Like heads of state around the world, Xi Jinping has also congratulated newly elected Donald Trump. And as with other heads of state, how the congratulations are expressed shows how enthusiastically or cautiously the victory is being received. Trump’s threat of 60 percent tariffs on Chinese imports harbors serious growth risks for China. However, apart from tariffs, other issues from Trump’s first presidency are sure to resurface. Which direction will it take? The appointments for Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State and other government posts are eagerly anticipated. Amelie Richter has taken a look at the possible candidates. Trump will likely bring some familiar faces with him.
China is not the only country that has to expect negative consequences from Trump’s election; it is also bad news for the climate. And just before COP29 begins in Baku. Negotiations are expected to be tough as it is. Due to rising emissions and growing economic opportunities, China is also under increasing pressure to contribute to the new climate finance target. You Xiaoying analyzes the position of the People’s Republic and the upcoming disputes.
Johnny Erling writes about the “Zeitenwende.” The concept was already mentioned in the Qing dynasty, writes our columnist. In 1875, the writer Li Hongzhi criticized the intrusion of foreign countries and called for investment and expansion of the coastal navy and shipbuilding: “All the countries of the world, however distant, have opened China’s borders to themselves and are engaged in trade. These are unprecedented changes unseen in millennia.” Xi also uses the phrase. For him, however, it is more about transforming the world order.
Have a pleasant day without any major upheavals.
China’s President Xi Jinping has congratulated Donald Trump on his return to the presidency one day after his election victory. In his message, Xi called on both nations to “find the right way to get along.” Stable, sound and sustainable relations between the People’s Republic and the USA served the interests of both sides, Xi said on Thursday, adding that the international community expected the two powers to “respect each other (and) co-exist peacefully.” The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also reiterated Xi’s call for stability.
However, Xi’s congratulatory message to Trump this week was more reserved than during his first election victory in November 2016 – they know each other by now. Trump’s victory will revive issues from his first presidency. Although the Biden administration did not change the trade policy stance towards Beijing, Trump’s threat of 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods harbors significant growth risks for China.
The Republican is very likely to bring old acquaintances into his cabinet who do not evoke the best memories in Beijing. China hawks could find their way into some departments.
Department of Defense:
The posts of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor will be among the most hotly contested cabinet positions:
In order to push through his economic program including the threatened sweeping tariffs, Trump will probably rely on long-standing allies in the departments of finance and trade:
Other consultants:
It is expected that Trump will announce a first cabinet outline before Thanksgiving at the end of November.
China has urged developed countries to stick to the Paris Agreement and fulfill their financial obligations towards developing countries, resisting heightened calls for the country also to pay. Countries “must not renegotiate or rewrite the relevant requirements of the Paris Agreement” at COP29, a Chinese climate official said at a press conference in Beijing on November 6, according to a readout published by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE).
Developed countries must meet its target of “donating 100 billion US dollars annually to developing countries before 2025” and “further expand the scale of their funds on this basis after 2025,” Xia Yingxian, director of the MEE’s department of climate change, told the press conference.
Countries are expected to agree on a new climate financing goal at COP29. A “specific target number” by developed countries will hold the “golden key” to the success of COP29, Xia said at a press briefing on November 1, reported the state-run China Daily.
China is facing mounting pressure to also contribute to the new goal, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal, because of its surging emissions and growing economic capabilities over the past three decades. The calls have not only come from developed economies, such as the United States and the European Union, but also small island states that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), China is the world’s largest current greenhouse gas emitter and second-largest historic emitter after the US. But its per-capita emissions are still four times less than the US equivalent, the research organization said.
Beijing today clarified its stance over COP29 in an annual report about its actions and policies on climate change.
It called on the summit to adhere to and implement the “targets, principles and arrangements” established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. Beijing described both as “the largest certainty and foundation” based on which countries can team up to respond to climate change. “If this foundation gets twisted or overturned, and there is no difference between developed countries and developing countries, and no respect towards the ‘bottom-up approach,’ then the multilateral climate process will lose its base for dialogue,” the report said. The “bottom-up approach” requires countries that have contributed the most to climate change to cut their emissions faster.
Professor Teng Fei, deputy director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, pointed out that the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement have clearly defined the donor and recipient countries of climate finance.
“The donor countries are developed countries, while the recipient countries are developing countries,” Teng told Table.Briefings. “Although developed countries such as the US are constantly challenging China’s status as a developing country, judging by [its] per-capita GDP and other gauges, undoubtedly, China is still a developing country.”
Technically speaking, China – as a developing country – is also eligible to claim climate finance from developed countries. But Beijing said at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 that “small island states, the least developed countries, and African nations should be prioritized to obtain financing support,” indicating it would not fight for aid.
Developed countries have been condemned for failing to meet their current climate financing target. They didn’t meet the goal – set to be replaced by the new goal – until 2022, according to OECD, an intergovernmental organization representing 38 countries. Beijing urged developed countries to fill the shortfall in climate finance to satisfy the amount due every year until 2025 and present a roadmap for doubling adaptation finance, according to its report.
Xia said at the press conference on Wednesday that climate finance must predominantly come from developed countries’ public money, not multilateral development banks or the private sector. He added that providing climate finance is an obligation developed countries have no choice but to fulfill, but optional for developing countries.
Teng said that developed countries’ demand for China to pay stems from their lack of political will to deliver on their own climate financing goals. “They try to shift their financing obligations onto major developing countries and constantly attempt to blur the lines between their legally binding financing obligations and the voluntary contributions made by developing countries,” he said. Other major developing countries are expected to back China’s position at COP29.
“Whether or not [countries] can reach an agreement over the new global climate financing target will be an important parameter for China as to whether COP29 is a success,” Yao Zhe, Beijing-based Global Policy Advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, told Table.Briefings.
But Yao believes China’s role in the topic has been “overblown.” She said: “There is a very big gap in global climate finance. It is not wrong to hope for China to increase its financial support, but that should not be a condition for whether other countries step up their contributions.”
A successful COP29 for China could also come in the form of more recognition of its contributions outside UNFCCC, according to Niklas Weins, an assistant professor of environmental governance and policies at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. He told Table.Briefings that a potential solution to break the deadlock might be to count China’s financing efforts under its own schemes, such as the Belt and Road Initiatives, into the new climate fund.
Beijing in 2015 pledged to “make available” 20 billion yuan (3.1 billion US dollars at the time) for setting up the China South-South Climate Cooperation Fund to help other developing countries tackle climate change. But it remains unclear how much of the fund has been delivered. China has signed 53 memorandums of understanding with 42 developing countries and carried out nearly 100 projects to help the least developed countries, African countries and small island nations through its South-South Climate cooperation mechanism.
If China can improve the data disclosure about its voluntary contributions, it will be “an important step for it to become a more credible and influential donor of climate finance,” according to Yao.
Regardless of whether China becomes a donor of the fund, “we should encourage and expect China to continue to increase its voluntary financial support and overseas low-carbon investments,” Yao said. “But that doesn’t mean China should shoulder the same climate financing responsibility as developed countries immediately,” she added. You Xiaoying
Audi presented its Audi E concept show car in Shanghai – along with a new brand. As announced back in May, the four rings will disappear in China and the brand name will be emblazoned in capital letters on the front instead. “By launching this new brand for electric and intelligent models in China, Audi is breaking new ground to tap into new and more tech-savvy customer segments,” said Gernot Döllner, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, at the premiere.
The electric car will be priced at around 300,000 yuan, just under 40,000 euros. With a 100 kWh battery, it has a range of more than 700 kilometers, the total output of the two electric motors is 570 kW, and it is said to reach 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds. The “advanced digitized platform” also has an innovative 800-volt architecture for fast charging: Just ten minutes are enough for a range of 370 kilometers.
This also seems imperative. Sales in China are poor. While EVs rapidly gain market share, Audi sales drop at the same rate, as the brand is unable to maintain its position in the electric segment. By September, Audi had sold just 16,300 EVs in the huge Chinese market this year, around 20 percent fewer than the previous year. However, the entire EV market grew by more than 20 percent during the same period.
The decision to drop the familiar logo is part of an attempt to distinguish Chinese-developed electric cars from the existing model range developed in Germany. In May, Audi and SAIC agreed on far-reaching cooperation. The joint development teams of Audi and SAIC are led by Fermín Soneira, long-time head of Audi’s electrically powered model series, with 25 years of experience in the Volkswagen Group.
The new partner SAIC is expected to cut vehicle development time by 30 percent and accelerate the company’s transformation in the Chinese market. The new Audi can also leverage the supply chain of SAIC Motor’s other intelligent EV brands, especially IM. The AUDI E concept was jointly developed by experts from Ingolstadt and Shanghai and is a glimpse of three future production models in the B and C segments, i.e. smaller vehicles, which are expected to arrive from mid-2025. A total of nine vehicles could be launched by 2030.
The models are based on the advanced digitized platform developed exclusively for China, with four central computers that are a hundred times more powerful than previous models. The batteries are supplied by CATL.
According to Audi in a press release, Chinese premium customers are younger and more tech-savvy; they demand outstanding connectivity, automated driving functions, and an interior that is both familiar and surprising. Communication involves the Audi Assistant, an AI avatar, via touch or voice control. A comprehensive entertainment and app ecosystem – individually controlled by facial recognition – will offer many intelligent in-car solutions. jul
Beijing also speaks of a “Zeitenwende” – it just doesn’t call it that. Ten years before German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Xi Jinping, who had been promoted to Party and army chief in November 2012, said at his first meeting with the new military leadership that China was facing “profound changes unseen in centuries.” These would positively impact the nation’s rise and a turning point in the global political order. The phrase has since become Xi’s catchphrase, repeated hundreds of times. It drives Beijing’s and Moscow’s ambition to create a new world order according to the motto: “The East rises and the West falls.”
After he visited Moscow on March 22, 2023, Xi Jinping bid farewell to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with a call for joint action: “Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years” (百年未有之大变局), Xi said: “We are the ones driving these changes together” (我们共同来推动). Putin agreed. He personally walked China’s President to the exit of the Kremlin. Both potentates did not realize that the journalists waiting outside the door, including Al Jazeera, were not only filming them but also recording what they were saying.
Barely a week later, EU Council President Ursula von der Leyen criticized China’s President for not even thinking about distancing himself from Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. On the contrary: “Most telling were President Xi’s parting words to Putin on the steps outside the Kremlin when he said: ‘Right now, there are changes, the likes of which we have not seen for 100 years. And we are the ones driving these changes together’.”
Yet Xi’s slogan is not new. He repeats it in all his programmatic speeches. Apart from the faux pas in Moscow, he avoided explaining in public exactly who or what he meant and what he was aiming to achieve. Sometimes he referred to the dream of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” sometimes to the changes brought about by technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, sometimes to China’s alliance with the Global South, and other times to Beijing’s international campaigns, such as the construction of China’s Silk Roads.
US strategy researcher Rush Doshi, founder of the Brookings China Strategy Initiative and Director of the US National Security Council, called Xi’s catchphrase an “Elusive Phrase: Driving China’s Grand Strategy.” The underlying intention, Doshi wrote for the China Leadership Monitor in 2021, was to replace the US-dominated world order.
According to Doshi, the phrase goes back to the Beijing economist Yuan Peng. In his 2009 essay “The Financial Crisis and American Economic Hegemony” and his book “Changes Unseen in 400 Years: From Westphalia to a New World Order,” he predicted the decline of the USA and the transition of geopolitical power from West to East.
Xi’s seemingly meaningless slogan became a core programmatic concept in 2017 when he proclaimed a new era of socialism for China after his re-election at the 19th Party Congress in 2017. “Socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era.” Internally, the time for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation “has never been as close as today,” and externally, an “unstoppable” multipolar world development is taking place. Speaking to the Chinese diplomats gathered shortly afterward for the Beijing Major Conference in December 2017; Xi said that the People’s Republic was “moving to the center of the world stage” and becoming more active in foreign policy.
In 2012, Xi spoke for the first time about the “profound changes” in the global situation and China. This is what Chinese economists wrote in their book “Profound Changes Unseen in Centuries” (百年变局), which has since also been translated into English by the scientific publisher Springer.
But Xi’s new slogan did not come on its own. It was part of the “Chinese dream” he propagated in late 2012, the desire for the Chinese nation to rise again soon. Peter Mattis, Director of the US-Jamestown Foundation, wrote in 2023: “For over a decade,” Xi had turned the concepts of that time into the foundations of today’s reshaping of Chinese foreign policy from the “New Type of International Relations” (新型国际关系) to the “Community of Common Destiny for Humanity” (人类命运共同体).
Today, Beijing has signed bilateral “strategic alliances” with more than 100 countries – mainly from the Global South – to ensure they consider themselves part of this community of common destiny.
Historically, Li Hongzhang 李鸿章(1823-1901) was the first to coin the phrase “profound changes unseen in centuries.” Li was the highest Qing imperial official and patron of China’s modernization. In two memoranda in 1873 and 1875, he criticized the encroachment of foreign countries. He called for investment and expansion of the coastal navy and shipbuilding: “All the countries of the world, however distant, have opened China’s borders to themselves and are engaged in trade. These are unprecedented changes unseen in millennia.”
It is unclear whether Xi Jinping copied his motto from Li Hongzhang. Renowned Chinese authors wrote in 2022 that the terms cannot be compared, as “they point in opposite directions.” Li Hongzhang lamented the “loss of China” due to the imposed changes, while Xi focused on opportunities for the nation and changing the world order.
According to research by Wikipedia, around 40,000 articles, academic papers and essays on the formulaic buzzword have been recorded in Chinese databases by 2022. However, there are no forecasts, scenarios, or timetables as to when the hoped-for change for China, the realization of its Chinese dream of rejuvenating the great nation and the new world order, is supposed to happen.
After all, the situation is highly complicated, both internally and externally, given the proliferation of “unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism,” warned the Communist Party newspaper Jingji Ribao on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on October 1. “Although major changes unprecedented in a century are accelerating, so-called black swan or gray rhinoceros incidents (unexpected disasters) may occur at any time.” (世界百年未有之大变局加速演进，各种”黑天鹅””灰犀牛”事件随时可能发生)
In mid-October, the party organ Volkszeitung called on the population to have more confidence in the economy and development and trust in the Party leadership in light of growing domestic problems. Using the pseudonym “Golden Commentary” 金社平, the author wrote, “The world today faces major changes the likes of which we have never seen before. But time and momentum are on our side.”
On October 26, Xi and Putin praised each other again at the most recent BRICS summit in the Russian republic metropolis of Kazan for working together to bring about change in the turbulent global situation: “The more tumultuous our times become, the more we must stand firm at the forefront.” (时代的风浪越大，我们越要勇立潮头)
At the time, Xi and Putin, who have China and Russia “first” written on their flags, could only have guessed that ten days later, Donald Trump would be back in the game with his idea of America First.
This year’s International Import Expo CIIE in Shanghai features for the first time an area dedicated to innovations in the low altitude travel zone – in other words, travel below 1,000 meters. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) held its first session on Tuesday, which focused on this emerging industry. Here, visitors look at the E20 eVTOL electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle.
Like heads of state around the world, Xi Jinping has also congratulated newly elected Donald Trump. And as with other heads of state, how the congratulations are expressed shows how enthusiastically or cautiously the victory is being received. Trump’s threat of 60 percent tariffs on Chinese imports harbors serious growth risks for China. However, apart from tariffs, other issues from Trump’s first presidency are sure to resurface. Which direction will it take? The appointments for Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State and other government posts are eagerly anticipated. Amelie Richter has taken a look at the possible candidates. Trump will likely bring some familiar faces with him.
China is not the only country that has to expect negative consequences from Trump’s election; it is also bad news for the climate. And just before COP29 begins in Baku. Negotiations are expected to be tough as it is. Due to rising emissions and growing economic opportunities, China is also under increasing pressure to contribute to the new climate finance target. You Xiaoying analyzes the position of the People’s Republic and the upcoming disputes.
Johnny Erling writes about the “Zeitenwende.” The concept was already mentioned in the Qing dynasty, writes our columnist. In 1875, the writer Li Hongzhi criticized the intrusion of foreign countries and called for investment and expansion of the coastal navy and shipbuilding: “All the countries of the world, however distant, have opened China’s borders to themselves and are engaged in trade. These are unprecedented changes unseen in millennia.” Xi also uses the phrase. For him, however, it is more about transforming the world order.
Have a pleasant day without any major upheavals.
China’s President Xi Jinping has congratulated Donald Trump on his return to the presidency one day after his election victory. In his message, Xi called on both nations to “find the right way to get along.” Stable, sound and sustainable relations between the People’s Republic and the USA served the interests of both sides, Xi said on Thursday, adding that the international community expected the two powers to “respect each other (and) co-exist peacefully.” The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also reiterated Xi’s call for stability.
However, Xi’s congratulatory message to Trump this week was more reserved than during his first election victory in November 2016 – they know each other by now. Trump’s victory will revive issues from his first presidency. Although the Biden administration did not change the trade policy stance towards Beijing, Trump’s threat of 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods harbors significant growth risks for China.
The Republican is very likely to bring old acquaintances into his cabinet who do not evoke the best memories in Beijing. China hawks could find their way into some departments.
Department of Defense:
The posts of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor will be among the most hotly contested cabinet positions:
In order to push through his economic program including the threatened sweeping tariffs, Trump will probably rely on long-standing allies in the departments of finance and trade:
Other consultants:
It is expected that Trump will announce a first cabinet outline before Thanksgiving at the end of November.
China has urged developed countries to stick to the Paris Agreement and fulfill their financial obligations towards developing countries, resisting heightened calls for the country also to pay. Countries “must not renegotiate or rewrite the relevant requirements of the Paris Agreement” at COP29, a Chinese climate official said at a press conference in Beijing on November 6, according to a readout published by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE).
Developed countries must meet its target of “donating 100 billion US dollars annually to developing countries before 2025” and “further expand the scale of their funds on this basis after 2025,” Xia Yingxian, director of the MEE’s department of climate change, told the press conference.
Countries are expected to agree on a new climate financing goal at COP29. A “specific target number” by developed countries will hold the “golden key” to the success of COP29, Xia said at a press briefing on November 1, reported the state-run China Daily.
China is facing mounting pressure to also contribute to the new goal, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal, because of its surging emissions and growing economic capabilities over the past three decades. The calls have not only come from developed economies, such as the United States and the European Union, but also small island states that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), China is the world’s largest current greenhouse gas emitter and second-largest historic emitter after the US. But its per-capita emissions are still four times less than the US equivalent, the research organization said.
Beijing today clarified its stance over COP29 in an annual report about its actions and policies on climate change.
It called on the summit to adhere to and implement the “targets, principles and arrangements” established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. Beijing described both as “the largest certainty and foundation” based on which countries can team up to respond to climate change. “If this foundation gets twisted or overturned, and there is no difference between developed countries and developing countries, and no respect towards the ‘bottom-up approach,’ then the multilateral climate process will lose its base for dialogue,” the report said. The “bottom-up approach” requires countries that have contributed the most to climate change to cut their emissions faster.
Professor Teng Fei, deputy director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, pointed out that the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement have clearly defined the donor and recipient countries of climate finance.
“The donor countries are developed countries, while the recipient countries are developing countries,” Teng told Table.Briefings. “Although developed countries such as the US are constantly challenging China’s status as a developing country, judging by [its] per-capita GDP and other gauges, undoubtedly, China is still a developing country.”
Technically speaking, China – as a developing country – is also eligible to claim climate finance from developed countries. But Beijing said at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 that “small island states, the least developed countries, and African nations should be prioritized to obtain financing support,” indicating it would not fight for aid.
Developed countries have been condemned for failing to meet their current climate financing target. They didn’t meet the goal – set to be replaced by the new goal – until 2022, according to OECD, an intergovernmental organization representing 38 countries. Beijing urged developed countries to fill the shortfall in climate finance to satisfy the amount due every year until 2025 and present a roadmap for doubling adaptation finance, according to its report.
Xia said at the press conference on Wednesday that climate finance must predominantly come from developed countries’ public money, not multilateral development banks or the private sector. He added that providing climate finance is an obligation developed countries have no choice but to fulfill, but optional for developing countries.
Teng said that developed countries’ demand for China to pay stems from their lack of political will to deliver on their own climate financing goals. “They try to shift their financing obligations onto major developing countries and constantly attempt to blur the lines between their legally binding financing obligations and the voluntary contributions made by developing countries,” he said. Other major developing countries are expected to back China’s position at COP29.
“Whether or not [countries] can reach an agreement over the new global climate financing target will be an important parameter for China as to whether COP29 is a success,” Yao Zhe, Beijing-based Global Policy Advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, told Table.Briefings.
But Yao believes China’s role in the topic has been “overblown.” She said: “There is a very big gap in global climate finance. It is not wrong to hope for China to increase its financial support, but that should not be a condition for whether other countries step up their contributions.”
A successful COP29 for China could also come in the form of more recognition of its contributions outside UNFCCC, according to Niklas Weins, an assistant professor of environmental governance and policies at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. He told Table.Briefings that a potential solution to break the deadlock might be to count China’s financing efforts under its own schemes, such as the Belt and Road Initiatives, into the new climate fund.
Beijing in 2015 pledged to “make available” 20 billion yuan (3.1 billion US dollars at the time) for setting up the China South-South Climate Cooperation Fund to help other developing countries tackle climate change. But it remains unclear how much of the fund has been delivered. China has signed 53 memorandums of understanding with 42 developing countries and carried out nearly 100 projects to help the least developed countries, African countries and small island nations through its South-South Climate cooperation mechanism.
If China can improve the data disclosure about its voluntary contributions, it will be “an important step for it to become a more credible and influential donor of climate finance,” according to Yao.
Regardless of whether China becomes a donor of the fund, “we should encourage and expect China to continue to increase its voluntary financial support and overseas low-carbon investments,” Yao said. “But that doesn’t mean China should shoulder the same climate financing responsibility as developed countries immediately,” she added. You Xiaoying
Audi presented its Audi E concept show car in Shanghai – along with a new brand. As announced back in May, the four rings will disappear in China and the brand name will be emblazoned in capital letters on the front instead. “By launching this new brand for electric and intelligent models in China, Audi is breaking new ground to tap into new and more tech-savvy customer segments,” said Gernot Döllner, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, at the premiere.
The electric car will be priced at around 300,000 yuan, just under 40,000 euros. With a 100 kWh battery, it has a range of more than 700 kilometers, the total output of the two electric motors is 570 kW, and it is said to reach 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds. The “advanced digitized platform” also has an innovative 800-volt architecture for fast charging: Just ten minutes are enough for a range of 370 kilometers.
This also seems imperative. Sales in China are poor. While EVs rapidly gain market share, Audi sales drop at the same rate, as the brand is unable to maintain its position in the electric segment. By September, Audi had sold just 16,300 EVs in the huge Chinese market this year, around 20 percent fewer than the previous year. However, the entire EV market grew by more than 20 percent during the same period.
The decision to drop the familiar logo is part of an attempt to distinguish Chinese-developed electric cars from the existing model range developed in Germany. In May, Audi and SAIC agreed on far-reaching cooperation. The joint development teams of Audi and SAIC are led by Fermín Soneira, long-time head of Audi’s electrically powered model series, with 25 years of experience in the Volkswagen Group.
The new partner SAIC is expected to cut vehicle development time by 30 percent and accelerate the company’s transformation in the Chinese market. The new Audi can also leverage the supply chain of SAIC Motor’s other intelligent EV brands, especially IM. The AUDI E concept was jointly developed by experts from Ingolstadt and Shanghai and is a glimpse of three future production models in the B and C segments, i.e. smaller vehicles, which are expected to arrive from mid-2025. A total of nine vehicles could be launched by 2030.
The models are based on the advanced digitized platform developed exclusively for China, with four central computers that are a hundred times more powerful than previous models. The batteries are supplied by CATL.
According to Audi in a press release, Chinese premium customers are younger and more tech-savvy; they demand outstanding connectivity, automated driving functions, and an interior that is both familiar and surprising. Communication involves the Audi Assistant, an AI avatar, via touch or voice control. A comprehensive entertainment and app ecosystem – individually controlled by facial recognition – will offer many intelligent in-car solutions. jul
Beijing also speaks of a “Zeitenwende” – it just doesn’t call it that. Ten years before German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Xi Jinping, who had been promoted to Party and army chief in November 2012, said at his first meeting with the new military leadership that China was facing “profound changes unseen in centuries.” These would positively impact the nation’s rise and a turning point in the global political order. The phrase has since become Xi’s catchphrase, repeated hundreds of times. It drives Beijing’s and Moscow’s ambition to create a new world order according to the motto: “The East rises and the West falls.”
After he visited Moscow on March 22, 2023, Xi Jinping bid farewell to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with a call for joint action: “Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years” (百年未有之大变局), Xi said: “We are the ones driving these changes together” (我们共同来推动). Putin agreed. He personally walked China’s President to the exit of the Kremlin. Both potentates did not realize that the journalists waiting outside the door, including Al Jazeera, were not only filming them but also recording what they were saying.
Barely a week later, EU Council President Ursula von der Leyen criticized China’s President for not even thinking about distancing himself from Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. On the contrary: “Most telling were President Xi’s parting words to Putin on the steps outside the Kremlin when he said: ‘Right now, there are changes, the likes of which we have not seen for 100 years. And we are the ones driving these changes together’.”
Yet Xi’s slogan is not new. He repeats it in all his programmatic speeches. Apart from the faux pas in Moscow, he avoided explaining in public exactly who or what he meant and what he was aiming to achieve. Sometimes he referred to the dream of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” sometimes to the changes brought about by technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, sometimes to China’s alliance with the Global South, and other times to Beijing’s international campaigns, such as the construction of China’s Silk Roads.
US strategy researcher Rush Doshi, founder of the Brookings China Strategy Initiative and Director of the US National Security Council, called Xi’s catchphrase an “Elusive Phrase: Driving China’s Grand Strategy.” The underlying intention, Doshi wrote for the China Leadership Monitor in 2021, was to replace the US-dominated world order.
According to Doshi, the phrase goes back to the Beijing economist Yuan Peng. In his 2009 essay “The Financial Crisis and American Economic Hegemony” and his book “Changes Unseen in 400 Years: From Westphalia to a New World Order,” he predicted the decline of the USA and the transition of geopolitical power from West to East.
Xi’s seemingly meaningless slogan became a core programmatic concept in 2017 when he proclaimed a new era of socialism for China after his re-election at the 19th Party Congress in 2017. “Socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era.” Internally, the time for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation “has never been as close as today,” and externally, an “unstoppable” multipolar world development is taking place. Speaking to the Chinese diplomats gathered shortly afterward for the Beijing Major Conference in December 2017; Xi said that the People’s Republic was “moving to the center of the world stage” and becoming more active in foreign policy.
In 2012, Xi spoke for the first time about the “profound changes” in the global situation and China. This is what Chinese economists wrote in their book “Profound Changes Unseen in Centuries” (百年变局), which has since also been translated into English by the scientific publisher Springer.
But Xi’s new slogan did not come on its own. It was part of the “Chinese dream” he propagated in late 2012, the desire for the Chinese nation to rise again soon. Peter Mattis, Director of the US-Jamestown Foundation, wrote in 2023: “For over a decade,” Xi had turned the concepts of that time into the foundations of today’s reshaping of Chinese foreign policy from the “New Type of International Relations” (新型国际关系) to the “Community of Common Destiny for Humanity” (人类命运共同体).
Today, Beijing has signed bilateral “strategic alliances” with more than 100 countries – mainly from the Global South – to ensure they consider themselves part of this community of common destiny.
Historically, Li Hongzhang 李鸿章(1823-1901) was the first to coin the phrase “profound changes unseen in centuries.” Li was the highest Qing imperial official and patron of China’s modernization. In two memoranda in 1873 and 1875, he criticized the encroachment of foreign countries. He called for investment and expansion of the coastal navy and shipbuilding: “All the countries of the world, however distant, have opened China’s borders to themselves and are engaged in trade. These are unprecedented changes unseen in millennia.”
It is unclear whether Xi Jinping copied his motto from Li Hongzhang. Renowned Chinese authors wrote in 2022 that the terms cannot be compared, as “they point in opposite directions.” Li Hongzhang lamented the “loss of China” due to the imposed changes, while Xi focused on opportunities for the nation and changing the world order.
According to research by Wikipedia, around 40,000 articles, academic papers and essays on the formulaic buzzword have been recorded in Chinese databases by 2022. However, there are no forecasts, scenarios, or timetables as to when the hoped-for change for China, the realization of its Chinese dream of rejuvenating the great nation and the new world order, is supposed to happen.
After all, the situation is highly complicated, both internally and externally, given the proliferation of “unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism,” warned the Communist Party newspaper Jingji Ribao on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on October 1. “Although major changes unprecedented in a century are accelerating, so-called black swan or gray rhinoceros incidents (unexpected disasters) may occur at any time.” (世界百年未有之大变局加速演进，各种”黑天鹅””灰犀牛”事件随时可能发生)
In mid-October, the party organ Volkszeitung called on the population to have more confidence in the economy and development and trust in the Party leadership in light of growing domestic problems. Using the pseudonym “Golden Commentary” 金社平, the author wrote, “The world today faces major changes the likes of which we have never seen before. But time and momentum are on our side.”
On October 26, Xi and Putin praised each other again at the most recent BRICS summit in the Russian republic metropolis of Kazan for working together to bring about change in the turbulent global situation: “The more tumultuous our times become, the more we must stand firm at the forefront.” (时代的风浪越大，我们越要勇立潮头)
At the time, Xi and Putin, who have China and Russia “first” written on their flags, could only have guessed that ten days later, Donald Trump would be back in the game with his idea of America First.
This year’s International Import Expo CIIE in Shanghai features for the first time an area dedicated to innovations in the low altitude travel zone – in other words, travel below 1,000 meters. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) held its first session on Tuesday, which focused on this emerging industry. Here, visitors look at the E20 eVTOL electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle.
