For many people living in China, it’s the very first thing they do in the morning: not a freshly brewed cup of coffee or green tea, but a glance at the air values. They show how many micrograms of fine dust particles are currently in one cubic meter of air – and they determine the day: Is my car banned from driving? Can the child really go out to the playground? Or should I better switch up the air filter immediately? At values of 200-250, our kindergarten in Beijing restricted activities on the playground.
Yesterday, Monday, no one in Beijing needed to open their air app, a glance out the window was enough to see – or not see – how bad the air levels were. 1960 µg/m³ was what the Swiss IQAir app said. The reason was a sandstorm that swept over Beijing. This “is what an ecological crisis looks like”, tweeted Li Shuo of Greenpeace China. However, you can see for yourself in today’s Dessert. And for health classification: According to the World Health Organization WHO, values above 25 µg/m³ are harmful to health.
Yet China is certainly focusing on environmental protection. Gregor Koppenburg and Jörn Petring analyze how much Beijing wants to invest in hydropower in the future and therefore build the largest dam in the world. It is to surpass the famous Three Gorges Dam by a factor of three! Yet, the project is meeting sharp criticism, especially in India.
Felix Lee is also critical of the working conditions for foreign journalists in China. Being followed, spied on, and intimidated – all this has become commonplace. The situation is worse than it has been for decades. He sees a clear change in behavior on the part of the Beijing leadership.
Meanwhile, Thomas de Maizière is calling for a change in Nato’s behavior. The strategic concept is outdated. China is not mentioned at all, the former defense minister criticizes. Yet the threats are obvious: terrorism, cyber-attacks, and China’s claim to leadership in the world.
Che Dalha wants to start building the world’s largest dam as soon as possible. Work on the mega-project must begin “before the end of this year”, the vice leader of the Communist Party in Tibet demanded at the annual meeting of the People’s Congress in Beijing. The dam is part of the 14th Five-Year Plan approved by China’s leadership last week.
Initial designs were presented last November. At the time, Chinese media reported that the new dam could generate up to 60 gigawatts of electricity. This would make it almost three times more powerful than the famous Three Gorges Dam (22.5 gigawatts). By comparison, the world’s largest nuclear power plants currently have a capacity of 7 to 8 gigawatts.
Understandably, China is pushing ahead with the construction of new dams to generate electricity. The People’s Republic’s hunger for energy continues to grow; at the same time, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing has promised that the country will become climate-neutral by 2060. Hydropower already accounts for around 20 percent of China’s electricity mix today – making it the second most important source of energy, directly behind coal.
On the Yarlung River alone, which rises in the highlands of Tibet, a good dozen new hydropower plants have been approved or built in the past decade.
Hydro-energy may help millions of Chinese lead productive lives. China’s neighbors, on the other hand, are less enthusiastic about the country’s massive expansion of hydroelectric power.
In India, in particular, people are worried about the construction plans for the new mega dam on the lower course of the Yarlung River. The Yarlung flows across the Chinese border into India, where it is called the Brahmaputra and is one of the country’s most important sources of water. In India, however, people fear not only an impending water shortage but also flash floods – depending on which settings Beijing chooses at the dam.
China has heard similar accusations from other neighboring countries for years. The Mekong, which flows through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, also has its source in Tibet, where China has tapped the river with several hydroelectric power plants. Not only the water level is affected, but also the sensitive eco-system of the Mekong is in danger of collapsing because of the dams, complain environmental organizations. This is because less and less nutrient-rich sediment is reaching the lower Mekong region.
In India, the distrust of the new dam is particularly great, as relations between the two billion-strong nations are currently very tense anyway: At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a bloody clash in the border region of Ladakh last summer.
India fears that the People’s Republic could also use its dams for military purposes. In January, the Indian newspaper The Hindu warned that there was a danger of China “significantly altering the flow rate in times of crisis”. The paper recalled that India and China had actually signed an agreement to exchange hydrological data on the river during the monsoon season between May and October. Yet three years ago, when there was another dispute in the border region, China failed to provide data for months.
The following idea is now circulating in the Indian Ministry of Water Resources: According to the logic that water is best fought with water, the construction of a “large dam” on the Brahmaputra is being considered. The aim is to “mitigate the negative effects of the Chinese dam projects“. Gregor Koppenburg/Jörn Petring
Time and again, China’s leadership has had foreign journalists shadowed. In addition, the authorities try to indirectly influence reporting, for example, when employees of the Chinese Foreign Ministry invite foreign correspondents to “tea talks” during the annual visa renewal and politely but firmly advise them to report more on the positive developments in the country “so that we can learn from each other“.
In principle, however, China has long felt bound by its own promise to allow foreign media correspondents to report freely on the country. In 2008, in the course of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party even explicitly passed a law that has since allowed journalists to research freely in the country without special permits. Apparently, they thought: better critical reporting than none at all. Because only in this way would the rest of the world learn more about China. In the early 1980s, China had already retreated from the isolationism of Mao Zedong. China wanted to open up.
However, in the past two years, the working situation for foreign journalists in China has increasingly deteriorated. During research trips, they were searched by police officers, data carriers were deleted. It also happened that the officials confiscated laptops, tablets, and cameras or destroyed them. In the latest survey by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC), 150 of the 220 correspondents interviewed said the Chinese authorities had “dramatically stepped up” their efforts to thwart the work of foreign reporters. All available means have been used to intimidate and harass journalists, the report said.
Journalists from countries with tense relations with China have felt the pressure of the authorities particularly strongly. At least 18 journalists from three US media outlets were forced to leave the country last year – the most in more than three decades. Two Australian correspondents left after learning that state security was after them. Australia thus no longer has a correspondent in China at all. Washington, Canberra, and London have had fierce clashes with the leadership in Beijing over the past year over trade disputes and criticism of the human rights situation in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
But most journalists from other countries and their local aides have also faced harassment. “As China’s propaganda machine struggled to regain control of coverage of the health disaster, foreign news organizations were repeatedly prevented from reporting on the pandemic,” the FCCC’s annual report says. COVID checkpoints would have given the government additional ways to obtain data from foreign journalists and their sources. And the situation is also stressful for many Chinese staffers. Assistants to correspondents are visited at home. Coming to the office and booting up the computer, it is noticed that personal mail has been read.
Even more serious: The Chinese leadership is using measures against the spread of COVID-19 to prevent foreign journalists from entering the country once they leave. If a correspondent wants to visit family in his home country, for example, it depends on the goodwill of the officials in charge whether they will be allowed to re-enter. New correspondents no longer receive visas at all. From Germany, it is the ARD and the daily newspaper “Die Welt” that have been waiting for a year for an entry permit for their correspondents.
The foreign ministry in Beijing, however, rejects the accusations. The report is “presumptuous, alarmist and has no factual basis,” it said. China has always welcomed journalists and media of all countries to conduct interviews and report “in accordance with laws and regulations,” a ministry spokesman said. “What we reject is ideological bias against China and ‘fake news’ in the name of press freedom.” At the same time, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pointed out that the FCCC press club is not even officially recognized in China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry even sharpened its tone recently – against the British ambassador in Beijing, Caroline Wilson. She had tried to explain via the social platform WeChat why criticism of the Chinese government by Western media did not mean that the journalists responsible did not like China, but acted in “good faith” and played an active role in monitoring government measures. The entire article was “full of arrogance and ideological prejudice” and “seriously contradicted the status of diplomats,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.
German media houses also view the obstacles to fair research with great concern. “Overall, reporting has become considerably more difficult for everyone,” says Andreas Cichowicz, editor-in-chief of NDR Fernsehen. The 59-year-old has for many years participated in the German-Chinese Media Dialogue, where editors-in-chief of German and Chinese media regularly meet and exchange views on current conflicts. “In the Chinese media houses, the committees are marching through the editorial offices again and trimming them to the Communist Manifesto,” says Cichowicz.
Nevertheless, there was a great deal of openness at the meetings of the media dialogue, says the NDR editor-in-chief, who has already produced joint discussion programs with the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN and has also had to accept criticism for this in Germany.
When it comes to issues such as the democracy movement in Hong Kong or human rights violations in Xinjiang, there is certainly no agreement, says Chichwocz. At least, however, the different assessments are openly discussed. And even at the last conversation in late summer, which took place virtually, it was less restrictive than he had expected, he says. “So the mutual trust we had built still carried.“
At the same time, however, he had noticed how strongly the Chinese interlocutors were “trimmed to the nationalist line”. Under the current Chinese COVID conditions, it is of course no fun for him personally to have any personal exchange. Still, he thinks it is more important than ever. “I would think it wrong to batten down the hatches from our side, especially in a situation like this.“
The FCCC said it was “very disappointed” that media freedoms in China had deteriorated significantly in 2020. Also with a view to the upcoming Winter Olympics, which will be held in Beijing next year, the association calls on the Chinese government to let foreign journalists do their work without restrictions.
But the Winter Olympics seem to be taking place under different auspices than the 2008 Summer Olympics: At that time, the People’s Republic was striving to present a positive image to the outside world, the leadership wanted to show itself open to the world and flaunt its economic achievements.
True, the official line is still that China is a friendly country and likes to have good relations. “But they are good relations according to Chinese rules,” observes Cichowicz. “If you don’t play along with them, you’re told that right away, too.” Calls from Europe and North America to boycott the Games because of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong don’t seem to matter to China, Cichowicz believes. The credo that prevails there in the meantime is: “Then just stay away.”
Stefan Kahl has two hearts beating in his chest: one for Chemistry, one for China. Bringing both passions together is not easy. All the more reason for him to appreciate the niche he has found at Tribotecc. The Austrian company sells metal sulfides worldwide, which are used for brake pads and discs, among other things. In 2016, he started there as a business manager. Since then, he has been responsible for business relations with China, Korea, and Japan. “In China, you have to look at the market very closely to be able to react flexibly to developments.” Kahl knows his way around Chinese peculiarities. He has been dealing with the country for 20 years and has lived in various corners of the country for a total of twelve years.
It all started with his community service as a language teacher in Qiqihar, a city in the northernmost province of China. Time pressure and a lack of alternatives brought him to China for the first time after studying technical chemistry in Vienna. That was in 2000. “At that time, it was like we had landed on Mars. We wondered what we were getting ourselves into.” A Chinese course virtually saved his life and that of his three Austrian colleagues. And awakened Kahl’s enthusiasm for China.
“Autocracy is certainly no reason to love China,” says the 45-year-old, “there are other areas that make China attractive. It’s an exotic country where things often work differently than they do here.” In terms of working hours, he likes to work a little longer. For his doctorate in pharmacognosy, he researched Chinese medicinal plants and their effectiveness against tumors at the Chinese Academy of Science in Kunming from 2002 to 2005. It was not unusual for him and his Chinese colleagues to work in the lab until midnight. “The work ethic at the institute is insane.”
The economic development of the country is also impressive. For five years, Kahl provided Austrian companies with contacts to the Chinese technology and science scene as Vice Consul of the Austrian Association of Foreign Traders Federal Economic Chamber (WKO) in Shanghai. Europe and China are extremely interdependent. “European prosperity is partly generated in China. China is dependent on European technologies.” But cooperation is often a field of tension: “China’s goal is to make its know-how its own.” It is therefore important to protect one’s own ideas.
The China theme also accompanies Kahl in his private life. His 9-year-old daughter learns the language on Saturdays at one of Vienna’s Chinese schools. With two colleagues, he founded the cultural association GuanXI. “On 08.08.2018, because eight is an auspicious number in China.” A family catch-all for all those who want to exchange their experiences and impressions of China with like-minded people. Before the pandemic, the 50 or so members come together for a wide variety of events. With common meals, excursions, art, and culture, they want to make a contribution to the international understanding of China and Austria. Lisa Winter
The worst sandstorm in a decade has caused particulate matter levels in Beijing to exceed 1800-2000 micrograms per cubic meter in the air at times for particles ten microns in diameter, or ten-millionths of a meter. The WHO considers PM10 levels of 25 micrograms to be harmful to health. Environmental activists from Greenpeace China see the sandstorm as an “ecological crisis”.
For many people living in China, it’s the very first thing they do in the morning: not a freshly brewed cup of coffee or green tea, but a glance at the air values. They show how many micrograms of fine dust particles are currently in one cubic meter of air – and they determine the day: Is my car banned from driving? Can the child really go out to the playground? Or should I better switch up the air filter immediately? At values of 200-250, our kindergarten in Beijing restricted activities on the playground.
Yesterday, Monday, no one in Beijing needed to open their air app, a glance out the window was enough to see – or not see – how bad the air levels were. 1960 µg/m³ was what the Swiss IQAir app said. The reason was a sandstorm that swept over Beijing. This “is what an ecological crisis looks like”, tweeted Li Shuo of Greenpeace China. However, you can see for yourself in today’s Dessert. And for health classification: According to the World Health Organization WHO, values above 25 µg/m³ are harmful to health.
Yet China is certainly focusing on environmental protection. Gregor Koppenburg and Jörn Petring analyze how much Beijing wants to invest in hydropower in the future and therefore build the largest dam in the world. It is to surpass the famous Three Gorges Dam by a factor of three! Yet, the project is meeting sharp criticism, especially in India.
Felix Lee is also critical of the working conditions for foreign journalists in China. Being followed, spied on, and intimidated – all this has become commonplace. The situation is worse than it has been for decades. He sees a clear change in behavior on the part of the Beijing leadership.
Meanwhile, Thomas de Maizière is calling for a change in Nato’s behavior. The strategic concept is outdated. China is not mentioned at all, the former defense minister criticizes. Yet the threats are obvious: terrorism, cyber-attacks, and China’s claim to leadership in the world.
Che Dalha wants to start building the world’s largest dam as soon as possible. Work on the mega-project must begin “before the end of this year”, the vice leader of the Communist Party in Tibet demanded at the annual meeting of the People’s Congress in Beijing. The dam is part of the 14th Five-Year Plan approved by China’s leadership last week.
Initial designs were presented last November. At the time, Chinese media reported that the new dam could generate up to 60 gigawatts of electricity. This would make it almost three times more powerful than the famous Three Gorges Dam (22.5 gigawatts). By comparison, the world’s largest nuclear power plants currently have a capacity of 7 to 8 gigawatts.
Understandably, China is pushing ahead with the construction of new dams to generate electricity. The People’s Republic’s hunger for energy continues to grow; at the same time, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing has promised that the country will become climate-neutral by 2060. Hydropower already accounts for around 20 percent of China’s electricity mix today – making it the second most important source of energy, directly behind coal.
On the Yarlung River alone, which rises in the highlands of Tibet, a good dozen new hydropower plants have been approved or built in the past decade.
Hydro-energy may help millions of Chinese lead productive lives. China’s neighbors, on the other hand, are less enthusiastic about the country’s massive expansion of hydroelectric power.
In India, in particular, people are worried about the construction plans for the new mega dam on the lower course of the Yarlung River. The Yarlung flows across the Chinese border into India, where it is called the Brahmaputra and is one of the country’s most important sources of water. In India, however, people fear not only an impending water shortage but also flash floods – depending on which settings Beijing chooses at the dam.
China has heard similar accusations from other neighboring countries for years. The Mekong, which flows through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, also has its source in Tibet, where China has tapped the river with several hydroelectric power plants. Not only the water level is affected, but also the sensitive eco-system of the Mekong is in danger of collapsing because of the dams, complain environmental organizations. This is because less and less nutrient-rich sediment is reaching the lower Mekong region.
In India, the distrust of the new dam is particularly great, as relations between the two billion-strong nations are currently very tense anyway: At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a bloody clash in the border region of Ladakh last summer.
India fears that the People’s Republic could also use its dams for military purposes. In January, the Indian newspaper The Hindu warned that there was a danger of China “significantly altering the flow rate in times of crisis”. The paper recalled that India and China had actually signed an agreement to exchange hydrological data on the river during the monsoon season between May and October. Yet three years ago, when there was another dispute in the border region, China failed to provide data for months.
The following idea is now circulating in the Indian Ministry of Water Resources: According to the logic that water is best fought with water, the construction of a “large dam” on the Brahmaputra is being considered. The aim is to “mitigate the negative effects of the Chinese dam projects“. Gregor Koppenburg/Jörn Petring
Time and again, China’s leadership has had foreign journalists shadowed. In addition, the authorities try to indirectly influence reporting, for example, when employees of the Chinese Foreign Ministry invite foreign correspondents to “tea talks” during the annual visa renewal and politely but firmly advise them to report more on the positive developments in the country “so that we can learn from each other“.
In principle, however, China has long felt bound by its own promise to allow foreign media correspondents to report freely on the country. In 2008, in the course of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party even explicitly passed a law that has since allowed journalists to research freely in the country without special permits. Apparently, they thought: better critical reporting than none at all. Because only in this way would the rest of the world learn more about China. In the early 1980s, China had already retreated from the isolationism of Mao Zedong. China wanted to open up.
However, in the past two years, the working situation for foreign journalists in China has increasingly deteriorated. During research trips, they were searched by police officers, data carriers were deleted. It also happened that the officials confiscated laptops, tablets, and cameras or destroyed them. In the latest survey by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC), 150 of the 220 correspondents interviewed said the Chinese authorities had “dramatically stepped up” their efforts to thwart the work of foreign reporters. All available means have been used to intimidate and harass journalists, the report said.
Journalists from countries with tense relations with China have felt the pressure of the authorities particularly strongly. At least 18 journalists from three US media outlets were forced to leave the country last year – the most in more than three decades. Two Australian correspondents left after learning that state security was after them. Australia thus no longer has a correspondent in China at all. Washington, Canberra, and London have had fierce clashes with the leadership in Beijing over the past year over trade disputes and criticism of the human rights situation in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
But most journalists from other countries and their local aides have also faced harassment. “As China’s propaganda machine struggled to regain control of coverage of the health disaster, foreign news organizations were repeatedly prevented from reporting on the pandemic,” the FCCC’s annual report says. COVID checkpoints would have given the government additional ways to obtain data from foreign journalists and their sources. And the situation is also stressful for many Chinese staffers. Assistants to correspondents are visited at home. Coming to the office and booting up the computer, it is noticed that personal mail has been read.
Even more serious: The Chinese leadership is using measures against the spread of COVID-19 to prevent foreign journalists from entering the country once they leave. If a correspondent wants to visit family in his home country, for example, it depends on the goodwill of the officials in charge whether they will be allowed to re-enter. New correspondents no longer receive visas at all. From Germany, it is the ARD and the daily newspaper “Die Welt” that have been waiting for a year for an entry permit for their correspondents.
The foreign ministry in Beijing, however, rejects the accusations. The report is “presumptuous, alarmist and has no factual basis,” it said. China has always welcomed journalists and media of all countries to conduct interviews and report “in accordance with laws and regulations,” a ministry spokesman said. “What we reject is ideological bias against China and ‘fake news’ in the name of press freedom.” At the same time, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pointed out that the FCCC press club is not even officially recognized in China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry even sharpened its tone recently – against the British ambassador in Beijing, Caroline Wilson. She had tried to explain via the social platform WeChat why criticism of the Chinese government by Western media did not mean that the journalists responsible did not like China, but acted in “good faith” and played an active role in monitoring government measures. The entire article was “full of arrogance and ideological prejudice” and “seriously contradicted the status of diplomats,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.
German media houses also view the obstacles to fair research with great concern. “Overall, reporting has become considerably more difficult for everyone,” says Andreas Cichowicz, editor-in-chief of NDR Fernsehen. The 59-year-old has for many years participated in the German-Chinese Media Dialogue, where editors-in-chief of German and Chinese media regularly meet and exchange views on current conflicts. “In the Chinese media houses, the committees are marching through the editorial offices again and trimming them to the Communist Manifesto,” says Cichowicz.
Nevertheless, there was a great deal of openness at the meetings of the media dialogue, says the NDR editor-in-chief, who has already produced joint discussion programs with the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN and has also had to accept criticism for this in Germany.
When it comes to issues such as the democracy movement in Hong Kong or human rights violations in Xinjiang, there is certainly no agreement, says Chichwocz. At least, however, the different assessments are openly discussed. And even at the last conversation in late summer, which took place virtually, it was less restrictive than he had expected, he says. “So the mutual trust we had built still carried.“
At the same time, however, he had noticed how strongly the Chinese interlocutors were “trimmed to the nationalist line”. Under the current Chinese COVID conditions, it is of course no fun for him personally to have any personal exchange. Still, he thinks it is more important than ever. “I would think it wrong to batten down the hatches from our side, especially in a situation like this.“
The FCCC said it was “very disappointed” that media freedoms in China had deteriorated significantly in 2020. Also with a view to the upcoming Winter Olympics, which will be held in Beijing next year, the association calls on the Chinese government to let foreign journalists do their work without restrictions.
But the Winter Olympics seem to be taking place under different auspices than the 2008 Summer Olympics: At that time, the People’s Republic was striving to present a positive image to the outside world, the leadership wanted to show itself open to the world and flaunt its economic achievements.
True, the official line is still that China is a friendly country and likes to have good relations. “But they are good relations according to Chinese rules,” observes Cichowicz. “If you don’t play along with them, you’re told that right away, too.” Calls from Europe and North America to boycott the Games because of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong don’t seem to matter to China, Cichowicz believes. The credo that prevails there in the meantime is: “Then just stay away.”
Stefan Kahl has two hearts beating in his chest: one for Chemistry, one for China. Bringing both passions together is not easy. All the more reason for him to appreciate the niche he has found at Tribotecc. The Austrian company sells metal sulfides worldwide, which are used for brake pads and discs, among other things. In 2016, he started there as a business manager. Since then, he has been responsible for business relations with China, Korea, and Japan. “In China, you have to look at the market very closely to be able to react flexibly to developments.” Kahl knows his way around Chinese peculiarities. He has been dealing with the country for 20 years and has lived in various corners of the country for a total of twelve years.
It all started with his community service as a language teacher in Qiqihar, a city in the northernmost province of China. Time pressure and a lack of alternatives brought him to China for the first time after studying technical chemistry in Vienna. That was in 2000. “At that time, it was like we had landed on Mars. We wondered what we were getting ourselves into.” A Chinese course virtually saved his life and that of his three Austrian colleagues. And awakened Kahl’s enthusiasm for China.
“Autocracy is certainly no reason to love China,” says the 45-year-old, “there are other areas that make China attractive. It’s an exotic country where things often work differently than they do here.” In terms of working hours, he likes to work a little longer. For his doctorate in pharmacognosy, he researched Chinese medicinal plants and their effectiveness against tumors at the Chinese Academy of Science in Kunming from 2002 to 2005. It was not unusual for him and his Chinese colleagues to work in the lab until midnight. “The work ethic at the institute is insane.”
The economic development of the country is also impressive. For five years, Kahl provided Austrian companies with contacts to the Chinese technology and science scene as Vice Consul of the Austrian Association of Foreign Traders Federal Economic Chamber (WKO) in Shanghai. Europe and China are extremely interdependent. “European prosperity is partly generated in China. China is dependent on European technologies.” But cooperation is often a field of tension: “China’s goal is to make its know-how its own.” It is therefore important to protect one’s own ideas.
The China theme also accompanies Kahl in his private life. His 9-year-old daughter learns the language on Saturdays at one of Vienna’s Chinese schools. With two colleagues, he founded the cultural association GuanXI. “On 08.08.2018, because eight is an auspicious number in China.” A family catch-all for all those who want to exchange their experiences and impressions of China with like-minded people. Before the pandemic, the 50 or so members come together for a wide variety of events. With common meals, excursions, art, and culture, they want to make a contribution to the international understanding of China and Austria. Lisa Winter
The worst sandstorm in a decade has caused particulate matter levels in Beijing to exceed 1800-2000 micrograms per cubic meter in the air at times for particles ten microns in diameter, or ten-millionths of a meter. The WHO considers PM10 levels of 25 micrograms to be harmful to health. Environmental activists from Greenpeace China see the sandstorm as an “ecological crisis”.
