For a long time, it seemed as if a positive relationship had developed between Tesla and the Chinese authorities. It just seemed to fit: here the American e-car pioneer with its reputation, there the world’s largest sales market, which is fully committed to electric drive. Tesla was even the first foreign carmaker not to be forced into a joint venture by China’s authorities. But that has now apparently come to an end. Marcel Grzanna explains how things came to this, what’s behind Beijing’s hard line – and what German carmakers can learn from the process.
Relations between the European Union and China are becoming frostier. The EU is working internally on a sharper position vis-à-vis the People’s Republic. A corresponding progress report has already been forwarded to the European Council, reports Amelie Richter. The recent past has shown: If Brussels adopts an even harsher tone towards Beijing, this is likely to have consequences for all areas – from politics and the economy to science and research.
The European Union and India show that things can be done differently. In the run-up to the upcoming EU-India summit in Porto, Amelie Richter shows how Brussels and Delhi are slowly moving closer together. Importantly for the German economy: The two countries want to get closer, especially through joint infrastructure projects. However, before that, there are still a few hurdles to be cleared.
And for the cineastes: Chloé Zhao is the first Chinese woman to win an Oscar for best director in Hollywood. But in China, they don’t want to know about this historic success.
I wish you many new insights while reading.
The American electric car pioneer Tesla is also becoming increasingly familiar with the complicated relationship between foreign industry and the Chinese state. In recent months, the US company has had a tough time in the People’s Republic: recalls, customer complaints, subpoenas from authorities, media attacks – the entire program that so many other companies have already gone through. Tesla’s special treatment in China seems to be over. It’s the end of the honeymoon.
Since the fall, Tesla managers have been asked to report to five different regulatory authorities. In essence, the request was always the same: treat Chinese customers better! Chinese state media took the official offensive as an opportunity to shrink the manufacturer to normal size. The official Xinhua news agency repeatedly accused Tesla of arrogance. And the Global Times newspaper smugly gave lessons in intercultural exchange. Tesla has no idea what makes Chinese customers tick, was the accusation.
Until recently, Tesla seemed to be the darling among all those companies vying for the goodwill of the political elite in the world’s largest consumer market. Now things look different. On several occasions, the company felt compelled to grovel on social media and apologize to Chinese customers. It had learned its lesson, Tesla dutifully announced. Bloomberg News even noted that Tesla CEO Elon Musk already sounds like Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who barely makes public appearances after criticizing the state-run banking system and has watched his company gradually dismembered by authorities. “There’s a danger of a slide for Musk,” tech analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities told CNN. Musk, he said, had “built good relationships in the country, but he needs to play nice in the sandbox in China.” But how did it get this far?
Tesla has recently seen an increase in recalls of defective vehicles, which is always a thorn in the side of the authorities and provokes a much worse media response in China than elsewhere in the world. Even in the past, Chinese authorities have made it clear to foreign players that they see their market size as a kind of regulatory framework. If you make royalty in China, you should treat consumers like royalty. Other manufacturers have also been told off in this way in the past: nothing new in the East.
In the fall, almost 50,000 cars had problems with their wheel suspensions. In February, the touchscreens in 36,000 models caused trouble and had to be returned to the workshops. However, the problems were by no means exclusive to Chinese customers. In both cases, it was the imported models S and X. So these problems should not really be seen as negligence towards Chinese customers. But China’s self-image has reached a point where it cares little about what happens in other markets around the world. China first is the motto.
As if all that wasn’t enough trouble for Tesla, a spectacular protest at the Shanghai auto show made headlines last week. A woman hijacked the manufacturer’s booth, climbed onto the roof of a Tesla on display, and loudly vented her displeasure over allegedly broken brakes. The woman’s parents had been involved in an accident with their Tesla and injured, allegedly because the brakes had failed. Tesla denied the allegations and referred to data from the onboard computer of the car involved in the accident. The analysis showed that the driver was speeding. Nevertheless, another warning from the authorities followed – and an apology from the company.
Tesla was the first foreign carmaker on which the authorities did not impose a joint venture constraint. The company that pulled up Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai may be called Tesla Shanghai, but it is at best as Chinese as the Americans are willing to let it be. No Chinese partner skims half the profits, no party cell interferes with strategy.
German carmakers could only dream of a similarly long leash when they started investing in the People’s Republic. For decades they had to open doors and gates to allow government snooping. And in most cases they still dutifully hand over half of their profits to the hosts, even though their contribution to building first-class cars is vanishingly small. Only slowly is the wind shifting, and the compulsion for joint ventures with a local partner diminishing. This is also because Chinese carmakers have learned a lot after so long.
In the meantime, they are developing vehicles themselves that are selling well in the shadow of the premium brands and are hiring top international manufacturers as designers, engineers, or marketing strategists (China.Table reported). But one of the main arguments for giving special treatment to an electric producer is China’s self-confident appearance in the race with other countries for the leading role in future technologies. The country is confident that it can play a leading role without necessarily having to look its competitors in the eye. And the old combustion engines will soon be nothing more than relics from the 20th century anyway. So it’s easy for Beijing to send benevolent signals of liberalization without having to pay the price for it in the long run. What’s more, Chinese companies also stand to benefit – financially on the one hand, but also, and above all, in terms of their reputation as suppliers to the global market leader.
Tesla Shanghai did not encounter any competitors when buying the company’s site. The lending process was reportedly smooth, even the credit line is said to be open upwards. Tesla also benefited massively from government subsidies for EVs. Of the almost $4 billion that Beijing has made available over the past two years to boost the segment, Tesla alone has taken home around a quarter.
The unbureaucratic concession of the Chinese was also a bet on the future. If the world’s largest and leading electric manufacturer does not come from the People’s Republic, then it should at least herald the global mobility revolution from Chinese soil. China does not want to leave such headlines, which an economic superpower needs to propagate its leadership role, to the USA. And for that, it needs the Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai.
After its completion, half a million Teslas should be able to roll off the production line annually. But Tesla’s sales in China are already rising massively. In 2020, the volume doubled to almost $6.7 billion, about one-fifth of Tesla’s global sales. The Model 3 was the best-selling electric car in the country last year. But the gap with the US market, whereas many Teslas are still sold as in the entire rest of the world, remains wide. And the gap between China and the American home market is likely to narrow even further: Since this year, after the 3 Series, the Model Y has also been manufactured and delivered in China. All other models are imported. In the first three months of the year, Tesla sold around 70,000 vehicles in China. That is already more than half of the previous year’s sales.
To describe the EU-India relationship, an English adjective has been fondly used in the past: “underperforming”. After efforts to reach a free-trade agreement between Brussels and Delhi ended in 2013, neither side mustered the energy needed to make progress on cooperation. On the contrary, they largely ignored each other – until last year. The EU’s efforts to position itself as a weighty geopolitical player in Asia, the COVID-19 pandemic, and, not least, a strengthened China put the world’s most populous country back on the Brussels interest radar.
Under the current Portuguese EU Presidency, India has been given a special role, and the expansion of relations is high on the agenda. On May 8, the EU-India summit will take place in Porto. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not travel because of the COVID situation in his country, he will meet the EU representatives online. Expectations for the meeting are high despite the adverse circumstances.
For Stefania Benaglia, an expert on India at the Brussels-based think tank Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the relationship with India has great potential for the EU – but it needs more time. There are signals that indicate a new understanding between Brussels and Delhi, Benaglia told China.Table. Until now, the EU has not played the most important role for India either.
Individual countries such as Germany or France have been important for Indian trade, but the EU as a whole rather less so, says Benaglia. However, this view has changed over the past year as instead of bilateral agreements with individual EU countries, India now prefers to cooperate with the European Union as a unit, the expert stresses.
This also suits the EU. With its Indo-Pacific strategy, the European Commission has recently shown that it wants to become more involved in the Asian region. For the summit in Porto, Benaglia now expects the elaboration of the EU’s connectivity strategy with India, similar to the partnership signed with Japan in 2019. This should set a framework for EU-India cooperation, Benaglia said. “We hope that the points mentioned will be as concrete as possible.” Ultimately, however, it is whether and how the proposals are then implemented that matters, Benaglia stresses.
The EU and India had already identified their priorities at a virtual summit in July 2020: Closer coordination on digital, transport, and infrastructure issues is desired in the future, according to a joint declaration. The fact that the strategic partnership is “based on common principles and values such as democracy, freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights” was emphasized at the very beginning of the declaration.
At next week’s virtual summit, a concrete plan for cooperation is to be presented, especially in the area of infrastructure, the Financial Times newspaper reported. The idea behind it: to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The momentum for this is certainly there, FT quotes an EU diplomat: “There is now an opportunity to come together and create the environment for partnership-based globalization that would be more attractive than what China can offer.” The EU and its allies have a common interest in setting up a proper BRI alternative “rather than allowing Chinese investment to dominate,” the EU source continues. This approach, however, is only shared behind closed doors in Brussels. The source continues to stoically emphasize that the push for connectivity partnerships is not directed against Beijing.
So is more connectivity with India the appropriate response to China’s BRI? “It is certainly a useful tool,” says CEPS expert Benaglia. It may even be the best tool the international community has at its disposal at the moment. “But I’m not sure the agenda is to challenge the BRI.” Connectivity with India could be more of a “kind of complement”. But here, too, it would be necessary to wait and see what could be implemented in concrete terms, the expert stressed. That – and also China’s reaction to the rapprochement between the EU and India – remains to be seen, she adds.
Benaglia sees the fact that the young bond between Delhi and Brussels could provoke Beijing less as a problem: “Doing business with India is still less easy than doing business with China.” That those investments would suddenly be moved from the People’s Republic to India is not, in her view, a threat to China at the moment. “The Indian economic system is not yet capable of attracting investments like China’s is,” Benaglia said. One reason for this is India’s complex economic system, which varies from state to state. There are also problems with labor and land rights – and increasing concerns about human rights.
While the EU is India’s largest trade and investment partner, the subcontinent ranks only tenth for the European Union. In general, the exchange of goods between the two is unusually modest, with a volume of $87.6 billion US in 2020. By comparison, EU-China trade in 2020 was around €600 billion, while India-EU trade was a good €65 billion.
EU-India relations will be the subject of a debate in the European Parliament tomorrow, Wednesday. A debate on the European Union’s cooperation with India is scheduled for the afternoon. The MEPs will also vote on a resolution, including a recommendation for action to the EU Commission and the EU Council before the summit. China is mentioned in one paragraph: MEPs condemn the deterioration of relations between India and the People’s Republic “due to the expansionist policies of the People’s Republic of China among other reasons” and call for “a peaceful settlement of disputes, constructive and inclusive dialogue and respect for international law on the border between India and the People’s Republic.
China and India are neighbors – but in a geographically complicated way: They share a roughly 3,500-kilometre-long, partly disputed, and unmarked line of control in rough terrain in the middle of the Himalayas. Most Chinese people and Indians live thousands of kilometers from this border, which therefore does not really connect people. There are hardly any roads or other infrastructure – and no border trade either.
The potential of the EU-India relationship is also seen in the EU Parliament, and is particularly important in the context of the overall Indo-Pacific strategy from Brussels, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament, David McAllister, stressed to China.Table. Trade between the European Union and India has increased by more than 70 percent in the past decade, McAllister said. At the same time, about 40 percent of EU trade passes through Indo-Pacific waters. “India is a key player in maritime security and a trading partner to diversify European supply chains.” A well-developed transport infrastructure and digital connectivity between the EU and India must form the basis of cooperation in this regard, the CDU politician said. His expectations for the Porto meeting: “The summit on May 8 could be the starting signal for joint projects.”
Chloé Zhao is the big winner of the 2021 Oscars: She has picked up two prizes at the Academy Awards gala with her film Nomadland. The social drama about nomadic laborers in the US wins the Oscar for Best Picture, and Zhao herself is honored for Best Director. In 93 years of Academy Awards, Zhao is only the second woman to win the award for Best Director – and the first to come from China.
Chloé Zhao was born in Beijing in 1982 with the name 赵婷 (Zhào Tíng). Her mother was a trained nurse in the service of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, while her father, Zhao Yuji, profited from the country’s industrialization – first as a top manager at China’s largest steel company Shougang, later in the booming real estate business. However, Zhao’s parents separated early on, and although the young girl barely spoke English at the time, she was sent to boarding school in the UK at the age of 15.
Chloé Zhao is a passionate manga reader. However, her dream of drawing comics herself failed due to her lack of talent. She describes herself as “rebellious and lazy in school”. At 18, Zhao comes to Los Angeles to study political science; in 2010, she moves on to New York, where she learns film production at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Sometimes she forgets that she is Asian. Yet she describes herself as a typical Northern Chinese: loud, offensive, with big bones.
After initial success with her films Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017), Chloé Zhao has now arrived on the Olympus of the film business with Nomadland. The film was a big winner at the Venice Film Festival and picked up important prizes at the Golden Globes as well as at the British Film Awards Baftas.
While the director is being hailed worldwide, there is a conspicuous silence in her Chinese homeland about the 39-year-old’s historic Oscar win. In view of her successes, Beijing feared Zhao’s possible success in advance: This year’s awards were not even broadcast in China; even the two leading streaming platforms, where the gala evening was usually shown, decided against it. And Hong Kong also decided against broadcasting for the first time in more than 50 years. When the decision became public almost a month ago, the name Chloé Zhao was mentioned behind closed doors. At least in official China, Zhao has been a persona non grata since her success at the Golden Globes.
At first, the Chinese media were celebrating Chloé Zhao. The Global Times newspaper even called her “the pride of China” and referred to the planned cinema release in April. But then internet users came across an interview from 2013 in which Zhao criticized the China of her youth for being a place of pervasive lies. “It felt like you could never find your way out of it. A lot of what I experienced when I was young wasn’t true – and I became quite rebellious of my family and background.” It wasn’t until she was abroad, at a liberal arts college, that she found out what was true, she said. Those words had explosive power – and national pride turned to national official disapproval in no time. China’s cinemas immediately stopped the planned release of her film.
When users on Weibo (China’s Twitter) celebrated Zhao’s Oscar win on Monday morning, their entries were unceremoniously deleted. The official media, such as Xinhua and CGTV, also ignored the news at first until the Global Times finally got carried away with a poisoned editorial in the course of the day: The social drama was typically American and could in no way be related to the real lives of Chinese people.
To understand these lines, you need to know what Nomadland is about: Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Jessica Burger, this gentle drama shows a country that can no longer provide for its citizens, or perhaps doesn’t want to. Men and women of retirement age roam the country in RVs. Temporary work and odd jobs keep them afloat financially; the community that the self-declared nomads form provides emotional support. The film is set in the USA – and yet the fate of the millions of Chinese migrant workers who work on the country’s construction sites and thus make China’s economic success possible inevitably comes to mind.
The Global Times wants this comparison at all costs – and adds: Even if the film were shown in China, it would probably not be a success. Instead, the state newspaper hopes that Zhao will finally grow up.
In her Oscar speech, Zhao seemed to allude to these difficulties, saying, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to move on when things get complicated.” – And quoted a line from a classic Chinese poem: “People are basically good at birth.”
However, Zhao could also be sending a hidden message to her homeland with these historic lines. After all, the three-character poem in question is recited mainly by Chinese political and business leaders to show their loyalty to China and its traditions. Perhaps official China can rejoice a little over Chloé Zhao’s historic Oscar success after all. Michael Radunski
On the backs of delivery messengers: Beijing’s antitrust regulator takes aim at delivery app Meituan. The investigation, announced on Monday, comes two weeks after authorities fined Alibaba a record $2.8 billion. Just over a week ago, Meituan had raised $10 billion in fresh capital from investors.
For a long time, it seemed as if a positive relationship had developed between Tesla and the Chinese authorities. It just seemed to fit: here the American e-car pioneer with its reputation, there the world’s largest sales market, which is fully committed to electric drive. Tesla was even the first foreign carmaker not to be forced into a joint venture by China’s authorities. But that has now apparently come to an end. Marcel Grzanna explains how things came to this, what’s behind Beijing’s hard line – and what German carmakers can learn from the process.
Relations between the European Union and China are becoming frostier. The EU is working internally on a sharper position vis-à-vis the People’s Republic. A corresponding progress report has already been forwarded to the European Council, reports Amelie Richter. The recent past has shown: If Brussels adopts an even harsher tone towards Beijing, this is likely to have consequences for all areas – from politics and the economy to science and research.
The European Union and India show that things can be done differently. In the run-up to the upcoming EU-India summit in Porto, Amelie Richter shows how Brussels and Delhi are slowly moving closer together. Importantly for the German economy: The two countries want to get closer, especially through joint infrastructure projects. However, before that, there are still a few hurdles to be cleared.
And for the cineastes: Chloé Zhao is the first Chinese woman to win an Oscar for best director in Hollywood. But in China, they don’t want to know about this historic success.
I wish you many new insights while reading.
The American electric car pioneer Tesla is also becoming increasingly familiar with the complicated relationship between foreign industry and the Chinese state. In recent months, the US company has had a tough time in the People’s Republic: recalls, customer complaints, subpoenas from authorities, media attacks – the entire program that so many other companies have already gone through. Tesla’s special treatment in China seems to be over. It’s the end of the honeymoon.
Since the fall, Tesla managers have been asked to report to five different regulatory authorities. In essence, the request was always the same: treat Chinese customers better! Chinese state media took the official offensive as an opportunity to shrink the manufacturer to normal size. The official Xinhua news agency repeatedly accused Tesla of arrogance. And the Global Times newspaper smugly gave lessons in intercultural exchange. Tesla has no idea what makes Chinese customers tick, was the accusation.
Until recently, Tesla seemed to be the darling among all those companies vying for the goodwill of the political elite in the world’s largest consumer market. Now things look different. On several occasions, the company felt compelled to grovel on social media and apologize to Chinese customers. It had learned its lesson, Tesla dutifully announced. Bloomberg News even noted that Tesla CEO Elon Musk already sounds like Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who barely makes public appearances after criticizing the state-run banking system and has watched his company gradually dismembered by authorities. “There’s a danger of a slide for Musk,” tech analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities told CNN. Musk, he said, had “built good relationships in the country, but he needs to play nice in the sandbox in China.” But how did it get this far?
Tesla has recently seen an increase in recalls of defective vehicles, which is always a thorn in the side of the authorities and provokes a much worse media response in China than elsewhere in the world. Even in the past, Chinese authorities have made it clear to foreign players that they see their market size as a kind of regulatory framework. If you make royalty in China, you should treat consumers like royalty. Other manufacturers have also been told off in this way in the past: nothing new in the East.
In the fall, almost 50,000 cars had problems with their wheel suspensions. In February, the touchscreens in 36,000 models caused trouble and had to be returned to the workshops. However, the problems were by no means exclusive to Chinese customers. In both cases, it was the imported models S and X. So these problems should not really be seen as negligence towards Chinese customers. But China’s self-image has reached a point where it cares little about what happens in other markets around the world. China first is the motto.
As if all that wasn’t enough trouble for Tesla, a spectacular protest at the Shanghai auto show made headlines last week. A woman hijacked the manufacturer’s booth, climbed onto the roof of a Tesla on display, and loudly vented her displeasure over allegedly broken brakes. The woman’s parents had been involved in an accident with their Tesla and injured, allegedly because the brakes had failed. Tesla denied the allegations and referred to data from the onboard computer of the car involved in the accident. The analysis showed that the driver was speeding. Nevertheless, another warning from the authorities followed – and an apology from the company.
Tesla was the first foreign carmaker on which the authorities did not impose a joint venture constraint. The company that pulled up Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai may be called Tesla Shanghai, but it is at best as Chinese as the Americans are willing to let it be. No Chinese partner skims half the profits, no party cell interferes with strategy.
German carmakers could only dream of a similarly long leash when they started investing in the People’s Republic. For decades they had to open doors and gates to allow government snooping. And in most cases they still dutifully hand over half of their profits to the hosts, even though their contribution to building first-class cars is vanishingly small. Only slowly is the wind shifting, and the compulsion for joint ventures with a local partner diminishing. This is also because Chinese carmakers have learned a lot after so long.
In the meantime, they are developing vehicles themselves that are selling well in the shadow of the premium brands and are hiring top international manufacturers as designers, engineers, or marketing strategists (China.Table reported). But one of the main arguments for giving special treatment to an electric producer is China’s self-confident appearance in the race with other countries for the leading role in future technologies. The country is confident that it can play a leading role without necessarily having to look its competitors in the eye. And the old combustion engines will soon be nothing more than relics from the 20th century anyway. So it’s easy for Beijing to send benevolent signals of liberalization without having to pay the price for it in the long run. What’s more, Chinese companies also stand to benefit – financially on the one hand, but also, and above all, in terms of their reputation as suppliers to the global market leader.
Tesla Shanghai did not encounter any competitors when buying the company’s site. The lending process was reportedly smooth, even the credit line is said to be open upwards. Tesla also benefited massively from government subsidies for EVs. Of the almost $4 billion that Beijing has made available over the past two years to boost the segment, Tesla alone has taken home around a quarter.
The unbureaucratic concession of the Chinese was also a bet on the future. If the world’s largest and leading electric manufacturer does not come from the People’s Republic, then it should at least herald the global mobility revolution from Chinese soil. China does not want to leave such headlines, which an economic superpower needs to propagate its leadership role, to the USA. And for that, it needs the Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai.
After its completion, half a million Teslas should be able to roll off the production line annually. But Tesla’s sales in China are already rising massively. In 2020, the volume doubled to almost $6.7 billion, about one-fifth of Tesla’s global sales. The Model 3 was the best-selling electric car in the country last year. But the gap with the US market, whereas many Teslas are still sold as in the entire rest of the world, remains wide. And the gap between China and the American home market is likely to narrow even further: Since this year, after the 3 Series, the Model Y has also been manufactured and delivered in China. All other models are imported. In the first three months of the year, Tesla sold around 70,000 vehicles in China. That is already more than half of the previous year’s sales.
To describe the EU-India relationship, an English adjective has been fondly used in the past: “underperforming”. After efforts to reach a free-trade agreement between Brussels and Delhi ended in 2013, neither side mustered the energy needed to make progress on cooperation. On the contrary, they largely ignored each other – until last year. The EU’s efforts to position itself as a weighty geopolitical player in Asia, the COVID-19 pandemic, and, not least, a strengthened China put the world’s most populous country back on the Brussels interest radar.
Under the current Portuguese EU Presidency, India has been given a special role, and the expansion of relations is high on the agenda. On May 8, the EU-India summit will take place in Porto. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not travel because of the COVID situation in his country, he will meet the EU representatives online. Expectations for the meeting are high despite the adverse circumstances.
For Stefania Benaglia, an expert on India at the Brussels-based think tank Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the relationship with India has great potential for the EU – but it needs more time. There are signals that indicate a new understanding between Brussels and Delhi, Benaglia told China.Table. Until now, the EU has not played the most important role for India either.
Individual countries such as Germany or France have been important for Indian trade, but the EU as a whole rather less so, says Benaglia. However, this view has changed over the past year as instead of bilateral agreements with individual EU countries, India now prefers to cooperate with the European Union as a unit, the expert stresses.
This also suits the EU. With its Indo-Pacific strategy, the European Commission has recently shown that it wants to become more involved in the Asian region. For the summit in Porto, Benaglia now expects the elaboration of the EU’s connectivity strategy with India, similar to the partnership signed with Japan in 2019. This should set a framework for EU-India cooperation, Benaglia said. “We hope that the points mentioned will be as concrete as possible.” Ultimately, however, it is whether and how the proposals are then implemented that matters, Benaglia stresses.
The EU and India had already identified their priorities at a virtual summit in July 2020: Closer coordination on digital, transport, and infrastructure issues is desired in the future, according to a joint declaration. The fact that the strategic partnership is “based on common principles and values such as democracy, freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights” was emphasized at the very beginning of the declaration.
At next week’s virtual summit, a concrete plan for cooperation is to be presented, especially in the area of infrastructure, the Financial Times newspaper reported. The idea behind it: to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The momentum for this is certainly there, FT quotes an EU diplomat: “There is now an opportunity to come together and create the environment for partnership-based globalization that would be more attractive than what China can offer.” The EU and its allies have a common interest in setting up a proper BRI alternative “rather than allowing Chinese investment to dominate,” the EU source continues. This approach, however, is only shared behind closed doors in Brussels. The source continues to stoically emphasize that the push for connectivity partnerships is not directed against Beijing.
So is more connectivity with India the appropriate response to China’s BRI? “It is certainly a useful tool,” says CEPS expert Benaglia. It may even be the best tool the international community has at its disposal at the moment. “But I’m not sure the agenda is to challenge the BRI.” Connectivity with India could be more of a “kind of complement”. But here, too, it would be necessary to wait and see what could be implemented in concrete terms, the expert stressed. That – and also China’s reaction to the rapprochement between the EU and India – remains to be seen, she adds.
Benaglia sees the fact that the young bond between Delhi and Brussels could provoke Beijing less as a problem: “Doing business with India is still less easy than doing business with China.” That those investments would suddenly be moved from the People’s Republic to India is not, in her view, a threat to China at the moment. “The Indian economic system is not yet capable of attracting investments like China’s is,” Benaglia said. One reason for this is India’s complex economic system, which varies from state to state. There are also problems with labor and land rights – and increasing concerns about human rights.
While the EU is India’s largest trade and investment partner, the subcontinent ranks only tenth for the European Union. In general, the exchange of goods between the two is unusually modest, with a volume of $87.6 billion US in 2020. By comparison, EU-China trade in 2020 was around €600 billion, while India-EU trade was a good €65 billion.
EU-India relations will be the subject of a debate in the European Parliament tomorrow, Wednesday. A debate on the European Union’s cooperation with India is scheduled for the afternoon. The MEPs will also vote on a resolution, including a recommendation for action to the EU Commission and the EU Council before the summit. China is mentioned in one paragraph: MEPs condemn the deterioration of relations between India and the People’s Republic “due to the expansionist policies of the People’s Republic of China among other reasons” and call for “a peaceful settlement of disputes, constructive and inclusive dialogue and respect for international law on the border between India and the People’s Republic.
China and India are neighbors – but in a geographically complicated way: They share a roughly 3,500-kilometre-long, partly disputed, and unmarked line of control in rough terrain in the middle of the Himalayas. Most Chinese people and Indians live thousands of kilometers from this border, which therefore does not really connect people. There are hardly any roads or other infrastructure – and no border trade either.
The potential of the EU-India relationship is also seen in the EU Parliament, and is particularly important in the context of the overall Indo-Pacific strategy from Brussels, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament, David McAllister, stressed to China.Table. Trade between the European Union and India has increased by more than 70 percent in the past decade, McAllister said. At the same time, about 40 percent of EU trade passes through Indo-Pacific waters. “India is a key player in maritime security and a trading partner to diversify European supply chains.” A well-developed transport infrastructure and digital connectivity between the EU and India must form the basis of cooperation in this regard, the CDU politician said. His expectations for the Porto meeting: “The summit on May 8 could be the starting signal for joint projects.”
Chloé Zhao is the big winner of the 2021 Oscars: She has picked up two prizes at the Academy Awards gala with her film Nomadland. The social drama about nomadic laborers in the US wins the Oscar for Best Picture, and Zhao herself is honored for Best Director. In 93 years of Academy Awards, Zhao is only the second woman to win the award for Best Director – and the first to come from China.
Chloé Zhao was born in Beijing in 1982 with the name 赵婷 (Zhào Tíng). Her mother was a trained nurse in the service of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, while her father, Zhao Yuji, profited from the country’s industrialization – first as a top manager at China’s largest steel company Shougang, later in the booming real estate business. However, Zhao’s parents separated early on, and although the young girl barely spoke English at the time, she was sent to boarding school in the UK at the age of 15.
Chloé Zhao is a passionate manga reader. However, her dream of drawing comics herself failed due to her lack of talent. She describes herself as “rebellious and lazy in school”. At 18, Zhao comes to Los Angeles to study political science; in 2010, she moves on to New York, where she learns film production at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Sometimes she forgets that she is Asian. Yet she describes herself as a typical Northern Chinese: loud, offensive, with big bones.
After initial success with her films Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017), Chloé Zhao has now arrived on the Olympus of the film business with Nomadland. The film was a big winner at the Venice Film Festival and picked up important prizes at the Golden Globes as well as at the British Film Awards Baftas.
While the director is being hailed worldwide, there is a conspicuous silence in her Chinese homeland about the 39-year-old’s historic Oscar win. In view of her successes, Beijing feared Zhao’s possible success in advance: This year’s awards were not even broadcast in China; even the two leading streaming platforms, where the gala evening was usually shown, decided against it. And Hong Kong also decided against broadcasting for the first time in more than 50 years. When the decision became public almost a month ago, the name Chloé Zhao was mentioned behind closed doors. At least in official China, Zhao has been a persona non grata since her success at the Golden Globes.
At first, the Chinese media were celebrating Chloé Zhao. The Global Times newspaper even called her “the pride of China” and referred to the planned cinema release in April. But then internet users came across an interview from 2013 in which Zhao criticized the China of her youth for being a place of pervasive lies. “It felt like you could never find your way out of it. A lot of what I experienced when I was young wasn’t true – and I became quite rebellious of my family and background.” It wasn’t until she was abroad, at a liberal arts college, that she found out what was true, she said. Those words had explosive power – and national pride turned to national official disapproval in no time. China’s cinemas immediately stopped the planned release of her film.
When users on Weibo (China’s Twitter) celebrated Zhao’s Oscar win on Monday morning, their entries were unceremoniously deleted. The official media, such as Xinhua and CGTV, also ignored the news at first until the Global Times finally got carried away with a poisoned editorial in the course of the day: The social drama was typically American and could in no way be related to the real lives of Chinese people.
To understand these lines, you need to know what Nomadland is about: Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Jessica Burger, this gentle drama shows a country that can no longer provide for its citizens, or perhaps doesn’t want to. Men and women of retirement age roam the country in RVs. Temporary work and odd jobs keep them afloat financially; the community that the self-declared nomads form provides emotional support. The film is set in the USA – and yet the fate of the millions of Chinese migrant workers who work on the country’s construction sites and thus make China’s economic success possible inevitably comes to mind.
The Global Times wants this comparison at all costs – and adds: Even if the film were shown in China, it would probably not be a success. Instead, the state newspaper hopes that Zhao will finally grow up.
In her Oscar speech, Zhao seemed to allude to these difficulties, saying, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to move on when things get complicated.” – And quoted a line from a classic Chinese poem: “People are basically good at birth.”
However, Zhao could also be sending a hidden message to her homeland with these historic lines. After all, the three-character poem in question is recited mainly by Chinese political and business leaders to show their loyalty to China and its traditions. Perhaps official China can rejoice a little over Chloé Zhao’s historic Oscar success after all. Michael Radunski
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