We have already shown how the German Foreign Office plans to position Germany toward China. We also analyzed the plans of the Ministry of Economics. Now, Chancellor Olaf Scholz personally published a 13-page essay. The promising title: “Die globale Zeitenwende”.
Indeed, a Zeitenwende, as Scholz proclaimed in the German parliament, must not stop at Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine – as cruel as current events may be. Because apart from the daily horror stories about the war in Ukraine, the West faces a much greater challenge: the rise of China. Accordingly, our first piece today tells you how German Chancellor Olaf Scholz fits the rapid rise of the People’s Republic into his “globale Zeitenwende” and what consequences he draws from it.
Our second analysis looks at the situation of expats and university graduates on the Chinese job market. Every year, millions of students graduate from universities in China alone and have to prove themselves in the battle for the few jobs available. A classic oversupply, from which HR departments only have to cherry-pick – or at least that is what one would think.
But in reality, there is a surprisingly different phenomenon: Despite millions of graduates, many companies are unable to fill open job positions. Marcel Grzanna listed the most important reasons for you.
In a guest article with just under 13 pages for the renowned Foreign Affairs magazine, Olaf Scholz has explained his “Global Zeitenwende”. Right away, the chancellor notes, “The Zeitenwende goes beyond the war in Ukraine and beyond the issue of European security.” And yet, the chancellor’s essay focuses much on Russia, the war in Ukraine, and related European history.
This is understandable. However, the Zeitenwende must be seen globally. Because apart from the daily horror stories about the war in Ukraine, the West faces a far greater challenge: the rise of China. But Scholz does not follow through on his own announcement: In his essay, he mentions Russia more than 30 times, while China is mentioned only ten times.
“Many assume we are on the brink of an era of bipolarity in the international order. They see the dawn of a new Cold War approaching, one that will pit the United States against China,” writes Scholz and concludes, “I do not subscribe to this view.”
More than that, Scholz cautions the West: “China’s rise does not warrant isolating Beijing or curbing cooperation.” His rationale is that China has instead developed into a “global player” – a role that the country had already held earlier in world history.
That is true. But Scholz fails to mention a fundamental difference between then and now: Imperial China was once the world’s leading power, its military, economy and innovation far superior to Europe’s. But it rested in itself, it was self-sufficient. What the expression “Tianxia” (天下) – everything under heaven – implies as a theoretical self-understanding was practically demonstrated, among other things, in the ordered destruction of Admiral Zheng He’s fleet. China was the center of the world – and the uncivilized barbarians were present themselves to Beijing.
By contrast, Xi Jinping‘s China today shows clear expansionist tendencies – diplomatically, for example, in UN bodies, power-politically in the South China Sea or its behavior toward Taiwan.
Scholz is also aware that China’s rise will not be entirely smooth and without consequences for the international community. Accordingly, he urges the People’s Republic in his essay to abide by UN rules. “Respecting basic rights and freedoms can never be an ‘internal matter’ for individual states because every UN member state vows to uphold them.”
Nor would China’s growing power justify Beijing’s hegemonic claims, neither in Asia nor elsewhere, Scholz wrote. “In Beijing, I also raised concerns over the growing insecurity in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait and questioned China’s approach to human rights and individual freedoms.”
When it comes to Germany, Scholz seems to see one problem above all: unequal competitive conditions. While Beijing massively subsidizes its companies and demands open access to foreign markets for its companies, international companies have to accept more and more restrictions in China. They accept this because the huge market in China is too tempting. But it is not fair.
Accordingly, Scholz writes: “In concert with its European partners, Germany will continue to demand a level playing field for European and Chinese companies. China does too little in this regard and has taken a noticeable turn toward isolation and away from openness.”
What appears to be a straightforward stance, however, turns out to be wishful thinking upon closer inspection. Particularly, the promise to coordinate with European partners and to take a joint stance vis-à-vis China would be the right approach.
The theory of words and the actual reality are unfortunately at odds: It was the French President Emmanuel Macron who wanted to travel to Beijing together with Olaf Scholz – and it was unfortunately the German Chancellor who preferred to make a 13-hour solo trip rather than travel together with his partner from Paris and display European unity to China.
And so what is left of Scholz’s essay is above all three things: He does not see a new bipolarity between the United States and China dawning in the international order; rather, he warns against isolating Beijing. On these two points, some may agree, others may disagree.
However, the third point is alarming: Scholz seems to see China as a threat only in the regional sphere, in the South China Sea or to Taiwan. To the international order, let alone Europe and Germany, Scholz seems to count on Xi Jinping’s humility. The German Foreign Office, the Ministry of Economics and the European Union seem to be a few steps ahead in their perception of China as a partner, competitor and rival.
German companies in China are not only facing a shortage of skilled workers due to expatriates fleeing the country. Although more and more job positions undoubtedly remain vacant because radical Covid policies and growing nationalism in the country drive foreign workers out of the People’s Republic in droves, the local supply should theoretically be able to fill the gaps. After all, millions of university students graduate every year.
But in fact, the number of potential Chinese applicants shrinks to a minimum when German companies look for new employees. One of the reasons is: In the professional world, the demand by employers for a combination of technical, organizational and communicative skills increasingly clashes with applicants who lack personal maturity and the ability to function on their own.
“I notice that many Chinese students leave university with a total lack of independence. That is different in Germany,” says Andreas Risch, China Head of the automotive supplier Fette Compacting and Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Nanjing. Risch says he often senses in job interviews that applicants often expect to automatically climb the career ladder as fast as possible and do not take their own abilities into account enough.
“People come in who want to know specifically during the interview and ask several times when they will be promoted to a management position,” Risch said about the exodus of skilled workers and managers in the second-largest economy. However, he said he is unable to give a straight answer to this question. This is because advancement in a company is not a predefined path, but the result of many components, but above all the personality of the other person.
Estimating this right away is impossible. Instead, new employees have to prove their skills every day. Risch sees a big challenge ahead for many university graduates here. “The drive to learn, especially from one’s own mistakes, has diminished. Partly because their environment leaves students little room to do so.”
The phenomenon of so-called helicopter parents is particularly prevalent in China. Some parents even accompany their students abroad to help them set up their own lives there. These parents are also often the ones who seek talks with companies to discuss the development of their adult child with their superiors. Under such circumstances, qualities that enable young Chinese to achieve greater things hardly crystallize.
The result is even fiercer competition for skilled employees. Medium-sized companies in particular are struggling, as their names are less attractive to Chinese talent than those of global corporations. Simply filling job positions with expatriates also becomes harder and harder. Strict visa requirements, the reluctance of German employees to move to China, and higher localization rates reduce the number of alternatives.
“Less than five percent of all job vacancies are offered to foreigners at all. 19 out of 20 offers are aimed at Chinese,” says Managing Director Miriam Wickertsheim of DirectHR, a recruitment company in Shanghai. That is why Wickertsheim advises young German students interested in a job in China to first look elsewhere for a job abroad, as there are too few vacancies in the People’s Republic. She believes that employees who already live in China and want to apply for a middle management position have a better chance.
For SMEs, the situation has at least improved somewhat thanks to the experience of the Covid period, although it has by no means optimized, says Wickertsheim. The mobility of young employees has decreased, and their willingness to join smaller companies in the countryside has increased somewhat as a result. Employees in China are also less willing to change jobs, and the average time with a company has increased.
Nevertheless, whether promising candidates accept a position often depends on their salary. Whether the applicant’s personality meets the company’s demands in the long term only becomes clear after a certain time – but by then the cost spiral of HR costs can no longer be reversed.
At the age of 14, Francis Kremer was already determined to become an international businessman. He was interested in business and in faraway places. Today, at age 39, he has reached his goal as head of sales and marketing for Juli Automotion, a Chinese engine manufacturer and Tier 1 supplier located in a Shanghai suburb. “I just couldn’t imagine a life in Germany,” Kremer says. “I’m curious about the world.”
Kremer grew up in Gummersbach near the German city of Cologne, his mother was Irish, his father German. For his studies, Kremer moved to the Frankfurt area, studied business administration in Aschaffenburg. “I looked for the most exotic continent possible and traveled to South America.” But Latin America wasn’t that much different from Europe, he says, which led to the desire to move to China. For Kremer, it was more of a rational decision than an emotional one. In 2004, he visited the country for the first time. In Aschaffenburg, he met his future wife, a Chinese woman. In 2017, he moved to China and worked for the Austrian STIWA Group.
Kremer has been in charge of sales at Juli Automotion for almost three years. He also has a second job: “I’m there to make sure the company has an international face,” Kremer says. The company employs 450 people, and Kremer’s team consists of twelve people. He says that he wanted to establish a culture of ownership from the very beginning: flat hierarchies, more freedom for everyone. It took a long time for that to catch on because the Chinese are used to tougher leadership. “But this has sparked a new energy among the Chinese,” Kremer says. “It only recently happened that my boss came up to me and asked for my opinion.”
Francis Kremer wants to pass on his experience as a “China Dreamer” – for example with the podcast “China Flexpat,” where he talks to other Germans in China. In October, he also published the Chinese textbook “Chinese On Your Terms,” which aims to make it easier to learn the language. He considers himself a “China Influencer”. “I want to support people who have an urge similar to mine, but don’t know how to get to China.”
On vacation, Kremer likes to go on backpacking bike tours through China. Most recently, he spent three weeks in the southwest. This kind of vacation is not typically Chinese, he says. On the whole tour, he met only three other cyclists.
Kremer lives in a patchwork family, his current fiancée has a son, and they live in another city. He wasn’t able to see his family for two months during the summer because he wasn’t allowed to leave his city due to Covid restrictions. For him, though, it was not so bad. “It’s a mindset thing,” Kremer says. “I then just wrote a book and expanded the podcast, and things are going well at the company, too.” Kremer is someone who is not easily thrown off track by anything. Tom Schmidtgen
Winter is approaching in full splendor – here in the Hengshan Mountains in the Province of Hunan. The mountain range south of Changsha is home to one of the Five Sacred Mountains (五岳, Wǔyuè) of Daoism.
We have already shown how the German Foreign Office plans to position Germany toward China. We also analyzed the plans of the Ministry of Economics. Now, Chancellor Olaf Scholz personally published a 13-page essay. The promising title: “Die globale Zeitenwende”.
Indeed, a Zeitenwende, as Scholz proclaimed in the German parliament, must not stop at Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine – as cruel as current events may be. Because apart from the daily horror stories about the war in Ukraine, the West faces a much greater challenge: the rise of China. Accordingly, our first piece today tells you how German Chancellor Olaf Scholz fits the rapid rise of the People’s Republic into his “globale Zeitenwende” and what consequences he draws from it.
Our second analysis looks at the situation of expats and university graduates on the Chinese job market. Every year, millions of students graduate from universities in China alone and have to prove themselves in the battle for the few jobs available. A classic oversupply, from which HR departments only have to cherry-pick – or at least that is what one would think.
But in reality, there is a surprisingly different phenomenon: Despite millions of graduates, many companies are unable to fill open job positions. Marcel Grzanna listed the most important reasons for you.
In a guest article with just under 13 pages for the renowned Foreign Affairs magazine, Olaf Scholz has explained his “Global Zeitenwende”. Right away, the chancellor notes, “The Zeitenwende goes beyond the war in Ukraine and beyond the issue of European security.” And yet, the chancellor’s essay focuses much on Russia, the war in Ukraine, and related European history.
This is understandable. However, the Zeitenwende must be seen globally. Because apart from the daily horror stories about the war in Ukraine, the West faces a far greater challenge: the rise of China. But Scholz does not follow through on his own announcement: In his essay, he mentions Russia more than 30 times, while China is mentioned only ten times.
“Many assume we are on the brink of an era of bipolarity in the international order. They see the dawn of a new Cold War approaching, one that will pit the United States against China,” writes Scholz and concludes, “I do not subscribe to this view.”
More than that, Scholz cautions the West: “China’s rise does not warrant isolating Beijing or curbing cooperation.” His rationale is that China has instead developed into a “global player” – a role that the country had already held earlier in world history.
That is true. But Scholz fails to mention a fundamental difference between then and now: Imperial China was once the world’s leading power, its military, economy and innovation far superior to Europe’s. But it rested in itself, it was self-sufficient. What the expression “Tianxia” (天下) – everything under heaven – implies as a theoretical self-understanding was practically demonstrated, among other things, in the ordered destruction of Admiral Zheng He’s fleet. China was the center of the world – and the uncivilized barbarians were present themselves to Beijing.
By contrast, Xi Jinping‘s China today shows clear expansionist tendencies – diplomatically, for example, in UN bodies, power-politically in the South China Sea or its behavior toward Taiwan.
Scholz is also aware that China’s rise will not be entirely smooth and without consequences for the international community. Accordingly, he urges the People’s Republic in his essay to abide by UN rules. “Respecting basic rights and freedoms can never be an ‘internal matter’ for individual states because every UN member state vows to uphold them.”
Nor would China’s growing power justify Beijing’s hegemonic claims, neither in Asia nor elsewhere, Scholz wrote. “In Beijing, I also raised concerns over the growing insecurity in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait and questioned China’s approach to human rights and individual freedoms.”
When it comes to Germany, Scholz seems to see one problem above all: unequal competitive conditions. While Beijing massively subsidizes its companies and demands open access to foreign markets for its companies, international companies have to accept more and more restrictions in China. They accept this because the huge market in China is too tempting. But it is not fair.
Accordingly, Scholz writes: “In concert with its European partners, Germany will continue to demand a level playing field for European and Chinese companies. China does too little in this regard and has taken a noticeable turn toward isolation and away from openness.”
What appears to be a straightforward stance, however, turns out to be wishful thinking upon closer inspection. Particularly, the promise to coordinate with European partners and to take a joint stance vis-à-vis China would be the right approach.
The theory of words and the actual reality are unfortunately at odds: It was the French President Emmanuel Macron who wanted to travel to Beijing together with Olaf Scholz – and it was unfortunately the German Chancellor who preferred to make a 13-hour solo trip rather than travel together with his partner from Paris and display European unity to China.
And so what is left of Scholz’s essay is above all three things: He does not see a new bipolarity between the United States and China dawning in the international order; rather, he warns against isolating Beijing. On these two points, some may agree, others may disagree.
However, the third point is alarming: Scholz seems to see China as a threat only in the regional sphere, in the South China Sea or to Taiwan. To the international order, let alone Europe and Germany, Scholz seems to count on Xi Jinping’s humility. The German Foreign Office, the Ministry of Economics and the European Union seem to be a few steps ahead in their perception of China as a partner, competitor and rival.
German companies in China are not only facing a shortage of skilled workers due to expatriates fleeing the country. Although more and more job positions undoubtedly remain vacant because radical Covid policies and growing nationalism in the country drive foreign workers out of the People’s Republic in droves, the local supply should theoretically be able to fill the gaps. After all, millions of university students graduate every year.
But in fact, the number of potential Chinese applicants shrinks to a minimum when German companies look for new employees. One of the reasons is: In the professional world, the demand by employers for a combination of technical, organizational and communicative skills increasingly clashes with applicants who lack personal maturity and the ability to function on their own.
“I notice that many Chinese students leave university with a total lack of independence. That is different in Germany,” says Andreas Risch, China Head of the automotive supplier Fette Compacting and Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Nanjing. Risch says he often senses in job interviews that applicants often expect to automatically climb the career ladder as fast as possible and do not take their own abilities into account enough.
“People come in who want to know specifically during the interview and ask several times when they will be promoted to a management position,” Risch said about the exodus of skilled workers and managers in the second-largest economy. However, he said he is unable to give a straight answer to this question. This is because advancement in a company is not a predefined path, but the result of many components, but above all the personality of the other person.
Estimating this right away is impossible. Instead, new employees have to prove their skills every day. Risch sees a big challenge ahead for many university graduates here. “The drive to learn, especially from one’s own mistakes, has diminished. Partly because their environment leaves students little room to do so.”
The phenomenon of so-called helicopter parents is particularly prevalent in China. Some parents even accompany their students abroad to help them set up their own lives there. These parents are also often the ones who seek talks with companies to discuss the development of their adult child with their superiors. Under such circumstances, qualities that enable young Chinese to achieve greater things hardly crystallize.
The result is even fiercer competition for skilled employees. Medium-sized companies in particular are struggling, as their names are less attractive to Chinese talent than those of global corporations. Simply filling job positions with expatriates also becomes harder and harder. Strict visa requirements, the reluctance of German employees to move to China, and higher localization rates reduce the number of alternatives.
“Less than five percent of all job vacancies are offered to foreigners at all. 19 out of 20 offers are aimed at Chinese,” says Managing Director Miriam Wickertsheim of DirectHR, a recruitment company in Shanghai. That is why Wickertsheim advises young German students interested in a job in China to first look elsewhere for a job abroad, as there are too few vacancies in the People’s Republic. She believes that employees who already live in China and want to apply for a middle management position have a better chance.
For SMEs, the situation has at least improved somewhat thanks to the experience of the Covid period, although it has by no means optimized, says Wickertsheim. The mobility of young employees has decreased, and their willingness to join smaller companies in the countryside has increased somewhat as a result. Employees in China are also less willing to change jobs, and the average time with a company has increased.
Nevertheless, whether promising candidates accept a position often depends on their salary. Whether the applicant’s personality meets the company’s demands in the long term only becomes clear after a certain time – but by then the cost spiral of HR costs can no longer be reversed.
At the age of 14, Francis Kremer was already determined to become an international businessman. He was interested in business and in faraway places. Today, at age 39, he has reached his goal as head of sales and marketing for Juli Automotion, a Chinese engine manufacturer and Tier 1 supplier located in a Shanghai suburb. “I just couldn’t imagine a life in Germany,” Kremer says. “I’m curious about the world.”
Kremer grew up in Gummersbach near the German city of Cologne, his mother was Irish, his father German. For his studies, Kremer moved to the Frankfurt area, studied business administration in Aschaffenburg. “I looked for the most exotic continent possible and traveled to South America.” But Latin America wasn’t that much different from Europe, he says, which led to the desire to move to China. For Kremer, it was more of a rational decision than an emotional one. In 2004, he visited the country for the first time. In Aschaffenburg, he met his future wife, a Chinese woman. In 2017, he moved to China and worked for the Austrian STIWA Group.
Kremer has been in charge of sales at Juli Automotion for almost three years. He also has a second job: “I’m there to make sure the company has an international face,” Kremer says. The company employs 450 people, and Kremer’s team consists of twelve people. He says that he wanted to establish a culture of ownership from the very beginning: flat hierarchies, more freedom for everyone. It took a long time for that to catch on because the Chinese are used to tougher leadership. “But this has sparked a new energy among the Chinese,” Kremer says. “It only recently happened that my boss came up to me and asked for my opinion.”
Francis Kremer wants to pass on his experience as a “China Dreamer” – for example with the podcast “China Flexpat,” where he talks to other Germans in China. In October, he also published the Chinese textbook “Chinese On Your Terms,” which aims to make it easier to learn the language. He considers himself a “China Influencer”. “I want to support people who have an urge similar to mine, but don’t know how to get to China.”
On vacation, Kremer likes to go on backpacking bike tours through China. Most recently, he spent three weeks in the southwest. This kind of vacation is not typically Chinese, he says. On the whole tour, he met only three other cyclists.
Kremer lives in a patchwork family, his current fiancée has a son, and they live in another city. He wasn’t able to see his family for two months during the summer because he wasn’t allowed to leave his city due to Covid restrictions. For him, though, it was not so bad. “It’s a mindset thing,” Kremer says. “I then just wrote a book and expanded the podcast, and things are going well at the company, too.” Kremer is someone who is not easily thrown off track by anything. Tom Schmidtgen
Winter is approaching in full splendor – here in the Hengshan Mountains in the Province of Hunan. The mountain range south of Changsha is home to one of the Five Sacred Mountains (五岳, Wǔyuè) of Daoism.
