastic measure to keep production going during the recent Covid lockdowns: Their employees stay overnight, eat, live in the factories or adjacent dormitories. From Bosch, Tesla and Foxconn to German mid-sized companies like Wirtgen and Chinese companies, many businesses isolate their workers in the factories. They are no longer allowed to leave the premises. This is to prevent infections.
Workers at Tesla’s Shanghai plant were provided with a sleeping bag and mattress, according to an internal company memo. There are no dormitories, however. People had to sleep on the factory floor. According to the memo, showers and an “entertainment area” were going to be set up, Bloomberg reports. What sounds like an involuntary summer camp on the factory floor, however, is devoid of recreation: Workers were to work twelve hours a day, six days a week, the company memo stated. Showers and the entertainment area were not finished when employees first learned of the closed-loop system.
In Germany, such conditions would be unthinkable under labor law. And in China, they also violate labor laws. “12 hours a day, six days a week is clearly against the law, because the labor law only allows 36 hours of overtime per month,” says Aidan Chau of China Labor Bulletin (CLB). But he says the Chinese government has exempted Tesla and other companies from the labor law. They are on a “whitelist” of companies that are allowed to continue production during the pandemic. “The government is strongly on the side of the companies. The well-being of workers is neglected,” Chau complains.
Workers at two Bosch plants in Taicang have also been isolated from the outside world. They sleep, live and work in isolation, cut off from the rest of society, the auto supplier told Reuters. In Shanghai, authorities have urged companies to set up such closed-loop systems. CLB’s Chau estimates that hundreds of companies operate in a closed-loop. Accordingly, tens of thousands of workers in China are temporarily sleeping in and around factories, isolated from the outside world. Other cities in lockdown also resort to this measure. Some companies in Changchun worked four weeks and longer in the closed-loop system, as Harald Kumpfert, EU Chamber Chairman for Northeast China said (China.Table reported).
In some cases, hygiene and health standards are infringed. Protests recently broke out at Apple supplier Quanta. More than a hundred workers overwhelmed security forces who were supposed to ensure the isolation of workers at the factory gates. Covid infections had previously occurred at the factory on several days. Infected workers were not separated from colleagues or given proper treatment for days. With up to twelve workers sleeping in the dormitories, further infections ensued. Quanta is one of the largest contract manufacturers for Apple and produces 75 percent of all Macbooks. The Taiwanese company also manufactures for Tesla. The closed-loop system was set up on April 18. Initially, there were 2,000 workers on the Quanta campus. The number was to be increased further later on.
Quanta is not alone. Tesla and GM supplier Aptiv also experienced Covid infections inside the closed loop. More than 1,000 workers were crammed into the factory of the cable harness manufacturer in Shanghai. But the measure proved unsuccessful: several workers still contracted the Coronavirus.
As shocking as the closed-loop system and the isolation of workers in factories may seem to Western observers, workers already lived very close to the factories, even before the pandemic, Chau says. “They live and eat in the canteen and dormitories provided by the companies. Only on weekends do workers have a day off and can leave.”
Shanghai and the central government have been urging companies to resume operations. Only a small number of German companies have complied, according to business representatives. They simply lack the necessary infrastructure. “Most German companies in China do not have sufficient facilities, such as dormitories, to provide factory workers with a safe and adequate environment to sleep and live in the factories, nor can they provide adequate medical care in case of accidents or emergencies,” says Maximilian Butek, CEO of the German Chamber of Commerce in China, Shanghai.
Many Western entrepreneurs complain about China’s zero-Covid policy and its negative impact (China.Table reported). But the consequences are often even more severe for the workers. Several million of them are temporarily unable to work. Construction sites often come to a standstill, service providers lay off staff. But employees depend on their monthly income. “I have three kids, in college, middle school and elementary school. The pressure is huge,” one worker affected by the lockdown told The New York Times.
China’s migrant workers have been hit particularly hard by the lockdowns. Although their wages have risen in recent years, the living costs in the cities are also increasing rapidly. China’s roughly 280 million migrant workers have hardly any labor rights. They are excluded from many social security benefits, such as unemployment insurance. Their savings sometimes last only a few days. During the week-long lockdowns, it was not uncommon for them to run out of money. China’s premier recently announced plans to aid migrant workers. However, it is unclear how much financial aid they will receive and under what conditions.
Only a portion of the unemployed migrant workers quickly find another job – and when they do, it is often in the dangerous field of “Covid control”. They carry out mass testing where millions of residents of numerous cities are tested for the virus. They also work in government quarantine facilities or enforce the lockdown of cities or neighborhoods on the streets.
This work is sometimes harmful to their health. “We were trained by other volunteers, but they are not health professionals nor familiar with the procedures,” one migrant worker told NPR. They are exposed to poor conditions in quarantine facilities and sometimes contract the coronavirus themselves while working. Some migrant workers interviewed by NPR had not received any treatment after becoming infected. At the end of lockdowns and their work assignments, they are forced to quarantine themselves for two to three weeks. This time is not paid, according to some reports.
China’s Premier Li recently warned against a continued rise in unemployment. “Stabilizing employment is important for people’s livelihood,” Li said. He urged companies to resume production. He did not comment on the Quanta incidents or the potential overwork of Tesla’s workers.
Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun had commented on the introduction of the National Security Law two years ago with a defiant statement on social media. “If right and proper words were considered against their law, I will endure all the suing, trials and arrests,” the now 90-year-old Roman Catholic Church dignitary said at the time.
Although the indictment and trial against Zen are still pending, the arrest has been a reality since Wednesday. According to the South China Morning Post, the cardinal was arrested and interrogated by security police, as were former opposition MP Margaret Ng and pro-democracy activist and artist Denise Ho. Reportedly, the trio has been charged with conspiracy with foreign forces.
It appears that Zen, Ng and Ho’s role in connection with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, for which they served as trustees, was their downfall. The fund collected more than $30 million between 2019 and 2021, including from overseas. The money went to, among others, protesters who had been arrested during the mass protests in the city in 2019 and did not have the financial means to defend themselves in court. Another trustee had already been arrested on Tuesday. The fifth one has been in custody for a while.
In the fall of last year, those responsible had announced the termination of the fund to avoid possible criminal prosecution under the Security Law. At that time, however, authorities had already launched an investigation into the fund as they considered the flow of foreign funds to be a conspiracy. At the time, Hong Kong exiles and parliamentarians complained about the systematic criminalization of the city’s civil society (China.Table reported).
The arrest of Cardinal Zen takes on a special dimension due to his rank in the Catholic Church. For years, the People’s Republic of China and the Vatican were at odds over who would be allowed to appoint the country’s bishops. Religion is generally a thorn in the side of the Communist Party, which reigns supreme in Marxist tradition. That is why China has had an official and an unofficial Catholic Church for decades. The official Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is controlled by the Party, while the unofficial church operates underground.
In 2018, the Vatican and the Party had finally agreed that the CP would be allowed to choose the bishops, and that the Pope would have the final say on their appointment. Cardinal Zen criticized the deal, saying, “Better no deal than a bad deal.” He lamented that the country’s believers were being sold out to the Communist Party. The Chinese government “says the last word belongs to the Holy Father. Sounds wonderful? But it’s fake,” Zen said. He was sharply criticized within the church for his controversial stance.
The Vatican issued a brief statement on Wednesday about the arrest. A spokesman said the matter was being followed “with concern”. Slovak MEP Miriam Lexmann, a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), reacted much more sharply: “I am shocked & disgusted by the arrest of the brave & peace-loving 90-year-old Cardinal Zen & trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. It’s time for EU leaders to act,” she demanded on Twitter.
The timing of the arrests was also striking. Just Sunday, the city’s former Security Chief, John Lee, had been elected as the upcoming Chief Executive. Lee was the favored candidate of Beijing’s central government. (China.Table reported.) Due to his decades of experience in the police service, he is seen as an ideal choice to nip political dissent in the city in the bud. The founder of the human rights organization Hong Kong Watch, Benedict Rogers, stated that “today’s arrests signal without a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.”
Meanwhile, National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell, expressed concern about steps being taken in Hong Kong to pressure and eliminate civil society, Reuters reported. Lee and other Hong Kong officials, as well as the CP, would have to “face consequences for their terror against the people,” commented EU parliamentarian Lexmann, without specifying any possible consequences.
The arrest of Bishop Emeritus Zen is likely to be met with great concern in Hong Kong’s Catholic community as well. More than 12 percent of the city’s citizens are Christian. Schools, universities and social institutions often have a Christian background. Only a few months ago, the new bishop Stephen Chow took up his post. After months of hesitation, only a personal letter from Pope Francis convinced him to accept the appointment (China.Table reported).
The Hong Kong-born cleric, who trained as a psychologist in the United States, has the difficult task of mediating “between the government and the Church in HK, and between the Catholic Church, fellow Christian denominations, and other religions,” he said in his inaugural speech in December.
Zen’s arrest shows that security forces and prosecutors are consistently applying the new security law. 175 pro-democracy activists have been arrested since its introduction, according to official data, and 110 have been charged so far. Other church supporters besides Cardinal Zen had also expected this development. For example, the International Christian Council (ICC) warned that the Chinese central government would interpret any form of protest as a terrorist act and calls for Hong Kong’s independence from the People’s Republic as a threat to the state.
While China has built up diplomatic capital through its vaccine exports over the past year, all of its shipments have come to a standstill in 2022. The country was initially able to distinguish itself as a responsible, progressive superpower thanks to its export efforts. But it still lacked the technical finesse of technology leaders from the EU and USA to achieve lasting success. That is the conclusion of a China.Table event with guests from the University of Erfurt. Stefan Schmalz, an expert in political economy, and economist Philipp Koencke spoke at the Table.Live briefing.
The first shipments of Chinese vaccines went to recipient countries early: in December 2020, the first batch arrived in Indonesia. Throughout 2021, China was able to present itself as a helpful partner to Silk Road countries and the global South. “This picture is now crumbling,” Koencke says. For one thing, the EU has massively caught up in vaccine deliveries: it has now exported 2.3 billion doses. That significantly exceeds China’s figure of 1.9 billion doses. This is not only due to availability, but also to the reputation of the vaccines. mRNA-based vaccines are now considered to be more effective. As a result, the stream of vaccines from China has now largely dried up (China.Table reported).
However, China’s “state-led vaccine internationalization” was quite successful below the bottom line. After all, nothing was available from the EU at the beginning – and that has stayed in the minds of less privileged countries. Many of them relied on the shipments from China and showed their gratitude accordingly. The Chinese approach thus helped somewhat to even out the global imbalance. “China was successful in its efforts to be perceived as a responsible superpower,” Koencke said.
However, the fact that this perception has now changed is not only a result of the effectiveness of Sinovac’s and Sinopharm’s products. The balance of power has shifted in favor of the West as a result of China’s actions, says Koencke. Many vaccine shipments from China were not donations but sales at market prices, meaning they were not cheap at all. The price was around the same as the products from Biontech and Moderna. In return, however, it was a substance that proved to be less effective against Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants.
In retrospect, the Erfurt-based expert duo believes it was detrimental that there was so much rivalry right from the start. “The vaccine worlds have become theaters of geopolitical conflicts over vaccine production and distribution,” says Koencke. Political scientist Schmalz ultimately sees hugely negative consequences for the global population’s health here: “If a pandemic lasts for several years and there is no cooperation between key players, then the results do not live up to what could be possible.”
At the time, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel had expressly insisted on the defense of Germany’s technological lead and the protection of patents. If Europe and China had openly pooled their vast resources, many more people could have been supplied with far more different substance classes. Instead, antagonism has deepened ever since. To this day, the EU and China have not mutually approved their vaccines. This not only causes problems for tourists and business travelers. It also significantly hinders the way out of the pandemic.
Research at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt on vaccine worlds and the role of China is conducted as part of the Collaborative Research Center “Structural Change of Property” of the German Research Foundation.
As one of the co-initiators of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Mark Leonard ranks among the top members of the transatlantic think-tank. The Englishman is in high demand as a political advisor and member of important international bodies – for example, Leonard served as Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Geoeconomics at the World Economic Forum. When asked about the biggest milestones in his career, it is not surprising that he mentions the founding of the European Council on Foreign Relations in 2007 under the patronage of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But that’s not all.
“The second major milestone was my book ‘What does China think?’ published in 2008,” Leonard says. His intention: “I wanted to breathe life into many of the great debates in China that I had observed in the previous decade.” For his book, he traveled to the People’s Republic several times and followed the debates there over several years. “These not only changed China, they also had the potential to affect the world outside, but the West simply wasn’t familiar with them,” Leonard explains.
Leonard criticizes this indifference: “Sadly, one result after the end of the Cold War was that many Western think tanks actually believed we were not only at the end of history, but also at the end of geography, and that everyone was more or less on the same intellectual journey toward liberal democracy and free-market economics.” Many European and US institutions had looked out at the world and focused primarily on the extent to which other countries were failing to live up to the ideals they had set for themselves. “So this curiosity that existed during the Cold War was lost to a certain extent,” Leonard says.
But Leonard has never lost this curiosity, which is why he also helped found the European Council on Foreign Relations. “I think curiosity is very important. One reason why we often have problems is that we believe other people think the same way we do.” That was evident most recently, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many people had misjudged the Russian president, Leonard says.
Leonard is a geopolitical all-rounder. Over the past six years, he has focused on globalization – always keeping the People’s Republic in mind. “One of the central themes of globalization revolves around the relationship between China and the United States,” Leonard says. He closely examines how this relationship, in his view, “is a structuring element of our world.” The juxtaposition of the People’s Republic and the United States, is extremely complicated – and far more complex than the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. That’s because China and the US are very deeply intertwined, Leonard said. The competition between Beijing and Washington could therefore be much more destabilizing for the world than the Cold War, Leonard analyzes. Constantin Eckner
Two workers repair a section of the Datong-Qinhuangdao railroad in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi. The line is a main artery of Chinese coal transport.
For the past couple of weeks, several companies in China have been operating in a so-called closed loop. This means that employees eat, sleep and live at their workplace – usually in or near factories. With European labor laws in mind, this seems unthinkable. But even in the People’s Republic, a six-day week with twelve-hour shifts, as Tesla aims for in its closed-loop system, is not actually legal, writes Nico Beckert. But there are exceptions. He took a closer look at the supposed sideline of China’s zero-covid policy and discovered a huge gray area.
The Chinese Covid strategy not only came under criticism from the World Health Organization this week – the positive external effects of China’s vaccine diplomacy on the country’s reputation are also visibly fading. Vaccine shipments from the People’s Republic have almost come to a standstill in 2022, Stefan Schmalz, a political economy expert, and economist Philipp Koencke reported at the Table.Live briefing. One reason for the mood change was that Beijing charged a lot for its shipments, while the vaccines did not have the desired effect.
Explosive news reached the world from Hong Kong on Wednesday evening: Cardinal Joseph Zen has been arrested. The well-known critic of the Chinese government and its religious policies is charged with conspiring with foreign forces. Zen was a thorn in the side of both the Vatican and the Communist Party, as Marcel Grzanna summarizes. The arrest, however, does not mean any improvement in relations between the Holy See and Beijing.
Many companies resort to a drastic measure to keep production going during the recent Covid lockdowns: Their employees stay overnight, eat, live in the factories or adjacent dormitories. From Bosch, Tesla and Foxconn to German mid-sized companies like Wirtgen and Chinese companies, many businesses isolate their workers in the factories. They are no longer allowed to leave the premises. This is to prevent infections.
Workers at Tesla’s Shanghai plant were provided with a sleeping bag and mattress, according to an internal company memo. There are no dormitories, however. People had to sleep on the factory floor. According to the memo, showers and an “entertainment area” were going to be set up, Bloomberg reports. What sounds like an involuntary summer camp on the factory floor, however, is devoid of recreation: Workers were to work twelve hours a day, six days a week, the company memo stated. Showers and the entertainment area were not finished when employees first learned of the closed-loop system.
In Germany, such conditions would be unthinkable under labor law. And in China, they also violate labor laws. “12 hours a day, six days a week is clearly against the law, because the labor law only allows 36 hours of overtime per month,” says Aidan Chau of China Labor Bulletin (CLB). But he says the Chinese government has exempted Tesla and other companies from the labor law. They are on a “whitelist” of companies that are allowed to continue production during the pandemic. “The government is strongly on the side of the companies. The well-being of workers is neglected,” Chau complains.
Workers at two Bosch plants in Taicang have also been isolated from the outside world. They sleep, live and work in isolation, cut off from the rest of society, the auto supplier told Reuters. In Shanghai, authorities have urged companies to set up such closed-loop systems. CLB’s Chau estimates that hundreds of companies operate in a closed-loop. Accordingly, tens of thousands of workers in China are temporarily sleeping in and around factories, isolated from the outside world. Other cities in lockdown also resort to this measure. Some companies in Changchun worked four weeks and longer in the closed-loop system, as Harald Kumpfert, EU Chamber Chairman for Northeast China said (China.Table reported).
In some cases, hygiene and health standards are infringed. Protests recently broke out at Apple supplier Quanta. More than a hundred workers overwhelmed security forces who were supposed to ensure the isolation of workers at the factory gates. Covid infections had previously occurred at the factory on several days. Infected workers were not separated from colleagues or given proper treatment for days. With up to twelve workers sleeping in the dormitories, further infections ensued. Quanta is one of the largest contract manufacturers for Apple and produces 75 percent of all Macbooks. The Taiwanese company also manufactures for Tesla. The closed-loop system was set up on April 18. Initially, there were 2,000 workers on the Quanta campus. The number was to be increased further later on.
Quanta is not alone. Tesla and GM supplier Aptiv also experienced Covid infections inside the closed loop. More than 1,000 workers were crammed into the factory of the cable harness manufacturer in Shanghai. But the measure proved unsuccessful: several workers still contracted the Coronavirus.
As shocking as the closed-loop system and the isolation of workers in factories may seem to Western observers, workers already lived very close to the factories, even before the pandemic, Chau says. “They live and eat in the canteen and dormitories provided by the companies. Only on weekends do workers have a day off and can leave.”
Shanghai and the central government have been urging companies to resume operations. Only a small number of German companies have complied, according to business representatives. They simply lack the necessary infrastructure. “Most German companies in China do not have sufficient facilities, such as dormitories, to provide factory workers with a safe and adequate environment to sleep and live in the factories, nor can they provide adequate medical care in case of accidents or emergencies,” says Maximilian Butek, CEO of the German Chamber of Commerce in China, Shanghai.
Many Western entrepreneurs complain about China’s zero-Covid policy and its negative impact (China.Table reported). But the consequences are often even more severe for the workers. Several million of them are temporarily unable to work. Construction sites often come to a standstill, service providers lay off staff. But employees depend on their monthly income. “I have three kids, in college, middle school and elementary school. The pressure is huge,” one worker affected by the lockdown told The New York Times.
China’s migrant workers have been hit particularly hard by the lockdowns. Although their wages have risen in recent years, the living costs in the cities are also increasing rapidly. China’s roughly 280 million migrant workers have hardly any labor rights. They are excluded from many social security benefits, such as unemployment insurance. Their savings sometimes last only a few days. During the week-long lockdowns, it was not uncommon for them to run out of money. China’s premier recently announced plans to aid migrant workers. However, it is unclear how much financial aid they will receive and under what conditions.
Only a portion of the unemployed migrant workers quickly find another job – and when they do, it is often in the dangerous field of “Covid control”. They carry out mass testing where millions of residents of numerous cities are tested for the virus. They also work in government quarantine facilities or enforce the lockdown of cities or neighborhoods on the streets.
This work is sometimes harmful to their health. “We were trained by other volunteers, but they are not health professionals nor familiar with the procedures,” one migrant worker told NPR. They are exposed to poor conditions in quarantine facilities and sometimes contract the coronavirus themselves while working. Some migrant workers interviewed by NPR had not received any treatment after becoming infected. At the end of lockdowns and their work assignments, they are forced to quarantine themselves for two to three weeks. This time is not paid, according to some reports.
China’s Premier Li recently warned against a continued rise in unemployment. “Stabilizing employment is important for people’s livelihood,” Li said. He urged companies to resume production. He did not comment on the Quanta incidents or the potential overwork of Tesla’s workers.
Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun had commented on the introduction of the National Security Law two years ago with a defiant statement on social media. “If right and proper words were considered against their law, I will endure all the suing, trials and arrests,” the now 90-year-old Roman Catholic Church dignitary said at the time.
Although the indictment and trial against Zen are still pending, the arrest has been a reality since Wednesday. According to the South China Morning Post, the cardinal was arrested and interrogated by security police, as were former opposition MP Margaret Ng and pro-democracy activist and artist Denise Ho. Reportedly, the trio has been charged with conspiracy with foreign forces.
It appears that Zen, Ng and Ho’s role in connection with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, for which they served as trustees, was their downfall. The fund collected more than $30 million between 2019 and 2021, including from overseas. The money went to, among others, protesters who had been arrested during the mass protests in the city in 2019 and did not have the financial means to defend themselves in court. Another trustee had already been arrested on Tuesday. The fifth one has been in custody for a while.
In the fall of last year, those responsible had announced the termination of the fund to avoid possible criminal prosecution under the Security Law. At that time, however, authorities had already launched an investigation into the fund as they considered the flow of foreign funds to be a conspiracy. At the time, Hong Kong exiles and parliamentarians complained about the systematic criminalization of the city’s civil society (China.Table reported).
The arrest of Cardinal Zen takes on a special dimension due to his rank in the Catholic Church. For years, the People’s Republic of China and the Vatican were at odds over who would be allowed to appoint the country’s bishops. Religion is generally a thorn in the side of the Communist Party, which reigns supreme in Marxist tradition. That is why China has had an official and an unofficial Catholic Church for decades. The official Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is controlled by the Party, while the unofficial church operates underground.
In 2018, the Vatican and the Party had finally agreed that the CP would be allowed to choose the bishops, and that the Pope would have the final say on their appointment. Cardinal Zen criticized the deal, saying, “Better no deal than a bad deal.” He lamented that the country’s believers were being sold out to the Communist Party. The Chinese government “says the last word belongs to the Holy Father. Sounds wonderful? But it’s fake,” Zen said. He was sharply criticized within the church for his controversial stance.
The Vatican issued a brief statement on Wednesday about the arrest. A spokesman said the matter was being followed “with concern”. Slovak MEP Miriam Lexmann, a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), reacted much more sharply: “I am shocked & disgusted by the arrest of the brave & peace-loving 90-year-old Cardinal Zen & trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. It’s time for EU leaders to act,” she demanded on Twitter.
The timing of the arrests was also striking. Just Sunday, the city’s former Security Chief, John Lee, had been elected as the upcoming Chief Executive. Lee was the favored candidate of Beijing’s central government. (China.Table reported.) Due to his decades of experience in the police service, he is seen as an ideal choice to nip political dissent in the city in the bud. The founder of the human rights organization Hong Kong Watch, Benedict Rogers, stated that “today’s arrests signal without a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.”
Meanwhile, National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell, expressed concern about steps being taken in Hong Kong to pressure and eliminate civil society, Reuters reported. Lee and other Hong Kong officials, as well as the CP, would have to “face consequences for their terror against the people,” commented EU parliamentarian Lexmann, without specifying any possible consequences.
The arrest of Bishop Emeritus Zen is likely to be met with great concern in Hong Kong’s Catholic community as well. More than 12 percent of the city’s citizens are Christian. Schools, universities and social institutions often have a Christian background. Only a few months ago, the new bishop Stephen Chow took up his post. After months of hesitation, only a personal letter from Pope Francis convinced him to accept the appointment (China.Table reported).
The Hong Kong-born cleric, who trained as a psychologist in the United States, has the difficult task of mediating “between the government and the Church in HK, and between the Catholic Church, fellow Christian denominations, and other religions,” he said in his inaugural speech in December.
Zen’s arrest shows that security forces and prosecutors are consistently applying the new security law. 175 pro-democracy activists have been arrested since its introduction, according to official data, and 110 have been charged so far. Other church supporters besides Cardinal Zen had also expected this development. For example, the International Christian Council (ICC) warned that the Chinese central government would interpret any form of protest as a terrorist act and calls for Hong Kong’s independence from the People’s Republic as a threat to the state.
While China has built up diplomatic capital through its vaccine exports over the past year, all of its shipments have come to a standstill in 2022. The country was initially able to distinguish itself as a responsible, progressive superpower thanks to its export efforts. But it still lacked the technical finesse of technology leaders from the EU and USA to achieve lasting success. That is the conclusion of a China.Table event with guests from the University of Erfurt. Stefan Schmalz, an expert in political economy, and economist Philipp Koencke spoke at the Table.Live briefing.
The first shipments of Chinese vaccines went to recipient countries early: in December 2020, the first batch arrived in Indonesia. Throughout 2021, China was able to present itself as a helpful partner to Silk Road countries and the global South. “This picture is now crumbling,” Koencke says. For one thing, the EU has massively caught up in vaccine deliveries: it has now exported 2.3 billion doses. That significantly exceeds China’s figure of 1.9 billion doses. This is not only due to availability, but also to the reputation of the vaccines. mRNA-based vaccines are now considered to be more effective. As a result, the stream of vaccines from China has now largely dried up (China.Table reported).
However, China’s “state-led vaccine internationalization” was quite successful below the bottom line. After all, nothing was available from the EU at the beginning – and that has stayed in the minds of less privileged countries. Many of them relied on the shipments from China and showed their gratitude accordingly. The Chinese approach thus helped somewhat to even out the global imbalance. “China was successful in its efforts to be perceived as a responsible superpower,” Koencke said.
However, the fact that this perception has now changed is not only a result of the effectiveness of Sinovac’s and Sinopharm’s products. The balance of power has shifted in favor of the West as a result of China’s actions, says Koencke. Many vaccine shipments from China were not donations but sales at market prices, meaning they were not cheap at all. The price was around the same as the products from Biontech and Moderna. In return, however, it was a substance that proved to be less effective against Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants.
In retrospect, the Erfurt-based expert duo believes it was detrimental that there was so much rivalry right from the start. “The vaccine worlds have become theaters of geopolitical conflicts over vaccine production and distribution,” says Koencke. Political scientist Schmalz ultimately sees hugely negative consequences for the global population’s health here: “If a pandemic lasts for several years and there is no cooperation between key players, then the results do not live up to what could be possible.”
At the time, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel had expressly insisted on the defense of Germany’s technological lead and the protection of patents. If Europe and China had openly pooled their vast resources, many more people could have been supplied with far more different substance classes. Instead, antagonism has deepened ever since. To this day, the EU and China have not mutually approved their vaccines. This not only causes problems for tourists and business travelers. It also significantly hinders the way out of the pandemic.
Research at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt on vaccine worlds and the role of China is conducted as part of the Collaborative Research Center “Structural Change of Property” of the German Research Foundation.
As one of the co-initiators of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Mark Leonard ranks among the top members of the transatlantic think-tank. The Englishman is in high demand as a political advisor and member of important international bodies – for example, Leonard served as Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Geoeconomics at the World Economic Forum. When asked about the biggest milestones in his career, it is not surprising that he mentions the founding of the European Council on Foreign Relations in 2007 under the patronage of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But that’s not all.
“The second major milestone was my book ‘What does China think?’ published in 2008,” Leonard says. His intention: “I wanted to breathe life into many of the great debates in China that I had observed in the previous decade.” For his book, he traveled to the People’s Republic several times and followed the debates there over several years. “These not only changed China, they also had the potential to affect the world outside, but the West simply wasn’t familiar with them,” Leonard explains.
Leonard criticizes this indifference: “Sadly, one result after the end of the Cold War was that many Western think tanks actually believed we were not only at the end of history, but also at the end of geography, and that everyone was more or less on the same intellectual journey toward liberal democracy and free-market economics.” Many European and US institutions had looked out at the world and focused primarily on the extent to which other countries were failing to live up to the ideals they had set for themselves. “So this curiosity that existed during the Cold War was lost to a certain extent,” Leonard says.
But Leonard has never lost this curiosity, which is why he also helped found the European Council on Foreign Relations. “I think curiosity is very important. One reason why we often have problems is that we believe other people think the same way we do.” That was evident most recently, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many people had misjudged the Russian president, Leonard says.
Leonard is a geopolitical all-rounder. Over the past six years, he has focused on globalization – always keeping the People’s Republic in mind. “One of the central themes of globalization revolves around the relationship between China and the United States,” Leonard says. He closely examines how this relationship, in his view, “is a structuring element of our world.” The juxtaposition of the People’s Republic and the United States, is extremely complicated – and far more complex than the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. That’s because China and the US are very deeply intertwined, Leonard said. The competition between Beijing and Washington could therefore be much more destabilizing for the world than the Cold War, Leonard analyzes. Constantin Eckner
Two workers repair a section of the Datong-Qinhuangdao railroad in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi. The line is a main artery of Chinese coal transport.
