Viktor Orbán has pulled off another surprise: He turned up in Beijing early Monday morning. He already made a statement by traveling from Russia to China. After all, he traveled along the allied axis against a free Ukraine within its original borders.
By going it alone, Orbán is once again living up to his image as the bane of the EU. By coming up with a peace agenda that primarily fulfills Russian demands, he is undermining the efforts of a long line of EU representatives who have consistently delivered the same message in Beijing: Ukraine’s territorial integrity is a core European interest. Instead, Orbán once again shows how divided the EU really is, writes Michael Radunski.
Meanwhile, the CCP is preparing for a crucial meeting of the Central Committee, the most important body of the most powerful party on the planet. This Third Plenum will focus on economic matters and, consequently, on setting the course that will also be crucial for the fate of the German economy. Christiane Kuehl describes the conflicting positions within the party in the run-up – and how the sole ruler, Xi, might ultimately decide.
Viktor Orbán is on a “peace mission 3.0,” as Hungary’s Prime Minister described his trip to China on Monday. He met with China’s party and state leader Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai Guest House to discuss the war in Ukraine. Before his trip to China, Orbán had traveled to Kyiv and Moscow.
And so it seems that Viktor Orbán does everything right: Holding talks with all warring parties and Russia’s main ally, China. But Orbán’s China visit reveals three fundamental problems above all:
Accordingly, Orbán’s traveling diplomacy has not resulted in any concrete proposals. Instead, Xi merely ignited rhetorical smokescreens. On Monday, he once again called for a ceasefire with subsequent negotiations. He said that the situation in Ukraine must be cooled down as much as possible. Unfortunately, Xi did not say precisely how this should happen or what steps Beijing could take to achieve this. His recipe: “positive energy” is needed.
Yet Orbán’s analysis is correct. “The number of countries that can talk to both warring sides is diminishing,” he said. “Hungary is slowly becoming the only country in Europe that can speak to everyone.” A few days ago, Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council. On top of this, in addition to Ukraine and Russia, China, Vladimir Putin’s main partner, must also be involved.
But it had already become clear in Russia that Moscow, like Beijing, focused less on peace and more on propaganda. Orbán had come to Moscow as a top representative of the European Council, Vladimir Putin interpreted accordingly. In response, several high-ranking European officials pointed out that Orbán was not speaking on behalf of the EU, but could only discuss bilateral relations. His visits to Ukraine, Russia and China were not coordinated within the EU.
The picture is similar in Beijing, where there is no talk of war at all, but still of a crisis in Ukraine – a wording that once again shows how Beijing really thinks about the brutal Russian war of aggression that has left countless dead on both sides. CCTV’s Chinese website shows a distinctly different focus of the talks: The excellent Sino-Hungarian relations, which have recently been upgraded to the new era of an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” (我们宣布将中匈关系提升为新时代全天候全面战略伙伴关系).
But what about China’s peace efforts in Ukraine? Fairly poor. Officially, China claims to be neutral. But Chinese customs data, American intelligence information and evidence found on the battlefields in Ukraine show the true extent of China’s support for the Russian war machine.
Only recently, Xi reiterated that China firmly supports Russia in matters that affect its core interests – and nothing else is Putin’s obsession with Ukraine. According to Xi, a solution must respect legitimate security concerns – one of Putin’s justifications for the Russian attack. He says the aim is to create a new, balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture.
Moreover, it emerged at the start of the week that Chinese troops will participate in military exercises in Belarus in mid-July. The Chinese Ministry of Defence announced this on Sunday. A brief reminder: Belarus’ head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, granted Putin’s troops free access so that they could attack Ukraine from the north.
Instead of peace, Beijing pursues a much greater goal: The division of the West. And so it was no coincidence that Orbán and Xi met just one day before the upcoming NATO summit in Washington. After all, US President Joe Biden and the other heads of state and government will likely decide to support Ukraine further in its battle against the Russian invasion. And: Diplomatic circles claim that NATO plans to criticize China for its support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in its summit communiqué.
China rejects any criticism – and blames the West instead. NATO “has a blind faith in the use of force, holds on to a Cold War mentality, and creates bloc confrontation, which is the real threat to peace and stability in the region and the world.”
Both Washington and Brussels realize how important a unified stance is in this war. And this is where Viktor Orbán suddenly becomes very important for the leadership in Beijing. On Monday, Xi expressed his hope that Hungary, as the rotating presidency of the EU Council, will play a positive role in promoting relations between China and the EU.
After all, Orbán has molded his country into a Chinese asset in the EU, one that Beijing needs more than ever. While Brussels focuses on de-risking, Budapest firmly stands by Beijing. Hungary has repeatedly vetoed EU proposals condemning China for human rights violations or regarding Hong Kong or Taiwan. According to a calculation by the Budapest-based online portal valaszonline. hu, around 60 percent of vetoes against Russia or China have come from Hungary in the past six years. Against this backdrop, Orbán’s peace mission 3.0 unfortunately appears in a different light.
The long-awaited Third Plenum of the current 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is just around the corner. It traditionally sets the economic policy course for the next five years.
The CCP announced that the Third Plenum will begin on July 15. In CP terminology, a plenum is a meeting of all members of the Central Committee. The 367 members of the 20th Central Committee since the founding of the Party are in charge. Previous statements from the CP indicate that a “deepening of comprehensive reforms to promote Chinese modernization” will once again be adopted.
This formula indicates a continuation of previous policies rather than a fundamental change. Party leader Xi Jinping has been using it for years. The Communist Party already has a separate commission with this goal, founded and chaired by Xi himself.
The title of the Communist Party’s most important economic meeting in years reveals little at first. The agenda will only be officially unveiled at the plenary session and is expected to contain a lot of party-speak, such as “high-quality development” and “new productive forces.” Some of the Third Plenums of the past have sparked profound changes, such as the start of the opening-up policy under reform patriarch Deng Xiaoping. The ailing Chinese economy could do with something similar today.
A continuation of the current economic policy means that the focus will continue to be on higher spending on new production facilities and even higher manufacturing capacities. So far, Xi has favored a supply-side policy to bolster the economy: subsidizing companies and investments – and not the targeted stimulation of consumption and, thus, the demand side. Despite all his Communist propaganda, Xi rejects direct public aid payments to citizens.
This may also be thanks to his advisors: China’s high-ranking economists today have been influenced by the study of neoliberal Western supply-side policies in the era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, economics professor Li Dekui from Tsinghua University admitted at an event in June. “We’re supposed to say, okay, the government should work hard on the supply side; don’t worry about demand side; too much social welfare will kill the enthusiasm of the population for working hard. So I think we were wrong.” Li now advocates measures such as making it easier to buy a home or a consumption-orientated local policy. In other words, he is calling for a shift in economic policy.
Other advisors have also changed their minds. Chinese economists, Communist Party officials and the Consultative People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have called for a policy shift towards more demand-orientation in various areas. Some would like to see tax reforms to give financially struggling local governments more leeway and a consumption-orientated local policy.
Others have proposals for better health insurance. Some are calling for a proper reform of the hukou system, which still excludes migrant workers in the cities from many public services. All this would allow consumers to spend more and save less. That would be important, as consumer confidence has barely recovered from the pandemic so far.
Han Wenxiu, Deputy Director of the Office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs, wrote in mid-June in the Central Committee magazine Qiushi about his expectations for the Third Plenum. Zichen Wang from the Center for China and Globalisation translated the much-noticed text in his blog Pekingnology – despite the many CP clauses, he finds it interesting because Han is involved in shaping economic policy and is close to the decision-makers.
However, Han only ranks demand policy fifth out of six important points for the Third Plenum:
Despite Hans’ closeness to the central government, it is, of course, unclear to what extent these points actually reflect the CP’s plans and how they will be taken into account in the Third Plenum’s final communiqué.
Yao Yang, Director of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University, does not expect a new reform impetus. “The significant reforms in China were completed in the 1990s,” he said in a speech. “What we need to do now is not to initiate more reforms, but to consolidate the achievements of the reforms from the 1990s.”
In fact, the CCP leadership under Xi is currently eroding many liberalization steps of the reform era. This is why some experts call for more trust in the market to allow private companies to become more active again. The latter suffer under ever-new regulations, upheavals, or the obligation to integrate CCP cells into their companies. Private companies themselves also hope for market-orientated reforms. Yao expects the Third Plenum to announce economic targets for 2035.
The CEO of Dutch chip manufacturer ASML has called for an end to the sanctions against China. In an interview with the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, Christophe Fouquet said that China produces chips that are urgently needed in the West. “It makes no sense to stop someone from producing something that you need.” With Russian gas, it has been understood that alternatives have to be found first, but apparently not with chips, he said. ASML is a leading manufacturer of the technology used to produce the world’s most advanced semiconductors.
Fouquet’s position is geopolitically sensitive. The USA is pushing for more and more chip export restrictions against China. The US government wants to ban even more chip manufacturing equipment from being delivered to the country. So far, the sanctions have only applied to machines for expensive and specialized chips. Japan and the Netherlands, where ASML is headquartered, have also joined this initiative. The USA has also tried to prevent ASML from servicing the equipment it has already sold to Chinese customers. Fouquet is now openly opposing the US policy. The former ASML CEO, Peter Wennink, also sees such geopolitical superiority as a problem.
Fouquet is clear about what politicians should do instead: “We then recommend that governments build their own plants. Because you can’t make manufacturing more difficult for China and not create alternatives yourself.” rad
Eleven saves made Hassan Sunny a soccer god in China. The goalkeeper of Singapore’s national team might not have been able to prevent his team from losing 3-1 in the World Cup qualifier against Thailand. However, it was only thanks to his outstanding reflexes that the Chinese were able to avoid a heavier defeat and remain in second place in the final table ahead of the Thais. This allowed China to advance to the final qualification round and keep their hopes of a second World Cup appearance after 2002 alive.
The joy in soccer-mad China was correspondingly great. Hassan Sunny was showered with exuberant gratitude, and emotions ran high on social media. The fact that a goalkeeper fought like a mother lion for her offspring right up to the last second and prevented his team from losing another goal, despite the game only having statistical significance for his team, was celebrated in the People’s Republic as an act of human greatness and kindness.
Word quickly spread on the internet that the 40-year-old’s family ran the small Dapur Hassan restaurant in a hawker food center in Singapore. The stall quickly became a magnet for Chinese tourists and expatriates. Everyone wanted a photo to express gratitude to the goalkeeper’s family. For days, long queues of Chinese guests formed in front of the counter – ostensibly to satisfy their hunger, but in reality to give back some of the joy that Sunny Hassan had brought them.
Someone then came up with the idea of spreading the QR code of Dapur Hassan’s digital Alipay account on Chinese social media. And because soccer generates such strong emotions, many fans felt the need to express their gratitude to Sunny Hassan from afar and transferred money to the family business’s account in return.
The matter took on such a dynamic that after a few days, the goalkeeper felt compelled to urge an end to the donation campaign publicly. “I did enjoy it for a while. I was like, oh okay, money coming in. But having said that, I was thinking when is this going to stop? Is this legal?” Sunny told Channel News Asia (CNA). “Concerned people,” as he calls them, had advised him to “stay away from all this to avoid misunderstandings.” Scammers had also jumped on the bandwagon, spreading fake QR codes to steal the payments.
It is not officially known how much money flowed from China. Rumors estimate it to be several million euros, but it is unknown whether this is really true. Hassan initially said he wanted to save part of the money and invest another part in expanding the restaurant. He has since announced that he intends to donate the entire sum to charity.
Either way, his excellent performance will pay off financially. A global financial company from Singapore immediately put the goalkeeper on a plane to Shanghai to present him personally and exclusively to Chinese fans and media, certainly not without compensation.
The cryptocurrency exchange HTX also grabbed the opportunity and made Sunny its security officer. The post may be a short-lived invention. But HTX hopes that Sunny’s involvement will quickly boost its image – especially in Asia, which has a large market for digital currencies. The concept is obvious: Secure gatekeeper equals secure crypto exchange. “Just as Sunny fearlessly protects his goal on the field, HTX is committed to protecting every user’s assets with the same determination,” the company markets the collaboration.
However, if the soccer experts are right, the hype surrounding Hassan Sunny in China could be over in a few months. That is if the footballers from the People’s Republic fail on the home straight to the World Cup, which is widely expected. Then, Hassan Sunny will only be a fond memory of the time when the dream was still alive. Marcel Grzanna
Until recently, the far north-east of China was not particularly popular with tourists: Due to the long and icy winters and the many heavy industrial plants from the times when Stalin was still supporting the People’s Republic economically. Today, the trend has changed. Since climate change has made the summer months in the south and east of China so unbearably hot and humid, more and more travelers are flocking to Heilongjiang province. They are looking for a cooling respite in northeast China.
Municipalities like the town of Mohe in this photo spruce themselves up accordingly. Even in Heilongjiang, temperatures can exceed 30 degrees in summer. But that is still more bearable than what people back home in Hangzhou, Shanghai or Shenzhen have to endure these days with temperatures of over 40 degrees and extremely high humidity.
Viktor Orbán has pulled off another surprise: He turned up in Beijing early Monday morning. He already made a statement by traveling from Russia to China. After all, he traveled along the allied axis against a free Ukraine within its original borders.
By going it alone, Orbán is once again living up to his image as the bane of the EU. By coming up with a peace agenda that primarily fulfills Russian demands, he is undermining the efforts of a long line of EU representatives who have consistently delivered the same message in Beijing: Ukraine’s territorial integrity is a core European interest. Instead, Orbán once again shows how divided the EU really is, writes Michael Radunski.
Meanwhile, the CCP is preparing for a crucial meeting of the Central Committee, the most important body of the most powerful party on the planet. This Third Plenum will focus on economic matters and, consequently, on setting the course that will also be crucial for the fate of the German economy. Christiane Kuehl describes the conflicting positions within the party in the run-up – and how the sole ruler, Xi, might ultimately decide.
Viktor Orbán is on a “peace mission 3.0,” as Hungary’s Prime Minister described his trip to China on Monday. He met with China’s party and state leader Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai Guest House to discuss the war in Ukraine. Before his trip to China, Orbán had traveled to Kyiv and Moscow.
And so it seems that Viktor Orbán does everything right: Holding talks with all warring parties and Russia’s main ally, China. But Orbán’s China visit reveals three fundamental problems above all:
Accordingly, Orbán’s traveling diplomacy has not resulted in any concrete proposals. Instead, Xi merely ignited rhetorical smokescreens. On Monday, he once again called for a ceasefire with subsequent negotiations. He said that the situation in Ukraine must be cooled down as much as possible. Unfortunately, Xi did not say precisely how this should happen or what steps Beijing could take to achieve this. His recipe: “positive energy” is needed.
Yet Orbán’s analysis is correct. “The number of countries that can talk to both warring sides is diminishing,” he said. “Hungary is slowly becoming the only country in Europe that can speak to everyone.” A few days ago, Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council. On top of this, in addition to Ukraine and Russia, China, Vladimir Putin’s main partner, must also be involved.
But it had already become clear in Russia that Moscow, like Beijing, focused less on peace and more on propaganda. Orbán had come to Moscow as a top representative of the European Council, Vladimir Putin interpreted accordingly. In response, several high-ranking European officials pointed out that Orbán was not speaking on behalf of the EU, but could only discuss bilateral relations. His visits to Ukraine, Russia and China were not coordinated within the EU.
The picture is similar in Beijing, where there is no talk of war at all, but still of a crisis in Ukraine – a wording that once again shows how Beijing really thinks about the brutal Russian war of aggression that has left countless dead on both sides. CCTV’s Chinese website shows a distinctly different focus of the talks: The excellent Sino-Hungarian relations, which have recently been upgraded to the new era of an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” (我们宣布将中匈关系提升为新时代全天候全面战略伙伴关系).
But what about China’s peace efforts in Ukraine? Fairly poor. Officially, China claims to be neutral. But Chinese customs data, American intelligence information and evidence found on the battlefields in Ukraine show the true extent of China’s support for the Russian war machine.
Only recently, Xi reiterated that China firmly supports Russia in matters that affect its core interests – and nothing else is Putin’s obsession with Ukraine. According to Xi, a solution must respect legitimate security concerns – one of Putin’s justifications for the Russian attack. He says the aim is to create a new, balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture.
Moreover, it emerged at the start of the week that Chinese troops will participate in military exercises in Belarus in mid-July. The Chinese Ministry of Defence announced this on Sunday. A brief reminder: Belarus’ head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, granted Putin’s troops free access so that they could attack Ukraine from the north.
Instead of peace, Beijing pursues a much greater goal: The division of the West. And so it was no coincidence that Orbán and Xi met just one day before the upcoming NATO summit in Washington. After all, US President Joe Biden and the other heads of state and government will likely decide to support Ukraine further in its battle against the Russian invasion. And: Diplomatic circles claim that NATO plans to criticize China for its support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in its summit communiqué.
China rejects any criticism – and blames the West instead. NATO “has a blind faith in the use of force, holds on to a Cold War mentality, and creates bloc confrontation, which is the real threat to peace and stability in the region and the world.”
Both Washington and Brussels realize how important a unified stance is in this war. And this is where Viktor Orbán suddenly becomes very important for the leadership in Beijing. On Monday, Xi expressed his hope that Hungary, as the rotating presidency of the EU Council, will play a positive role in promoting relations between China and the EU.
After all, Orbán has molded his country into a Chinese asset in the EU, one that Beijing needs more than ever. While Brussels focuses on de-risking, Budapest firmly stands by Beijing. Hungary has repeatedly vetoed EU proposals condemning China for human rights violations or regarding Hong Kong or Taiwan. According to a calculation by the Budapest-based online portal valaszonline. hu, around 60 percent of vetoes against Russia or China have come from Hungary in the past six years. Against this backdrop, Orbán’s peace mission 3.0 unfortunately appears in a different light.
The long-awaited Third Plenum of the current 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is just around the corner. It traditionally sets the economic policy course for the next five years.
The CCP announced that the Third Plenum will begin on July 15. In CP terminology, a plenum is a meeting of all members of the Central Committee. The 367 members of the 20th Central Committee since the founding of the Party are in charge. Previous statements from the CP indicate that a “deepening of comprehensive reforms to promote Chinese modernization” will once again be adopted.
This formula indicates a continuation of previous policies rather than a fundamental change. Party leader Xi Jinping has been using it for years. The Communist Party already has a separate commission with this goal, founded and chaired by Xi himself.
The title of the Communist Party’s most important economic meeting in years reveals little at first. The agenda will only be officially unveiled at the plenary session and is expected to contain a lot of party-speak, such as “high-quality development” and “new productive forces.” Some of the Third Plenums of the past have sparked profound changes, such as the start of the opening-up policy under reform patriarch Deng Xiaoping. The ailing Chinese economy could do with something similar today.
A continuation of the current economic policy means that the focus will continue to be on higher spending on new production facilities and even higher manufacturing capacities. So far, Xi has favored a supply-side policy to bolster the economy: subsidizing companies and investments – and not the targeted stimulation of consumption and, thus, the demand side. Despite all his Communist propaganda, Xi rejects direct public aid payments to citizens.
This may also be thanks to his advisors: China’s high-ranking economists today have been influenced by the study of neoliberal Western supply-side policies in the era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, economics professor Li Dekui from Tsinghua University admitted at an event in June. “We’re supposed to say, okay, the government should work hard on the supply side; don’t worry about demand side; too much social welfare will kill the enthusiasm of the population for working hard. So I think we were wrong.” Li now advocates measures such as making it easier to buy a home or a consumption-orientated local policy. In other words, he is calling for a shift in economic policy.
Other advisors have also changed their minds. Chinese economists, Communist Party officials and the Consultative People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have called for a policy shift towards more demand-orientation in various areas. Some would like to see tax reforms to give financially struggling local governments more leeway and a consumption-orientated local policy.
Others have proposals for better health insurance. Some are calling for a proper reform of the hukou system, which still excludes migrant workers in the cities from many public services. All this would allow consumers to spend more and save less. That would be important, as consumer confidence has barely recovered from the pandemic so far.
Han Wenxiu, Deputy Director of the Office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs, wrote in mid-June in the Central Committee magazine Qiushi about his expectations for the Third Plenum. Zichen Wang from the Center for China and Globalisation translated the much-noticed text in his blog Pekingnology – despite the many CP clauses, he finds it interesting because Han is involved in shaping economic policy and is close to the decision-makers.
However, Han only ranks demand policy fifth out of six important points for the Third Plenum:
Despite Hans’ closeness to the central government, it is, of course, unclear to what extent these points actually reflect the CP’s plans and how they will be taken into account in the Third Plenum’s final communiqué.
Yao Yang, Director of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University, does not expect a new reform impetus. “The significant reforms in China were completed in the 1990s,” he said in a speech. “What we need to do now is not to initiate more reforms, but to consolidate the achievements of the reforms from the 1990s.”
In fact, the CCP leadership under Xi is currently eroding many liberalization steps of the reform era. This is why some experts call for more trust in the market to allow private companies to become more active again. The latter suffer under ever-new regulations, upheavals, or the obligation to integrate CCP cells into their companies. Private companies themselves also hope for market-orientated reforms. Yao expects the Third Plenum to announce economic targets for 2035.
The CEO of Dutch chip manufacturer ASML has called for an end to the sanctions against China. In an interview with the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, Christophe Fouquet said that China produces chips that are urgently needed in the West. “It makes no sense to stop someone from producing something that you need.” With Russian gas, it has been understood that alternatives have to be found first, but apparently not with chips, he said. ASML is a leading manufacturer of the technology used to produce the world’s most advanced semiconductors.
Fouquet’s position is geopolitically sensitive. The USA is pushing for more and more chip export restrictions against China. The US government wants to ban even more chip manufacturing equipment from being delivered to the country. So far, the sanctions have only applied to machines for expensive and specialized chips. Japan and the Netherlands, where ASML is headquartered, have also joined this initiative. The USA has also tried to prevent ASML from servicing the equipment it has already sold to Chinese customers. Fouquet is now openly opposing the US policy. The former ASML CEO, Peter Wennink, also sees such geopolitical superiority as a problem.
Fouquet is clear about what politicians should do instead: “We then recommend that governments build their own plants. Because you can’t make manufacturing more difficult for China and not create alternatives yourself.” rad
Eleven saves made Hassan Sunny a soccer god in China. The goalkeeper of Singapore’s national team might not have been able to prevent his team from losing 3-1 in the World Cup qualifier against Thailand. However, it was only thanks to his outstanding reflexes that the Chinese were able to avoid a heavier defeat and remain in second place in the final table ahead of the Thais. This allowed China to advance to the final qualification round and keep their hopes of a second World Cup appearance after 2002 alive.
The joy in soccer-mad China was correspondingly great. Hassan Sunny was showered with exuberant gratitude, and emotions ran high on social media. The fact that a goalkeeper fought like a mother lion for her offspring right up to the last second and prevented his team from losing another goal, despite the game only having statistical significance for his team, was celebrated in the People’s Republic as an act of human greatness and kindness.
Word quickly spread on the internet that the 40-year-old’s family ran the small Dapur Hassan restaurant in a hawker food center in Singapore. The stall quickly became a magnet for Chinese tourists and expatriates. Everyone wanted a photo to express gratitude to the goalkeeper’s family. For days, long queues of Chinese guests formed in front of the counter – ostensibly to satisfy their hunger, but in reality to give back some of the joy that Sunny Hassan had brought them.
Someone then came up with the idea of spreading the QR code of Dapur Hassan’s digital Alipay account on Chinese social media. And because soccer generates such strong emotions, many fans felt the need to express their gratitude to Sunny Hassan from afar and transferred money to the family business’s account in return.
The matter took on such a dynamic that after a few days, the goalkeeper felt compelled to urge an end to the donation campaign publicly. “I did enjoy it for a while. I was like, oh okay, money coming in. But having said that, I was thinking when is this going to stop? Is this legal?” Sunny told Channel News Asia (CNA). “Concerned people,” as he calls them, had advised him to “stay away from all this to avoid misunderstandings.” Scammers had also jumped on the bandwagon, spreading fake QR codes to steal the payments.
It is not officially known how much money flowed from China. Rumors estimate it to be several million euros, but it is unknown whether this is really true. Hassan initially said he wanted to save part of the money and invest another part in expanding the restaurant. He has since announced that he intends to donate the entire sum to charity.
Either way, his excellent performance will pay off financially. A global financial company from Singapore immediately put the goalkeeper on a plane to Shanghai to present him personally and exclusively to Chinese fans and media, certainly not without compensation.
The cryptocurrency exchange HTX also grabbed the opportunity and made Sunny its security officer. The post may be a short-lived invention. But HTX hopes that Sunny’s involvement will quickly boost its image – especially in Asia, which has a large market for digital currencies. The concept is obvious: Secure gatekeeper equals secure crypto exchange. “Just as Sunny fearlessly protects his goal on the field, HTX is committed to protecting every user’s assets with the same determination,” the company markets the collaboration.
However, if the soccer experts are right, the hype surrounding Hassan Sunny in China could be over in a few months. That is if the footballers from the People’s Republic fail on the home straight to the World Cup, which is widely expected. Then, Hassan Sunny will only be a fond memory of the time when the dream was still alive. Marcel Grzanna
Until recently, the far north-east of China was not particularly popular with tourists: Due to the long and icy winters and the many heavy industrial plants from the times when Stalin was still supporting the People’s Republic economically. Today, the trend has changed. Since climate change has made the summer months in the south and east of China so unbearably hot and humid, more and more travelers are flocking to Heilongjiang province. They are looking for a cooling respite in northeast China.
Municipalities like the town of Mohe in this photo spruce themselves up accordingly. Even in Heilongjiang, temperatures can exceed 30 degrees in summer. But that is still more bearable than what people back home in Hangzhou, Shanghai or Shenzhen have to endure these days with temperatures of over 40 degrees and extremely high humidity.
