Serious accusation of cyber espionage + Doping controversy continues

Dear reader,

Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy – that doesn’t exactly sound like James Bond. However, this perception may have already changed considerably with the news that Chinese hackers successfully spied on this German agency three years ago.

In his analysis, Finn Mayer-Kuckuk explains how successful this attack actually was: the official map data of Germany – in 3D! This is of significant military value, and not just because of China’s close friendship with the aggressor Russia.

That is why it is so important that the German government adheres to its China strategy presented last year and finds clear words for the attack. After all, the three-year-old story simply illustrates the ever-increasing threat situation.

Is this still the Olympics, or is it kindergarten? Some may have wondered this when they heard about how top athletes treat each other with contempt and ignorance or about top coaches who were deliberately splashed with water.

But the absurd behavior has a serious background: Pan Zhanle swam to victory in Paris faster than anyone ever before. He won by a body length and a whole 1.08 seconds ahead of the second-placed swimmer. This literally unbelievable superiority, in combination with the positive Chinese doping tests of the past and their outrageous justifications, is why the world record holder now feels discriminated against by his competitors. The sad thing is that Pan himself has never tested positive.

Michael Radunski has unraveled the complex situation surrounding China’s disliked Olympic participants. His conclusion is that China’s dubious system is by no means the only culprit, and the inconsistent international control institutions are also to blame.

Your
Carolyn Braun

Ambassador summoned: Why China spied on Germany’s Cartography Agency

Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie — In China’s sights: The German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy in Frankfurt am Main.

By

Finn Mayer-Kuckuk

The cyberattack happened three years ago, but the ambassador has only just been summoned. On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry requested a talk with China’s representative in Berlin, Wu Ken. The topic of the unpleasant meeting: espionage at an important federal agency. The Ministry of the Interior has now been able to provide evidence: Chinese state hackers have infiltrated the systems of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy.

Such an attack has implications for Germany’s security. The military has always needed map data for its operations – and no one has mapped Germany in such detail as the Federal Agency for Cartography. Germany’s security agencies have proven that the attackers were able to freely access a part of the Cartographic Agency’s network in 2021. China, in turn, accuses Germany of “hostility.”

Signal to China: Not like this

It was a suitable occasion for the German government to try out its new policy of frank words towards China. The Foreign Office and the Ministry of the Interior, which played a key role in drafting the “Strategy on China,” are now bringing it to life.

The strategy paper published in July 2023 called for a fundamentally different China policy. The protection of critical infrastructure and cybersecurity have their own sub-chapters. “The Federal Government is taking decisive action to counter malicious cyber activity,” the paper states.

The proven case of espionage at a federal agency has now shown that Germany will not silently tolerate everything. “It’s also about sending a signal to China in the event of clear attribution that the German side is aware of these cyber-attacks and will not tolerate them diplomatically,” says Dennis-Kenji Kipker, Research Director and co-founder of the Cyberintelligence Institute in Frankfurt.

Germany’s ‘digital twin’ – for Russia’s strategists?

However, the German government cannot take espionage at the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy lightly because it also has military relevance. The Cartography Agency manages Germany’s official map data – and not just as dull maps, but in 3D. It is now even working on a digital twin of Germany: a highly detailed model of the entire country. The Agency even knows the thickness of soil layers in Germany, what they are made of, and where.

This data would be invaluable to an attacker. Cruise missiles could use it to navigate around hills and wind turbines, a tank army could optimally plan its advance, network nodes could be identified and switched off and other weak points in the infrastructure could be identified. Moreover, China is allied with Russia, which has already openly threatened Germany with war.

The Ministry of the Interior has no doubt

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is confident that she has evidence of a Chinese attack. “We call on China to refrain from and prevent such cyberattacks. These cyberattacks threaten the digital sovereignty of Germany and Europe,” she said in a press release.

In fact, there are now rules for what can be considered an attack by a foreign power. “Germany has had a national attribution procedure for cyberattacks since 2021,” says Kipker. This technical and political process examines whether a diplomatically relevant accusation is justified. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) plays a key role here. Before going public, the government usually coordinates with allied nations.

Faeser expects further attacks from China

However, as ominous as the attack on the Federal Card Office is, it is only a tiny part of a larger picture. Feaser’s ministry has registered numerous other cyberattacks against German organizations originating from China. The targets came from all sectors of society:

Companies
Administration
Private individuals were targeted.

This is by no means a repeat of an old game, but an increasing threat. “The methods used by cyber espionage actors have undergone significant qualitative and quantitative development, which has enabled them to achieve an unprecedented reach and effectiveness,” the ministry states. IT service providers working for public agencies were particularly affected.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s national intelligence service, is responsible for the investigation. On Thursday, it also published a new paper analyzing Chinese intelligence activities.

Cybersecurity expert Kipker expects that investigators will still have their hands full in the future. “I don’t think a diplomatic warning like this will change anything, because espionage has always existed and will continue to exist with the increased digital possibilities,” he says. “It would therefore make more sense to use this incident to strengthen cybersecurity capacities in the public administration in Germany across the board.”

Olympic Games: How Pan Zhanle’s world record drowns in the Chinese doping mire

Gold medal and world record: Pan Zhanle celebrates a perfect 100-meter freestyle race at the Olympic Games in Paris.

By

Michael Radunski

Pan Zhanle (潘展乐) is the world’s fastest swimmer. The Chinese athlete covered the 100-meter freestyle in an incredible 46.40 seconds. That’s gold – and the first world record at the Olympic Games in Paris. At the competition in Paris’ La Défense Arena, the 19-year-old Chinese swimmer beat his own record by a whole four-tenths of a second. But Pan’s marvelous performance is being overshadowed.

For one, China’s swimmers have been under particular scrutiny since it became known in April that 23 athletes tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine in 2021 and yet were not penalized. Two further cases only surfaced on Tuesday.
Secondly, the impact that rumors, reports, and, above all, unsanctioned doping offenses have on the athletes themselves can now be seen in Paris. Instead of celebrating his success, Pan complained while standing on the edge of the pool about being ostracized and ignored by other athletes.

Distrust among athletes is growing, and their interactions are getting harsher. This is particularly painful, as competitions should really only be about the athletes and their performances. The culprits are a Chinese doping regime and inconsistent institutions such as the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA. Pan Zhanle’s story illustrates this sad development.

Pan complains about being excluded

Immediately after his success, he willingly gave interviews to the Chinese media on the side of the pool. But instead of savoring his victory, he struck a reflective note and criticized second-placed Australian Kyle Chalmers and swimmers from other countries.

Pan told Chinese broadcaster CCTV: “On the first day, at the 4×100 relay, after we finished swimming I greeted Chalmers. He didn’t pay me any attention at all.” Other swimmers, such as the American Jack Alexy, had patronized him. He said that during training, Alexy and other US swimmers practiced roll turns in front of Pan’s coaches, deliberately splashing water directly onto the Chinese coaches.

“This behavior seemed a bit disrespectful to us,” Pan lamented, adding: “Can I say that?” A few seconds later, however, the Olympic champion had obviously regained his self-confidence and said: “But today, we beat all of them, and broke the world record in such a difficult pool.”

Chalmers denies the accusations. But the supposedly personal dispute between two opponents reveals the bigger problem: China’s doping and the shady behavior of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA.

China’s swimmers test positive – and participate in the Olympics

China’s doping affair is the big shadow hanging over the Olympic Games in Paris. And new reports keep coming in. But first things first: Three years ago, 23 top Chinese swimmers tested positive for taking the heart medication trimetazidine – but were not penalized for it. WADA was satisfied with flimsy excuses from the Chinese Swimming Association. And so, the athletes were allowed to participate freely in subsequent competitions, such as the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Two more cases became public on Tuesday. The New York Times reported that the anabolic steroid Metandienone had been found in Tang Muhan and He Junyi in 2022. They were not banned either. Each time, China’s authorities and anti-doping bodies present a new contamination theory: sometimes the hotel kitchen was contaminated, other times the meat or the accompanying hamburger. What’s more, a total of eleven Chinese swimming athletes who tested positive are competing at the Games in Paris.

Pan’s world record ‘not humanly possible’

The bizarre thing is that Pan Zhanle does not belong to the group of swimmers who tested positive. And yet his success is now also being viewed with skepticism.

Pan not only won in a world record time but also was a full body length and 1.08 seconds ahead of the second-placed swimmer. Typically, the difference between first and second in the men’s 100-meter freestyle is a few thousandths of a second. In London 2012, it was 0.01 seconds, and in Tokyo 2020, it was 0.06 seconds.

Other athletes and their coaches are correspondingly angry. China’s successes are viewed with suspicion. “I’ve studied this sport. I’ve studied speed. I understand it,” said former Australian Olympic athlete Brett Hawke after Pan’s victory. “That’s not real, you don’t beat that field […] you don’t beat those guys by one full body length in 100 freestyle. That’s not humanly possible.” Hawke is now the coach of the Australian swimming team.

China’s media smell a conspiracy

Chinese media, such as the Global Times and Sina Weibo, have already begun to suspect a conspiracy against China. Hawke refuses to accept this and emphasizes: “I don’t care what you say. This is not a race thing, this is not against any one particular person or nation, this is just what I see and what I know.”

And so, Pan Zhanle’s victory is a sad development. Instead of talking about his swimming technique, his hard training or his outstanding performance in the race, people mainly talk about WADA, contaminated kitchens and hamburger meat. Such a critical eye is important in the media. But between athletes, mutual mistrust shakes the very foundations of sporting competition.

Ukraine war: Why Zelenskiy sees Beijing as more than a mediator

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejects China as a mediator in the war with Russia, which has been raging for 29 months. “If China wants to, it can force Russia to stop this war. I do not want (China) to act as a mediator. I would like it to put pressure on Russia to put an end to this war,” Zelenskiy told reporters.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently visited China to sound out whether the People’s Republic could play a constructive role in achieving a just peace. Immediately afterward, Ukraine invited Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for a return visit. In June, Switzerland hosted a peace summit in which neither Russia nor China participated. A second such summit is planned for November, at which Russia’s participation is still possible. rtr/cyb

EV tariffs: Why German car manufacturers expect lower rates

Car manufacturer BMW expects the extra tariffs provisionally imposed by the European Union on Chinese EVs to be softened. “After intensive discussions, we are confident that the very high tariff of 37.6 percent will not be imposed,” said BMW CEO Oliver Zipse on Thursday. The better solution would be equally high tariffs on both sides, preferably none at all. Zipse called the extra import duties a dead end. They are the EU’s response to unfair competitive advantages due to Chinese subsidies for EV production. BMW is affected because the electric Mini is built in China and exported to Europe. However, the car manufacturer would not fall under the maximum rate of 37.6 percent. “Such measures do not strengthen the competitiveness of European manufacturers,” the CEO criticized, “on the contrary.”

According to Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume, the government in Beijing is open to talks on a fair solution to EV tariffs. This was the impression he gained in talks with ministers during his recent trip to the People’s Republic, said Blume. He also called for a customs system that favors companies that invest in the respective region. He said it was positive when Chinese car manufacturers created jobs in Europe. “If we invest in China, we want to benefit from a similar agreement.” rtr

AI chips: The US considers these restrictions

The US is apparently considering unilaterally restricting China’s access to AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment as early as August. According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, the measure is intended to prevent the US manufacturer Micron and the leading South Korean companies SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics from supplying Chinese companies with so-called HBM chips. HBM stands for high-bandwidth memory. No final decision has yet been made. The three companies dominate the global HBM market.

The Biden administration is working on several restrictions aimed at keeping key technology out of the hands of Chinese manufacturers, including limiting the sale of chip manufacturing equipment. Micron would be largely unaffected by the planned regulation, as the Idaho-based chipmaker has refrained from selling its HBM products to China since 2023, the sources told Bloomberg.

It remains unclear what powers the US would use to impose restrictions on South Korean companies. One possibility is the Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR), which allows Washington to inspect foreign-made products if they contain even the slightest traces of US technology. The new restrictions could be unveiled as early as the end of August as part of a broader package of rules that also includes sanctions against more than 120 Chinese companies and new restrictions on various types of chip equipment. However, Reuters also reports that important allies such as Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea will be exempt. cyb

Sovereign debt: What are China’s motives for lending

The reasons behind the West’s and China’s lending to African countries are very different. This is the conclusion of a new study by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), which was one of the first institutes to analyze the motivations for lending. The study’s finding that China’s lending is primarily driven by its economic interests is hardly surprising. However, What is new is an insight into Western loans: Western countries also pursue goals with lending that appear to contradict their own interests.

For this study, IfW author Eckhardt Bode systematically compared China’s lending with that of six major Western countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and the USA) between 2000 and 2019. The corresponding data is based on the IfW’s Africa Debt Database, a dataset of almost 7,000 loans granted to African countries by China, Western countries and multilateral organizations.

Disproportionately high interest rates

The study found that China tended to grant loans to African countries with more natural resources, a lower default risk and a higher willingness to pay for credit during this period. Beijing took advantage of African countries’ higher willingness to pay by charging disproportionately high interest rates for its loans. These motives are not reflected in the lending of Western countries, which tended to lend to resource-poor and highly indebted countries and charged lower interest rates on loans. The Western approach could be motivated by the provision of development aid, Bode suspects. However, Bode says that further research is needed to determine the actual reasons.

China’s lending was primarily driven by economic interests: The promotion of its own economic growth, access to natural resources, the expansion of Chinese companies abroad and the investment of its enormous foreign exchange reserves. Access to Africa’s resources and markets is also a reason for Western countries to grant loans. However, the West limited itself to securing existing imports, while China focused on tapping into new suppliers.

Debt crisis requires a willingness to compromise

Geopolitical considerations also played a role for China: Beijing was more likely to lend to African countries that support the one-China principle-i.e., do not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state-and tend to agree with China’s positions in the UN General Assembly. Western countries did not share these motives and preferred lending to countries with stable governments.

Currently, some of China’s African debtors, including Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia, are in serious financial difficulties. Negotiations on sovereign debt restructuring are not progressing well, partly due to the still unresolved conflicts of interest and deep mistrust between China and Western countries. “China’s current unwillingness to compromise in the debt negotiations could exacerbate the debt crisis and drive other African countries into insolvency.”

“The current approach is reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s when Western creditors took a similarly tough stance towards indebted Latin American countries,” warns IfW researcher Bode. “These countries then lost a decade due to recurring payment problems and a delayed economic recovery.” ajs

Olympics: Why China is so critical of the opening ceremony

The Paris Olympic Games’ opening ceremony has offended not only conservatives in the West but also their counterparts in China, who lambasted it for having too much sex-related content and for ignoring non-Western people’s sensitivity to them. While major official media outlets refrained from badmouthing the ceremony, vitriolic criticism went unbridled on social media.

In a lengthy article titled Arrogance, Impertinence and Degeneracy, a popular nationalistic opinion leader said the ceremony would have a bad influence on children because it was “highly sexualized” and contained “too much LGBT propaganda.” The Olympics “shouldn’t have been (the White Lefties’ 白左 sic) teaching scene on sexuality’s complexity and fluidity,” writes Ren Yi, an investment banker in Beijing and also an influential blogger on politics and international relations. The article achieved more than 100,000 reads within three days.

Ren said the creators of the show, from a multi-racial, multi-cultural country, must have been aware it would exasperate people from some other cultures. But they still staged it the way they wanted it because they were just “self-centered and had no respect for others,” he said. Ren was echoed on Chinese social media by many, who heaped denouncements such as “chaotic cultural garbage” and even “the funeral of Western civilization” at the ceremony.

No threesome, please!

The scene of a triad tryst in a library was particularly irksome to some Chinese critics. The trio “sullied great French classics they were reading!” claimed a member of a chat group I am also in. She appeared to have incomplete knowledge of the books, most of which are about immoral relationships by traditional standards.

The commentator for Chinese television’s live broadcasting of the opening ceremony was silent for a long interval while triad romance was on. This is something that would be absolutely forbidden on Chinese screens. Not only the three-way romance, but also LGBT, tattoos and piercings. Obviously, the people at the Chinese Central Television didn’t have a plan B for something so shocking to them. And they also didn’t have the guts to interrupt the broadcasting, which would have caused a scandal.

Still, a substantial group of people in China appreciate the gala’s inclusiveness. Critics like Ren dismissed these people as blind admirers of the West with an inferiority complex. Their minds have been “colonized,” said one on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.

Right turn with Chinese characteristics

Chinese society has become much more conservative during the past decade. During the first years of the century, China saw burgeoning movements for feminism, LGBT visibility and cultural diversity, which suffered severe censorship and crackdown since Xi Jinping came into power.

The liberal-minded people have hunkered down while conservative voices have become increasingly loud. Self-proclaimed guards for “traditional values” and Chinese culture would verbally – sometimes even physically – attack people for wearing unconventional or exotic attire or showing same-sex intimacy.

Nostalgia lingers, but enthusiasm fades

Understandably, many Chinese are still nostalgic about the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and their Riefenstahl-style opening ceremony, where all individuals were little atoms in a sea-like army of performers. Sadly, those heady days were long gone. Now, the diehard patriotists complained that China was not given the spotlight it deserved: the Chinese team had to share a boat with athletes from other countries and was given only a fleeting appearance on the screen.

Nevertheless, the Chinese public’s passion for the Olympics has unmistakably diminished. After all, the Chinese audience seemed to have finally realized that Olympic medals would not improve their gloomy income prospects even a bit.

Anger at Chinese delegation’s extravagance

In the run-up to the Olympics, government media were still using the old playbook to cover the national team’s lavish preparation. The Chinese delegation, which has been using vast amounts of taxpayers’ money for decades, includes 300 non-athlete staff and a 2000-strong TV crew. Official media reported that the national team brought more than 300 air conditioners and their own mattresses. National television proudly showed footage of lorry trucks with containers carrying stuff for the Chinese team driving past Paris’ landmark buildings.

The news, meant to showcase the country’s financial prowess and the government’s commitment to helping Chinese athletes win glory for the country, however, backfired, meeting with massive ridicule and criticism for the excesses. Feeling the public anger, the Chinese delegation went out of its way to decline the report about air conditioners and mattresses.

This is what it looks like when thousands of fishing boats are allowed to set sail again from Zhoushan in the coastal province of Zhejiang after a three-month fishing moratorium. Why this moratorium? Fishing vessels from the entire region must dock and take a three-month break to allow fish stocks in the East China Sea to recover, at least to some extent. This helps – but still does little to change the fundamental problem that China’s neighboring seas are all completely overfished.

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Amelie
Richter

Marcel
Grzanna

Fabian
Peltsch

Julia
Fiedler

Angela
Köckritz

Jörn
Petring

Dear reader,

Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy – that doesn’t exactly sound like James Bond. However, this perception may have already changed considerably with the news that Chinese hackers successfully spied on this German agency three years ago.

In his analysis, Finn Mayer-Kuckuk explains how successful this attack actually was: the official map data of Germany – in 3D! This is of significant military value, and not just because of China’s close friendship with the aggressor Russia.

That is why it is so important that the German government adheres to its China strategy presented last year and finds clear words for the attack. After all, the three-year-old story simply illustrates the ever-increasing threat situation.

Is this still the Olympics, or is it kindergarten? Some may have wondered this when they heard about how top athletes treat each other with contempt and ignorance or about top coaches who were deliberately splashed with water.

But the absurd behavior has a serious background: Pan Zhanle swam to victory in Paris faster than anyone ever before. He won by a body length and a whole 1.08 seconds ahead of the second-placed swimmer. This literally unbelievable superiority, in combination with the positive Chinese doping tests of the past and their outrageous justifications, is why the world record holder now feels discriminated against by his competitors. The sad thing is that Pan himself has never tested positive.

Michael Radunski has unraveled the complex situation surrounding China’s disliked Olympic participants. His conclusion is that China’s dubious system is by no means the only culprit, and the inconsistent international control institutions are also to blame.

Your
Carolyn Braun

Ambassador summoned: Why China spied on Germany’s Cartography Agency

By

Finn Mayer-Kuckuk

The cyberattack happened three years ago, but the ambassador has only just been summoned. On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry requested a talk with China’s representative in Berlin, Wu Ken. The topic of the unpleasant meeting: espionage at an important federal agency. The Ministry of the Interior has now been able to provide evidence: Chinese state hackers have infiltrated the systems of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy.

Such an attack has implications for Germany’s security. The military has always needed map data for its operations – and no one has mapped Germany in such detail as the Federal Agency for Cartography. Germany’s security agencies have proven that the attackers were able to freely access a part of the Cartographic Agency’s network in 2021. China, in turn, accuses Germany of “hostility.”

Signal to China: Not like this

It was a suitable occasion for the German government to try out its new policy of frank words towards China. The Foreign Office and the Ministry of the Interior, which played a key role in drafting the “Strategy on China,” are now bringing it to life.

The strategy paper published in July 2023 called for a fundamentally different China policy. The protection of critical infrastructure and cybersecurity have their own sub-chapters. “The Federal Government is taking decisive action to counter malicious cyber activity,” the paper states.

The proven case of espionage at a federal agency has now shown that Germany will not silently tolerate everything. “It’s also about sending a signal to China in the event of clear attribution that the German side is aware of these cyber-attacks and will not tolerate them diplomatically,” says Dennis-Kenji Kipker, Research Director and co-founder of the Cyberintelligence Institute in Frankfurt.

Germany’s ‘digital twin’ – for Russia’s strategists?

However, the German government cannot take espionage at the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy lightly because it also has military relevance. The Cartography Agency manages Germany’s official map data – and not just as dull maps, but in 3D. It is now even working on a digital twin of Germany: a highly detailed model of the entire country. The Agency even knows the thickness of soil layers in Germany, what they are made of, and where.

This data would be invaluable to an attacker. Cruise missiles could use it to navigate around hills and wind turbines, a tank army could optimally plan its advance, network nodes could be identified and switched off and other weak points in the infrastructure could be identified. Moreover, China is allied with Russia, which has already openly threatened Germany with war.

The Ministry of the Interior has no doubt

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is confident that she has evidence of a Chinese attack. “We call on China to refrain from and prevent such cyberattacks. These cyberattacks threaten the digital sovereignty of Germany and Europe,” she said in a press release.

In fact, there are now rules for what can be considered an attack by a foreign power. “Germany has had a national attribution procedure for cyberattacks since 2021,” says Kipker. This technical and political process examines whether a diplomatically relevant accusation is justified. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) plays a key role here. Before going public, the government usually coordinates with allied nations.

Faeser expects further attacks from China

However, as ominous as the attack on the Federal Card Office is, it is only a tiny part of a larger picture. Feaser’s ministry has registered numerous other cyberattacks against German organizations originating from China. The targets came from all sectors of society:

Companies
Administration
Private individuals were targeted.

This is by no means a repeat of an old game, but an increasing threat. “The methods used by cyber espionage actors have undergone significant qualitative and quantitative development, which has enabled them to achieve an unprecedented reach and effectiveness,” the ministry states. IT service providers working for public agencies were particularly affected.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s national intelligence service, is responsible for the investigation. On Thursday, it also published a new paper analyzing Chinese intelligence activities.

Cybersecurity expert Kipker expects that investigators will still have their hands full in the future. “I don’t think a diplomatic warning like this will change anything, because espionage has always existed and will continue to exist with the increased digital possibilities,” he says. “It would therefore make more sense to use this incident to strengthen cybersecurity capacities in the public administration in Germany across the board.”

Olympic Games: How Pan Zhanle’s world record drowns in the Chinese doping mire

By

Michael Radunski

Pan Zhanle (潘展乐) is the world’s fastest swimmer. The Chinese athlete covered the 100-meter freestyle in an incredible 46.40 seconds. That’s gold – and the first world record at the Olympic Games in Paris. At the competition in Paris’ La Défense Arena, the 19-year-old Chinese swimmer beat his own record by a whole four-tenths of a second. But Pan’s marvelous performance is being overshadowed.

For one, China’s swimmers have been under particular scrutiny since it became known in April that 23 athletes tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine in 2021 and yet were not penalized. Two further cases only surfaced on Tuesday.
Secondly, the impact that rumors, reports, and, above all, unsanctioned doping offenses have on the athletes themselves can now be seen in Paris. Instead of celebrating his success, Pan complained while standing on the edge of the pool about being ostracized and ignored by other athletes.

Distrust among athletes is growing, and their interactions are getting harsher. This is particularly painful, as competitions should really only be about the athletes and their performances. The culprits are a Chinese doping regime and inconsistent institutions such as the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA. Pan Zhanle’s story illustrates this sad development.

Pan complains about being excluded

Immediately after his success, he willingly gave interviews to the Chinese media on the side of the pool. But instead of savoring his victory, he struck a reflective note and criticized second-placed Australian Kyle Chalmers and swimmers from other countries.

Pan told Chinese broadcaster CCTV: “On the first day, at the 4×100 relay, after we finished swimming I greeted Chalmers. He didn’t pay me any attention at all.” Other swimmers, such as the American Jack Alexy, had patronized him. He said that during training, Alexy and other US swimmers practiced roll turns in front of Pan’s coaches, deliberately splashing water directly onto the Chinese coaches.

“This behavior seemed a bit disrespectful to us,” Pan lamented, adding: “Can I say that?” A few seconds later, however, the Olympic champion had obviously regained his self-confidence and said: “But today, we beat all of them, and broke the world record in such a difficult pool.”

Chalmers denies the accusations. But the supposedly personal dispute between two opponents reveals the bigger problem: China’s doping and the shady behavior of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA.

China’s swimmers test positive – and participate in the Olympics

China’s doping affair is the big shadow hanging over the Olympic Games in Paris. And new reports keep coming in. But first things first: Three years ago, 23 top Chinese swimmers tested positive for taking the heart medication trimetazidine – but were not penalized for it. WADA was satisfied with flimsy excuses from the Chinese Swimming Association. And so, the athletes were allowed to participate freely in subsequent competitions, such as the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Two more cases became public on Tuesday. The New York Times reported that the anabolic steroid Metandienone had been found in Tang Muhan and He Junyi in 2022. They were not banned either. Each time, China’s authorities and anti-doping bodies present a new contamination theory: sometimes the hotel kitchen was contaminated, other times the meat or the accompanying hamburger. What’s more, a total of eleven Chinese swimming athletes who tested positive are competing at the Games in Paris.

Pan’s world record ‘not humanly possible’

The bizarre thing is that Pan Zhanle does not belong to the group of swimmers who tested positive. And yet his success is now also being viewed with skepticism.

Pan not only won in a world record time but also was a full body length and 1.08 seconds ahead of the second-placed swimmer. Typically, the difference between first and second in the men’s 100-meter freestyle is a few thousandths of a second. In London 2012, it was 0.01 seconds, and in Tokyo 2020, it was 0.06 seconds.

Other athletes and their coaches are correspondingly angry. China’s successes are viewed with suspicion. “I’ve studied this sport. I’ve studied speed. I understand it,” said former Australian Olympic athlete Brett Hawke after Pan’s victory. “That’s not real, you don’t beat that field […] you don’t beat those guys by one full body length in 100 freestyle. That’s not humanly possible.” Hawke is now the coach of the Australian swimming team.

China’s media smell a conspiracy

Chinese media, such as the Global Times and Sina Weibo, have already begun to suspect a conspiracy against China. Hawke refuses to accept this and emphasizes: “I don’t care what you say. This is not a race thing, this is not against any one particular person or nation, this is just what I see and what I know.”

And so, Pan Zhanle’s victory is a sad development. Instead of talking about his swimming technique, his hard training or his outstanding performance in the race, people mainly talk about WADA, contaminated kitchens and hamburger meat. Such a critical eye is important in the media. But between athletes, mutual mistrust shakes the very foundations of sporting competition.

Ukraine war: Why Zelenskiy sees Beijing as more than a mediator

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejects China as a mediator in the war with Russia, which has been raging for 29 months. “If China wants to, it can force Russia to stop this war. I do not want (China) to act as a mediator. I would like it to put pressure on Russia to put an end to this war,” Zelenskiy told reporters.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently visited China to sound out whether the People’s Republic could play a constructive role in achieving a just peace. Immediately afterward, Ukraine invited Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for a return visit. In June, Switzerland hosted a peace summit in which neither Russia nor China participated. A second such summit is planned for November, at which Russia’s participation is still possible. rtr/cyb

EV tariffs: Why German car manufacturers expect lower rates

Car manufacturer BMW expects the extra tariffs provisionally imposed by the European Union on Chinese EVs to be softened. “After intensive discussions, we are confident that the very high tariff of 37.6 percent will not be imposed,” said BMW CEO Oliver Zipse on Thursday. The better solution would be equally high tariffs on both sides, preferably none at all. Zipse called the extra import duties a dead end. They are the EU’s response to unfair competitive advantages due to Chinese subsidies for EV production. BMW is affected because the electric Mini is built in China and exported to Europe. However, the car manufacturer would not fall under the maximum rate of 37.6 percent. “Such measures do not strengthen the competitiveness of European manufacturers,” the CEO criticized, “on the contrary.”

According to Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume, the government in Beijing is open to talks on a fair solution to EV tariffs. This was the impression he gained in talks with ministers during his recent trip to the People’s Republic, said Blume. He also called for a customs system that favors companies that invest in the respective region. He said it was positive when Chinese car manufacturers created jobs in Europe. “If we invest in China, we want to benefit from a similar agreement.” rtr

AI chips: The US considers these restrictions

The US is apparently considering unilaterally restricting China’s access to AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment as early as August. According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, the measure is intended to prevent the US manufacturer Micron and the leading South Korean companies SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics from supplying Chinese companies with so-called HBM chips. HBM stands for high-bandwidth memory. No final decision has yet been made. The three companies dominate the global HBM market.

The Biden administration is working on several restrictions aimed at keeping key technology out of the hands of Chinese manufacturers, including limiting the sale of chip manufacturing equipment. Micron would be largely unaffected by the planned regulation, as the Idaho-based chipmaker has refrained from selling its HBM products to China since 2023, the sources told Bloomberg.

It remains unclear what powers the US would use to impose restrictions on South Korean companies. One possibility is the Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR), which allows Washington to inspect foreign-made products if they contain even the slightest traces of US technology. The new restrictions could be unveiled as early as the end of August as part of a broader package of rules that also includes sanctions against more than 120 Chinese companies and new restrictions on various types of chip equipment. However, Reuters also reports that important allies such as Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea will be exempt. cyb

Sovereign debt: What are China’s motives for lending

The reasons behind the West’s and China’s lending to African countries are very different. This is the conclusion of a new study by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), which was one of the first institutes to analyze the motivations for lending. The study’s finding that China’s lending is primarily driven by its economic interests is hardly surprising. However, What is new is an insight into Western loans: Western countries also pursue goals with lending that appear to contradict their own interests.

For this study, IfW author Eckhardt Bode systematically compared China’s lending with that of six major Western countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and the USA) between 2000 and 2019. The corresponding data is based on the IfW’s Africa Debt Database, a dataset of almost 7,000 loans granted to African countries by China, Western countries and multilateral organizations.

Disproportionately high interest rates

The study found that China tended to grant loans to African countries with more natural resources, a lower default risk and a higher willingness to pay for credit during this period. Beijing took advantage of African countries’ higher willingness to pay by charging disproportionately high interest rates for its loans. These motives are not reflected in the lending of Western countries, which tended to lend to resource-poor and highly indebted countries and charged lower interest rates on loans. The Western approach could be motivated by the provision of development aid, Bode suspects. However, Bode says that further research is needed to determine the actual reasons.

China’s lending was primarily driven by economic interests: The promotion of its own economic growth, access to natural resources, the expansion of Chinese companies abroad and the investment of its enormous foreign exchange reserves. Access to Africa’s resources and markets is also a reason for Western countries to grant loans. However, the West limited itself to securing existing imports, while China focused on tapping into new suppliers.

Debt crisis requires a willingness to compromise

Geopolitical considerations also played a role for China: Beijing was more likely to lend to African countries that support the one-China principle-i.e., do not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state-and tend to agree with China’s positions in the UN General Assembly. Western countries did not share these motives and preferred lending to countries with stable governments.

Currently, some of China’s African debtors, including Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia, are in serious financial difficulties. Negotiations on sovereign debt restructuring are not progressing well, partly due to the still unresolved conflicts of interest and deep mistrust between China and Western countries. “China’s current unwillingness to compromise in the debt negotiations could exacerbate the debt crisis and drive other African countries into insolvency.”

“The current approach is reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s when Western creditors took a similarly tough stance towards indebted Latin American countries,” warns IfW researcher Bode. “These countries then lost a decade due to recurring payment problems and a delayed economic recovery.” ajs

Olympics: Why China is so critical of the opening ceremony

The Paris Olympic Games’ opening ceremony has offended not only conservatives in the West but also their counterparts in China, who lambasted it for having too much sex-related content and for ignoring non-Western people’s sensitivity to them. While major official media outlets refrained from badmouthing the ceremony, vitriolic criticism went unbridled on social media.

In a lengthy article titled Arrogance, Impertinence and Degeneracy, a popular nationalistic opinion leader said the ceremony would have a bad influence on children because it was “highly sexualized” and contained “too much LGBT propaganda.” The Olympics “shouldn’t have been (the White Lefties’ 白左 sic) teaching scene on sexuality’s complexity and fluidity,” writes Ren Yi, an investment banker in Beijing and also an influential blogger on politics and international relations. The article achieved more than 100,000 reads within three days.

Ren said the creators of the show, from a multi-racial, multi-cultural country, must have been aware it would exasperate people from some other cultures. But they still staged it the way they wanted it because they were just “self-centered and had no respect for others,” he said. Ren was echoed on Chinese social media by many, who heaped denouncements such as “chaotic cultural garbage” and even “the funeral of Western civilization” at the ceremony.

No threesome, please!

The scene of a triad tryst in a library was particularly irksome to some Chinese critics. The trio “sullied great French classics they were reading!” claimed a member of a chat group I am also in. She appeared to have incomplete knowledge of the books, most of which are about immoral relationships by traditional standards.

The commentator for Chinese television’s live broadcasting of the opening ceremony was silent for a long interval while triad romance was on. This is something that would be absolutely forbidden on Chinese screens. Not only the three-way romance, but also LGBT, tattoos and piercings. Obviously, the people at the Chinese Central Television didn’t have a plan B for something so shocking to them. And they also didn’t have the guts to interrupt the broadcasting, which would have caused a scandal.

Still, a substantial group of people in China appreciate the gala’s inclusiveness. Critics like Ren dismissed these people as blind admirers of the West with an inferiority complex. Their minds have been “colonized,” said one on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.

Right turn with Chinese characteristics

Chinese society has become much more conservative during the past decade. During the first years of the century, China saw burgeoning movements for feminism, LGBT visibility and cultural diversity, which suffered severe censorship and crackdown since Xi Jinping came into power.

The liberal-minded people have hunkered down while conservative voices have become increasingly loud. Self-proclaimed guards for “traditional values” and Chinese culture would verbally – sometimes even physically – attack people for wearing unconventional or exotic attire or showing same-sex intimacy.

Nostalgia lingers, but enthusiasm fades

Understandably, many Chinese are still nostalgic about the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and their Riefenstahl-style opening ceremony, where all individuals were little atoms in a sea-like army of performers. Sadly, those heady days were long gone. Now, the diehard patriotists complained that China was not given the spotlight it deserved: the Chinese team had to share a boat with athletes from other countries and was given only a fleeting appearance on the screen.

Nevertheless, the Chinese public’s passion for the Olympics has unmistakably diminished. After all, the Chinese audience seemed to have finally realized that Olympic medals would not improve their gloomy income prospects even a bit.

Anger at Chinese delegation’s extravagance

In the run-up to the Olympics, government media were still using the old playbook to cover the national team’s lavish preparation. The Chinese delegation, which has been using vast amounts of taxpayers’ money for decades, includes 300 non-athlete staff and a 2000-strong TV crew. Official media reported that the national team brought more than 300 air conditioners and their own mattresses. National television proudly showed footage of lorry trucks with containers carrying stuff for the Chinese team driving past Paris’ landmark buildings.

The news, meant to showcase the country’s financial prowess and the government’s commitment to helping Chinese athletes win glory for the country, however, backfired, meeting with massive ridicule and criticism for the excesses. Feeling the public anger, the Chinese delegation went out of its way to decline the report about air conditioners and mattresses.

This is what it looks like when thousands of fishing boats are allowed to set sail again from Zhoushan in the coastal province of Zhejiang after a three-month fishing moratorium. Why this moratorium? Fishing vessels from the entire region must dock and take a three-month break to allow fish stocks in the East China Sea to recover, at least to some extent. This helps – but still does little to change the fundamental problem that China’s neighboring seas are all completely overfished.

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Amelie
Richter

Marcel
Grzanna

Fabian
Peltsch

Julia
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Angela
Köckritz

Jörn
Petring

Feature

Ambassador summoned: Why China spied on Germany’s Cartography Agency

Signal to China: Not like this

Germany’s ‘digital twin’ – for Russia’s strategists?

The Ministry of the Interior has no doubt

Faeser expects further attacks from China

Olympic Games: How Pan Zhanle’s world record drowns in the Chinese doping mire

Pan complains about being excluded

China’s swimmers test positive – and participate in the Olympics

Pan’s world record ‘not humanly possible’

China’s media smell a conspiracy

Events

News

Ukraine war: Why Zelenskiy sees Beijing as more than a mediator

EV tariffs: Why German car manufacturers expect lower rates

AI chips: The US considers these restrictions

Sovereign debt: What are China’s motives for lending

Disproportionately high interest rates

Debt crisis requires a willingness to compromise

China Perspective

Olympics: Why China is so critical of the opening ceremony

No threesome, please!

Right turn with Chinese characteristics

Nostalgia lingers, but enthusiasm fades

Anger at Chinese delegation’s extravagance

Executive Moves

Dessert

China.Table editorial team

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Feature

Ambassador summoned: Why China spied on Germany’s Cartography Agency

Signal to China: Not like this

Germany’s ‘digital twin’ – for Russia’s strategists?

The Ministry of the Interior has no doubt

Faeser expects further attacks from China

Olympic Games: How Pan Zhanle’s world record drowns in the Chinese doping mire

Pan complains about being excluded

China’s swimmers test positive – and participate in the Olympics

Pan’s world record ‘not humanly possible’

China’s media smell a conspiracy

Events

News

Ukraine war: Why Zelenskiy sees Beijing as more than a mediator

EV tariffs: Why German car manufacturers expect lower rates

AI chips: The US considers these restrictions

Sovereign debt: What are China’s motives for lending

Disproportionately high interest rates

Debt crisis requires a willingness to compromise

China Perspective

Olympics: Why China is so critical of the opening ceremony

No threesome, please!

Right turn with Chinese characteristics

Nostalgia lingers, but enthusiasm fades

Anger at Chinese delegation’s extravagance

Executive Moves

Dessert

China.Table editorial team

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

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