What Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen are planning for their visit to Beijing could be a diplomatic masterstroke – or it could end in a fiasco.
The French president apparently believes in the good in Xi Jinping and hopes that he can have an appeasing effect on aggressor Putin, possibly even as a mediator. The President of the European Commission, on the other hand, makes it clear that she has by no means traveled to Beijing as a supplicant. In her keynote speech last week, she already clarified that she no longer sees the People’s Republic as an opportunity but rather as a threat.
Good cop, bad cop – this strategy seems too obvious to be successful in Beijing. But who knows? After all, the Chinese leadership has recently adopted a milder tone, especially toward the Europeans. China does not seem to be as independent from the West as Beijing recently pretended to be, at least not at this point. Dependencies also have their good sides when they are based on reciprocity.
While Macron made his first appointments in Beijing, his Taiwanese counterpart Tsai Ing-wen arrived in Los Angeles and met the third highest-ranking politician in the United States. Since Taiwan became the scene of the superpowers’ tussle, Tsai’s role on the world stage also became increasingly important, writes Fabian Peltsch. Also on Thursday, she partly stole the show from Macron with her unofficial visit to America.
I wish you a relaxing holiday!
There were high concerns that Beijing might counter the meeting between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy with military maneuvers. And that these may threaten Taiwan even more immediately than those following the August 2022 visit of McCarthy’s Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi. On the day of the meeting in Los Angeles, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported that a Chinese naval squadron under the command of the aircraft carrier “Shandong” had crossed the Bashi Strait southeast of Taiwan.
In the end, however, it stayed at verbal attacks. Except for pro-Chinese protesters in front of the building and a sports plane flying a banner in the sky with the slogan “One China! Taiwan is part of China!” trailing behind it, the meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, went off without problems.
“I am optimistic we will continue to find ways for the people of America and Taiwan to work together to promote economic freedom, democracy, peace, and stability,” McCarthy assured the Taiwanese president at the outset. And Tsai thanked him for his hospitality, saying it was “warm like the California sunshine.” McCarthy, as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, holds the third-highest office in the United States in terms of protocol, after the president and vice president.
However, the simultaneous visit to China by Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen may also have contributed to Beijing’s rather mild reaction. Xi wants to convince the Europeans that cooperation with China is still possible. He also wants them to give credence to his peace plan to resolve the Ukraine war. Shooting exercises around the democratically governed island would have a rather counterproductive effect.
The visit of former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) to China is likely to have triggered at least as many concerns as the presence of the Europeans. Military escalation would have immediately undermined the talk of one “Chinese family” and friendly relations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
These were the tones Ma and Song Tao, China’s Director of the Taiwan Affairs Bureau, had struck at a meeting in Wuhan. An aggressive response by China would have strengthened the position of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the upcoming presidential election in January 2024. And that is not in China’s interest.
“In the event of military escalation, the US and Taiwan would have invoked Beijing’s response in the future to claim moral superiority in the eyes of other governments and paint the picture of an insatiable Beijing that no one can cooperate with,” says Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist and fellow at National Taiwan University in Taipei.
For Tsai, the nearly ten-day trip to America was the last major trip of her time as Taiwan’s president. After two terms in office, she must vacate the post in 2024 for a successor. In that sense, Tsai is also cementing her political legacy with this trip.
Since taking office in 2016, geopolitical circumstances have made her one of the world’s most important heads of state. Amid the rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries and the Taiwanese desire for security and self-reliance, her policies followed the kind of sober pragmatism she admired in Angela Merkel.
However, not just the United States but also the Japanese and numerous European states have never expressed their solidarity with Taiwan as clearly as they have under Tsai. The number of foreign delegations wanting to shake her hand is still increasing.
Honduras may be the latest country to end diplomatic relations with the island. Nevertheless, the global network that Tsai has spun during her tenure is more stable and far-reaching than at any time since the beginning of Taiwan’s democratization.
Last week in Beijing, people listened carefully when Ursula von der Leyen gave her keynote speech on China. The head of the EU Commission called for a readjustment of relations. But despite von der Leyen’s clear wording, she and French President Emmanuel Macron will likely be spared Chinese criticism during their joint trip to China. Beijing has something else in mind: It wants to prevent what it sees as a further drift of the EU toward the United States.
Von der Leyen and Macron landed in Beijing on Wednesday. Von der Leyen was received by Environment Minister Huang Runqiu at Beijing airport a few hours after Macron.
After his arrival, Macron addressed the French community in Beijing. “The concentration of power” in trade, in the economy, and also militarily has changed China, Macron said. Dialogue with the country is nonetheless essential, he added. He warned of possible arms deliveries from China to Russia. However, in response to journalists, Macron indicated that he would not threaten sanctions in this regard during his meeting with Xi Jinping on Thursday. He reiterated that China could play a major role in finding a path to peace in Ukraine. Before departing, Macron had spoken on the phone with US President Joe Biden, von der Leyen with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The important talks with Head of State Xi Jinping are scheduled today, Thursday. Even before her arrival, Chinese state media made it clear that the talks would not be confrontational. They portrayed it as the EU being pressured by the United States to turn away from the People’s Republic.
“Both sides should overcome US interference and focus on cooperation,” the party newspaper Global Times wrote. The US was urging Europeans to distance themselves from China, the paper commented in another article: “The crisis in Ukraine has increased the EU’s strategic dependence on the US.”
Beijing understood very well that the war had caused a chill in European-Chinese relations. But instead of finding fault with themselves, the Chinese blame Washington. The EU had been “hijacked” by the US, China Daily analyzed, speaking of a “dilemma” for the EU.
China wants to use the visit of Macron and von der Leyen to woo the Europeans. Shortly before, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was already in China last week. In mid-April, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will travel to Beijing. China sees all these appointments as an opportunity to revive exchanges that were largely broken off during the Covid pandemic.
Europeans are promised rewarding business: China’s economy is experiencing a robust recovery, said Fu Cong, Beijing’s top representative in Brussels, ahead of the visit. The Europeans were certainly also coming “to explore business opportunities in such a huge and thriving market,” he said. Beijing still wants to sign the CAI investment agreement with the EU, whose ratification is on hold because of the dispute over the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region and mutual sanctions.
“Before resuming the ratification process, a reassessment of the agreement would first be necessary,” BDI Chief Executive Tanja Gönner said about the CAI on the occasion of the trip. The German industry welcomed the investment agreement between the EU and China at the time it was concluded at the end of 2020. Since then, much has changed in China and the rest of the world, Gönner said. The BDI thus echoed von der Leyen’s statements on CAI. In her keynote speech, the latter had for the first time publicly suggested that the agreement could not be pursued. Nevertheless, the European business delegation will certainly not return empty-handed from China.
In the Chinese press, however, the visitors are assessed quite varying: Macron, with his repeated demands on Beijing as a mediator, and the accompanying business delegation are seen as more constructive. Von der Leyen is portrayed more like an uninvited guest because of the keynote speech.
Sima Nan, one of the country’s leading political commentators and propaganda bloggers, accuses von der Leyen of forcing China to choose between Russia and Europe: “She does not understand the idea of the middle ground, nor does she understand China’s concept of a human community of destiny,” Sima writes on his blog. In Chinese social media, the assessment of the European guests is far more drastic, the EU Commission Chief, in particular, is also addressed in an insulting manner.
However, progress on the Ukraine issue is unlikely. The Chinese also emphasize that the conflict will be discussed. But almost two weeks after his trip to Moscow, Xi has still not spoken on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Serious mediation efforts look different.
Wednesday, shortly before the arrival of the Europeans, two additional guests suddenly announced themselves in Beijing: The top diplomats of Saudi Arabia and Iran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud are also scheduled to arrive on Thursday, the same day as Macron and von der Leyen.
They will shake hands in China for the first time in seven years. Beijing had successfully brokered an agreement in March to bring the two hostile states back together. The subtle message to Europeans is that there are other important geopolitical issues besides Ukraine.
If everything goes according to plan, China’s evening news will be able to announce two diplomatic successes to the people on Thursday: on the one hand, successful talks with France and the EU, and on the other, a handshake between Iran and Saudi Arabia for the history books. Collaboration: Amelie Richter
Compared to China, the competitiveness of the US, Australia, and EU countries is clearly no longer in such good shape. The research team of the renowned Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) reviewed more than 2.2 million research papers. The result: China leads in 37 of the 44 most important research and technology areas.
Aspi looked at papers in important research areas such as space, robotics, energy, environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials, and quantum technology. Its so-called tech tracker shows that ten of the world’s leading research institutions are now based in China. Together, they produce nine times more influential research than the second-ranked country, the United States.
The authors of the study speak of a “wake-up call for democratic nations.” Governments around the world should work together to catch up with China, the ASPI researchers urge. Western countries should keep a closer eye on the “world’s center of technological innovation and strategic competition,” the study authors demand – referring to the Indo-Pacific. “China has had an answer for almost every technological development taking on the world,” the US magazine Fortune notes. The study was co-financed by the US State Department, among others.
The leadership in Beijing is brimming with self-confidence, given its own technical strength. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is also likely to experience this during her visit to Beijing. Until now, the EU’s innovative strength was considered one of its last remaining strengths. Unlike the USA, the EU countries now have neither a world-class army nor a leading financial center.
The study also shows that fewer and fewer Chinese need training abroad to keep up technologically. Only 20 percent of the research papers were written by researchers and developers originating from the USA, England, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Chinese institutes lead the world in publishing the most valuable papers almost everywhere, followed mostly by institutions from the United States.
Other studies come to similar conclusions, for example, the Special Competitive Studies Project’s Report or Govini’s analysis. They, too, conclude disillusioned: the US Department of Defense’s investments are nowhere near enough to catch up with China.
With the technology tracker, ASPI researchers have developed a tool that allows different countries to be compared in terms of their respective levels of development. For example, when comparing the EU and China in terms of specialists in advanced robotics technology, the proportion of students with a bachelor’s degree in China is 29 percent. In the EU, by contrast, the figure is less than half of that, at 14 percent. For postgraduates, the EU and China are still on par.
The trend is clear: China is expanding its innovation capabilities at a rapid pace. Leadership positions like these combined with “the ability to transform research breakthroughs into commercial products and manufacture them in highly efficient production facilities” could enable China to “gain a stranglehold on global supply chains in key technological areas,” the authors write. In the long term, China’s leading research position means it will be at the forefront not just in current research areas but also in future “important technologies including those that do not yet exist,” the report says. This will also enable China to score geopolitical points.
In the field of quantum computing research, for example, the US is currently still leading. But on the next level, post-quantum cryptography, China is already ahead. It is looking at so-called cryptographic primitives. Unlike most asymmetric cryptosystems currently in use, these cannot even be decrypted by quantum computers. They are considered a central building block of quantum communication, which aims to protect knowledge, among other things. And in the equally central research area of quantum sensor research, the next stage of sensor technology, China is ahead: with quantum systems, they can measure temperature, speed, electric and magnetic fields or positions with much greater precision than other sensors that have existed to date.
China is also a technological leader in network technology, energy, and environmental technology, which the Europeans once led, as well as drones, autonomous driving systems, and hypersonic aircraft. That also surprised US intelligence agencies when they discovered in August 2022 that the Chinese had developed hypersonic missiles capable of carrying warheads. EU states, on the other hand, have been arguing for months over who gets research funding for a defense system.
In order to make up for these shortfalls, the ASPI 23 makes concrete proposals, among other things for talent development, but also on how governments can promote market-based innovation more strongly.
Of particular interest: Sanctions are not among the institute’s suggestions. Instead, the study assumes that the best way is to strengthen competitiveness. It is a matter of becoming better rather than weakening competitors. At the same time, the study points out that it will take time to catch up with the world’s best. But if funding is stopped because of short-term pressures, decades of successful research will be destroyed, the authors warn. “The cost of catching up will be significant, but the costs of inaction could be far greater,” the authors write.
When He Gang was accepted to study geography at the prestigious Peking University, he was working in construction. His father, a small farmer in Hunan province, had died two years earlier. So He Gang had to lend a hand to support the family. Originally, he did not know much about geography as a subject, says He Gang, now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University in New York. But he could not just pass up a place at one of the best universities in China.
During his studies, He Gang discovered his passion for geography because it allowed him to develop a systematic view of the big picture and to learn about different regions and people in China during field research. During a project in southwestern China, he experienced the consequences of climate change up close for the first time: increased rainfall and deforestation mean that the thin layer of topsoil is not just literally flowing away from under the feet of local mountain farmers – and with it their livelihood.
In 2005, He Gang attends the UN Climate Change Conference COP 11 in Montreal as a Chinese youth delegate, a formative event. Afterward, he begins to get involved in climate issues. With fellow students, he founds the first student climate club at Peking University, which works to increase environmental awareness among students and make the campus greener, among other things. And he decides to pursue a master’s degree in “Climate and Society” at Columbia University in the US, followed by research work in the “Energy and Sustainable Development” program at Stanford University and a doctorate in “Energy and Resources” in 2015 at Berkeley University.
Meanwhile, He Gang’s research focuses on energy and climate policy. The Chinese economy is supposed to become climate neutral by 2060, but energy security is always an important requirement for the Chinese government, the scientist explains. This is the reason for the contradictory phenomenon that China strongly promotes the expansion of renewable energies but, at the same time, continues to build new coal-fired power plants on a large scale, which are considered to be particularly reliable.
In his latest research project, He Gang examined how the globalized market for solar panels positively affects their selling prices. The result: compared to relocating production to Germany, German buyers of solar panels saved about 6.5 billion euros between 2008 and 2020. There are concerns about buying Chinese photovoltaic systems with regard to jobs, human rights, and the high level of dependency. But this is offset by the enormous additional financial costs of relocating production, explains He Gang. Politicians have to weigh the options carefully.
Overall, the climate researcher is cautiously optimistic: Renewable energies are now at the beginning of exponential growth, he says, and last year more money was invested in renewable than fossil energies worldwide for the first time. “This won’t save the world in which we live now, but it will help prevent the worst,” He Gang sums up. Clemens Ruben
Asterix and his buddy Obelix had already made it as far as the Orient. Now, finally, the two Gauls travel to the Middle Kingdom. Asterix, who falls in love with the daughter of the Empress of China, Wu Dan, makes it to Luoyang with Obelix, but so do the Roman legionaries. This volume, published outside the series to accompany the film of the same name, also promises a lot of fighting – and concentrated female power: Gutemine and Cleopatra also have something to say about it.
What Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen are planning for their visit to Beijing could be a diplomatic masterstroke – or it could end in a fiasco.
The French president apparently believes in the good in Xi Jinping and hopes that he can have an appeasing effect on aggressor Putin, possibly even as a mediator. The President of the European Commission, on the other hand, makes it clear that she has by no means traveled to Beijing as a supplicant. In her keynote speech last week, she already clarified that she no longer sees the People’s Republic as an opportunity but rather as a threat.
Good cop, bad cop – this strategy seems too obvious to be successful in Beijing. But who knows? After all, the Chinese leadership has recently adopted a milder tone, especially toward the Europeans. China does not seem to be as independent from the West as Beijing recently pretended to be, at least not at this point. Dependencies also have their good sides when they are based on reciprocity.
While Macron made his first appointments in Beijing, his Taiwanese counterpart Tsai Ing-wen arrived in Los Angeles and met the third highest-ranking politician in the United States. Since Taiwan became the scene of the superpowers’ tussle, Tsai’s role on the world stage also became increasingly important, writes Fabian Peltsch. Also on Thursday, she partly stole the show from Macron with her unofficial visit to America.
I wish you a relaxing holiday!
There were high concerns that Beijing might counter the meeting between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy with military maneuvers. And that these may threaten Taiwan even more immediately than those following the August 2022 visit of McCarthy’s Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi. On the day of the meeting in Los Angeles, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported that a Chinese naval squadron under the command of the aircraft carrier “Shandong” had crossed the Bashi Strait southeast of Taiwan.
In the end, however, it stayed at verbal attacks. Except for pro-Chinese protesters in front of the building and a sports plane flying a banner in the sky with the slogan “One China! Taiwan is part of China!” trailing behind it, the meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, went off without problems.
“I am optimistic we will continue to find ways for the people of America and Taiwan to work together to promote economic freedom, democracy, peace, and stability,” McCarthy assured the Taiwanese president at the outset. And Tsai thanked him for his hospitality, saying it was “warm like the California sunshine.” McCarthy, as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, holds the third-highest office in the United States in terms of protocol, after the president and vice president.
However, the simultaneous visit to China by Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen may also have contributed to Beijing’s rather mild reaction. Xi wants to convince the Europeans that cooperation with China is still possible. He also wants them to give credence to his peace plan to resolve the Ukraine war. Shooting exercises around the democratically governed island would have a rather counterproductive effect.
The visit of former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) to China is likely to have triggered at least as many concerns as the presence of the Europeans. Military escalation would have immediately undermined the talk of one “Chinese family” and friendly relations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
These were the tones Ma and Song Tao, China’s Director of the Taiwan Affairs Bureau, had struck at a meeting in Wuhan. An aggressive response by China would have strengthened the position of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the upcoming presidential election in January 2024. And that is not in China’s interest.
“In the event of military escalation, the US and Taiwan would have invoked Beijing’s response in the future to claim moral superiority in the eyes of other governments and paint the picture of an insatiable Beijing that no one can cooperate with,” says Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist and fellow at National Taiwan University in Taipei.
For Tsai, the nearly ten-day trip to America was the last major trip of her time as Taiwan’s president. After two terms in office, she must vacate the post in 2024 for a successor. In that sense, Tsai is also cementing her political legacy with this trip.
Since taking office in 2016, geopolitical circumstances have made her one of the world’s most important heads of state. Amid the rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries and the Taiwanese desire for security and self-reliance, her policies followed the kind of sober pragmatism she admired in Angela Merkel.
However, not just the United States but also the Japanese and numerous European states have never expressed their solidarity with Taiwan as clearly as they have under Tsai. The number of foreign delegations wanting to shake her hand is still increasing.
Honduras may be the latest country to end diplomatic relations with the island. Nevertheless, the global network that Tsai has spun during her tenure is more stable and far-reaching than at any time since the beginning of Taiwan’s democratization.
Last week in Beijing, people listened carefully when Ursula von der Leyen gave her keynote speech on China. The head of the EU Commission called for a readjustment of relations. But despite von der Leyen’s clear wording, she and French President Emmanuel Macron will likely be spared Chinese criticism during their joint trip to China. Beijing has something else in mind: It wants to prevent what it sees as a further drift of the EU toward the United States.
Von der Leyen and Macron landed in Beijing on Wednesday. Von der Leyen was received by Environment Minister Huang Runqiu at Beijing airport a few hours after Macron.
After his arrival, Macron addressed the French community in Beijing. “The concentration of power” in trade, in the economy, and also militarily has changed China, Macron said. Dialogue with the country is nonetheless essential, he added. He warned of possible arms deliveries from China to Russia. However, in response to journalists, Macron indicated that he would not threaten sanctions in this regard during his meeting with Xi Jinping on Thursday. He reiterated that China could play a major role in finding a path to peace in Ukraine. Before departing, Macron had spoken on the phone with US President Joe Biden, von der Leyen with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The important talks with Head of State Xi Jinping are scheduled today, Thursday. Even before her arrival, Chinese state media made it clear that the talks would not be confrontational. They portrayed it as the EU being pressured by the United States to turn away from the People’s Republic.
“Both sides should overcome US interference and focus on cooperation,” the party newspaper Global Times wrote. The US was urging Europeans to distance themselves from China, the paper commented in another article: “The crisis in Ukraine has increased the EU’s strategic dependence on the US.”
Beijing understood very well that the war had caused a chill in European-Chinese relations. But instead of finding fault with themselves, the Chinese blame Washington. The EU had been “hijacked” by the US, China Daily analyzed, speaking of a “dilemma” for the EU.
China wants to use the visit of Macron and von der Leyen to woo the Europeans. Shortly before, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was already in China last week. In mid-April, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will travel to Beijing. China sees all these appointments as an opportunity to revive exchanges that were largely broken off during the Covid pandemic.
Europeans are promised rewarding business: China’s economy is experiencing a robust recovery, said Fu Cong, Beijing’s top representative in Brussels, ahead of the visit. The Europeans were certainly also coming “to explore business opportunities in such a huge and thriving market,” he said. Beijing still wants to sign the CAI investment agreement with the EU, whose ratification is on hold because of the dispute over the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region and mutual sanctions.
“Before resuming the ratification process, a reassessment of the agreement would first be necessary,” BDI Chief Executive Tanja Gönner said about the CAI on the occasion of the trip. The German industry welcomed the investment agreement between the EU and China at the time it was concluded at the end of 2020. Since then, much has changed in China and the rest of the world, Gönner said. The BDI thus echoed von der Leyen’s statements on CAI. In her keynote speech, the latter had for the first time publicly suggested that the agreement could not be pursued. Nevertheless, the European business delegation will certainly not return empty-handed from China.
In the Chinese press, however, the visitors are assessed quite varying: Macron, with his repeated demands on Beijing as a mediator, and the accompanying business delegation are seen as more constructive. Von der Leyen is portrayed more like an uninvited guest because of the keynote speech.
Sima Nan, one of the country’s leading political commentators and propaganda bloggers, accuses von der Leyen of forcing China to choose between Russia and Europe: “She does not understand the idea of the middle ground, nor does she understand China’s concept of a human community of destiny,” Sima writes on his blog. In Chinese social media, the assessment of the European guests is far more drastic, the EU Commission Chief, in particular, is also addressed in an insulting manner.
However, progress on the Ukraine issue is unlikely. The Chinese also emphasize that the conflict will be discussed. But almost two weeks after his trip to Moscow, Xi has still not spoken on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Serious mediation efforts look different.
Wednesday, shortly before the arrival of the Europeans, two additional guests suddenly announced themselves in Beijing: The top diplomats of Saudi Arabia and Iran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud are also scheduled to arrive on Thursday, the same day as Macron and von der Leyen.
They will shake hands in China for the first time in seven years. Beijing had successfully brokered an agreement in March to bring the two hostile states back together. The subtle message to Europeans is that there are other important geopolitical issues besides Ukraine.
If everything goes according to plan, China’s evening news will be able to announce two diplomatic successes to the people on Thursday: on the one hand, successful talks with France and the EU, and on the other, a handshake between Iran and Saudi Arabia for the history books. Collaboration: Amelie Richter
Compared to China, the competitiveness of the US, Australia, and EU countries is clearly no longer in such good shape. The research team of the renowned Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) reviewed more than 2.2 million research papers. The result: China leads in 37 of the 44 most important research and technology areas.
Aspi looked at papers in important research areas such as space, robotics, energy, environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials, and quantum technology. Its so-called tech tracker shows that ten of the world’s leading research institutions are now based in China. Together, they produce nine times more influential research than the second-ranked country, the United States.
The authors of the study speak of a “wake-up call for democratic nations.” Governments around the world should work together to catch up with China, the ASPI researchers urge. Western countries should keep a closer eye on the “world’s center of technological innovation and strategic competition,” the study authors demand – referring to the Indo-Pacific. “China has had an answer for almost every technological development taking on the world,” the US magazine Fortune notes. The study was co-financed by the US State Department, among others.
The leadership in Beijing is brimming with self-confidence, given its own technical strength. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is also likely to experience this during her visit to Beijing. Until now, the EU’s innovative strength was considered one of its last remaining strengths. Unlike the USA, the EU countries now have neither a world-class army nor a leading financial center.
The study also shows that fewer and fewer Chinese need training abroad to keep up technologically. Only 20 percent of the research papers were written by researchers and developers originating from the USA, England, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Chinese institutes lead the world in publishing the most valuable papers almost everywhere, followed mostly by institutions from the United States.
Other studies come to similar conclusions, for example, the Special Competitive Studies Project’s Report or Govini’s analysis. They, too, conclude disillusioned: the US Department of Defense’s investments are nowhere near enough to catch up with China.
With the technology tracker, ASPI researchers have developed a tool that allows different countries to be compared in terms of their respective levels of development. For example, when comparing the EU and China in terms of specialists in advanced robotics technology, the proportion of students with a bachelor’s degree in China is 29 percent. In the EU, by contrast, the figure is less than half of that, at 14 percent. For postgraduates, the EU and China are still on par.
The trend is clear: China is expanding its innovation capabilities at a rapid pace. Leadership positions like these combined with “the ability to transform research breakthroughs into commercial products and manufacture them in highly efficient production facilities” could enable China to “gain a stranglehold on global supply chains in key technological areas,” the authors write. In the long term, China’s leading research position means it will be at the forefront not just in current research areas but also in future “important technologies including those that do not yet exist,” the report says. This will also enable China to score geopolitical points.
In the field of quantum computing research, for example, the US is currently still leading. But on the next level, post-quantum cryptography, China is already ahead. It is looking at so-called cryptographic primitives. Unlike most asymmetric cryptosystems currently in use, these cannot even be decrypted by quantum computers. They are considered a central building block of quantum communication, which aims to protect knowledge, among other things. And in the equally central research area of quantum sensor research, the next stage of sensor technology, China is ahead: with quantum systems, they can measure temperature, speed, electric and magnetic fields or positions with much greater precision than other sensors that have existed to date.
China is also a technological leader in network technology, energy, and environmental technology, which the Europeans once led, as well as drones, autonomous driving systems, and hypersonic aircraft. That also surprised US intelligence agencies when they discovered in August 2022 that the Chinese had developed hypersonic missiles capable of carrying warheads. EU states, on the other hand, have been arguing for months over who gets research funding for a defense system.
In order to make up for these shortfalls, the ASPI 23 makes concrete proposals, among other things for talent development, but also on how governments can promote market-based innovation more strongly.
Of particular interest: Sanctions are not among the institute’s suggestions. Instead, the study assumes that the best way is to strengthen competitiveness. It is a matter of becoming better rather than weakening competitors. At the same time, the study points out that it will take time to catch up with the world’s best. But if funding is stopped because of short-term pressures, decades of successful research will be destroyed, the authors warn. “The cost of catching up will be significant, but the costs of inaction could be far greater,” the authors write.
When He Gang was accepted to study geography at the prestigious Peking University, he was working in construction. His father, a small farmer in Hunan province, had died two years earlier. So He Gang had to lend a hand to support the family. Originally, he did not know much about geography as a subject, says He Gang, now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University in New York. But he could not just pass up a place at one of the best universities in China.
During his studies, He Gang discovered his passion for geography because it allowed him to develop a systematic view of the big picture and to learn about different regions and people in China during field research. During a project in southwestern China, he experienced the consequences of climate change up close for the first time: increased rainfall and deforestation mean that the thin layer of topsoil is not just literally flowing away from under the feet of local mountain farmers – and with it their livelihood.
In 2005, He Gang attends the UN Climate Change Conference COP 11 in Montreal as a Chinese youth delegate, a formative event. Afterward, he begins to get involved in climate issues. With fellow students, he founds the first student climate club at Peking University, which works to increase environmental awareness among students and make the campus greener, among other things. And he decides to pursue a master’s degree in “Climate and Society” at Columbia University in the US, followed by research work in the “Energy and Sustainable Development” program at Stanford University and a doctorate in “Energy and Resources” in 2015 at Berkeley University.
Meanwhile, He Gang’s research focuses on energy and climate policy. The Chinese economy is supposed to become climate neutral by 2060, but energy security is always an important requirement for the Chinese government, the scientist explains. This is the reason for the contradictory phenomenon that China strongly promotes the expansion of renewable energies but, at the same time, continues to build new coal-fired power plants on a large scale, which are considered to be particularly reliable.
In his latest research project, He Gang examined how the globalized market for solar panels positively affects their selling prices. The result: compared to relocating production to Germany, German buyers of solar panels saved about 6.5 billion euros between 2008 and 2020. There are concerns about buying Chinese photovoltaic systems with regard to jobs, human rights, and the high level of dependency. But this is offset by the enormous additional financial costs of relocating production, explains He Gang. Politicians have to weigh the options carefully.
Overall, the climate researcher is cautiously optimistic: Renewable energies are now at the beginning of exponential growth, he says, and last year more money was invested in renewable than fossil energies worldwide for the first time. “This won’t save the world in which we live now, but it will help prevent the worst,” He Gang sums up. Clemens Ruben
Asterix and his buddy Obelix had already made it as far as the Orient. Now, finally, the two Gauls travel to the Middle Kingdom. Asterix, who falls in love with the daughter of the Empress of China, Wu Dan, makes it to Luoyang with Obelix, but so do the Roman legionaries. This volume, published outside the series to accompany the film of the same name, also promises a lot of fighting – and concentrated female power: Gutemine and Cleopatra also have something to say about it.
