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Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very pleased to welcome you both live here in the beautiful city of Qingdao and online.
The city of Qingdao has a long history/tradition with Germany, which exemplifies the successful cooperation between China and Germany. Last September, we successfully held the Sino-German Dialogue Forum 2019 in Qingdao. We were able to strengthen mutual trust and consolidate the foundations of our cooperation. We made remarkable progress in the three projects recommended by the 2019 Dialogue Forum.
These positive achievements from 2019 were shaken at the beginning of this year by the global spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which affects us all.
The pandemic is putting the lives and health of people in all countries at considerable risk and is hindering and delaying the development of the global economy. At the same time, we have all moved a little closer together as we work together to find solutions to bring social life as well as the political, economic, social and cultural spheres back to normal as far as possible.
As China and Germany are two very influential countries worldwide, it is of far-reaching importance to further strengthen cooperation between these two countries. We have seen that since the outbreak of the pandemic, the leaders of the two countries have repeatedly held frequent dialogues, strengthened strategic cooperation between China and the EU, united in the fight against epidemics and responded to global challenges. This is very important for the world and demonstrates the high level of political and mutual trust between these two parties. Our Sino-German Science and Technology Cooperation Forum aims to leverage and consolidate these achievements to jointly overcome the challenges and shape the future. The ultimate goal is to unite and help each other, while respecting science, respecting facts and strengthening mutual trust, in order to identify possible focuses and cooperation opportunities for sustainable development in the future.
The President of the Forum, Ms. Schavan, mentioned in her speech that the current era is at a turning point. We need to reshape our shared sense of responsibility, cooperate more closely than before and look to the future together to turn crises into opportunities. Since the pandemic, President Schavan and I have been in frequent contact and have often shared the same views. For example, the member units of the Sino-German Dialogue Forum have done fruitful work and provided material assistance to strengthen cultural exchange. The representatives were forced to rethink during these particularly difficult times and formulated new methods and new models of Sino-German cooperation in their respective fields during the pandemic period.
The president of my alma mater (TU Clausthal) also just mentioned the availability of face masks. During the epidemic, I sent some masks to many friends and many friends also sent masks to me. This small gesture of friendship not only illustrates the mutual care and encouragement between the two sides, but also shows the efforts to defeat the pandemic together and secure the future.
I have listened carefully to your comments and would like to address four points below:
The first, significant step is to unite and help each other to overcome the challenges of the pandemic together.
In the course of the joint response to the pandemic, the leaders of China and Germany have continuously deepened their trust and cooperation, and promoted the two countries' international cooperation in response to the pandemic, economic recovery and trade promotion. In addition, it has also promoted exchanges, mutual trust and fruitful cooperation between local governments, scientific research institutions, enterprises, universities and the private sector. We have exchanged information and research results during the pandemic and supported active cooperation in the areas of epidemic prevention and control, medical treatment, vaccine research and development, and material support. This cooperation between China and Germany has effectively controlled the spread of the epidemic in both countries. We therefore have reason to believe that we will continue to overcome the difficulties together, thereby raising relations between China and Germany and China and Europe to a new level.
The second point I would like to take up is that we must focus on and jointly promote the development of the domestic and international economy.
China, Germany and Europe are important industrial partners for each other. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, both sides have recognized that we play an irreplaceable role and responsibility in maintaining the stability of the international industrial and supply chain. Together with Germany, we have set up the first "fast-track" procedure for travel between China and Germany. Through this fast-track channel, thousands of German businessmen have been able to fly back to China smoothly. As a result, China and Germany have restored people-to-people exchanges in the fields of business, foreign trade, science and technology, education and culture. I think our cooperation model should not only be a matter of our two countries, but also represents an opportunity for the expansion of cooperation between China and Europe. This model could be expanded globally. Therefore, it strengthens the cooperation between China and Germany and China and Europe.
In China, a new development pattern is gradually being formed with the domestic large-scale circulation as the main body and the domestic and international dual circulation for mutual promotion. We must take advantage of the post-epidemic recovery period and deepen economic cooperation between China and Germany and China and Europe, promote industrial economic and trade cooperation, and jointly shape the future to build a higher-level and more inclusive world economic and trade system. The future world will not be like the world we have known so far. The future world needs us to work together to explore goals and jointly formulate and implement new goals and strategies for future economic and social development.
The third point I would like to address is cooperation, which should contribute to the sustainable development of the future.
The pandemic has prompted people to reflect more strongly on political decisions and current developments and, if necessary, to rethink and optimize what has been accepted so far, so that we have to adapt more strongly to current circumstances. The aforementioned search for opportunities in crises now consists of deriving or following the laws of development and exploiting the new potential that the crisis brings with it. Based on media coverage, the pandemic currently appears to be a global challenge, if not the greatest global challenge. In fact, climate change, meteorological disasters, food crises and biodiversity are also crises, and not only for the ecological environment, but they also represent global challenges for the survival of humanity. From this perspective, we are firmly convinced that globalization - i.e. the networking of the world - is still the right way to tackle challenges together and promote new developments.
We must take the future-oriented sustainable development as the direction, adhere to the concepts - respect science, respect facts and strengthen mutual trust - to increase resources for scientific and technological innovation, thereby jointly enabling a green home for all people. Therefore, China and Germany should actively carry out joint research in the fields of climate change, disease prevention and control, resource development and environmental protection, utilizing new technologies such as clean energy, artificial intelligence and intelligent manufacturing to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, open up new growth points for the future, jointly respond to global challenges, and jointly lead the green and sustainable development of the world.
The fourth and final point is to promote the exchange and cooperation of young scientific and technical personnel in the future.
The future of cooperation between China and Germany and China and the EU lies in young people. The more frequent, deeper and more effective the exchanges are at this stage of life, the stronger the foundation of cooperation between China and Germany will be. I have just mentioned that the Sino-German Agreement on Science and Technology was signed by Vice Premier Fang Yi during his visit to Germany in 1978. Back then, we were the young people. The reason why we have become what we are today is the future-oriented thinking and actions of our predecessors, who enabled us to develop personally and take on responsibility. But we want to offer today's young people even more. All the speakers at today's event presented a number of successful examples to illustrate the importance of building a platform for youth exchange. This exchange is not only in the fields of science and engineering, but also in the fields of humanities, social sciences and education, which can enable today's generations to think and act in an interdisciplinary way.
Since the Sino-German Dialogue Forum in 2019, we have jointly promoted or established the digital open platform for distance education between China and Germany. Today, the President of Shanghai Open University gave a good introduction and laid the foundation for the long-term development between China-Germany and China-Europe. The epidemic has also helped us to fundamentally change our communication methods and turn the actual crisis into an opportunity: The combination of online and offline has expanded and enriched the possibilities of communication channels, made communication channels smoother and improved communication efficiency. Therefore, we need to promote the joint establishment of global standards in the digital age to ensure our digital communication in the future.
Looking to the future, China and Germany should promote the establishment of a strategic partnership that moves each other to a higher level, accelerating the construction of a Sino-German digital open learning platform and a Sino-German Academy for Young Elite Researchers and other cooperative projects. Likewise, an open source and open platform should be jointly established and exchanges in all forms, as well as innovative ideas and start-ups that support this development, should be promoted. In this context, the Chinese Society for Science and Technology has already earmarked sufficient financial resources at the beginning of this year, which are to be made available for corresponding projects over the course of the year. While enabling young scientists to realize their own development, they will also ensure that scientific achievements benefit more countries and people to promote balanced and sustainable development globally.
Ladies and gentlemen, the cooperation and exchanges between China and Germany are directly linked to your continuous and joint efforts. Although there will be some challenges on the way forward, I believe that all the politicians, experts and scholars, industrial elites and young friends present here can work together to overcome these challenges and raise Sino-German science and technology cooperation to a new level.
Thanks again to the Chinese friends present and to the German friends who are far away in the cloud (some in China and most in Germany) for their suggestions; to Shandong Province, especially Qingdao City, for their generous support and also to the simultaneous interpreters sitting at the back of the translation room, who are excellent and very professional. I think today's dialog and exchange have strengthened/expanded our consensus, further strengthened our mutual trust and will help motivate our future cooperation. The epidemic is still ongoing and we still have to make an effort to realize or catch up on the exchange programs planned for this year as soon as possible.
Thank you very much!
(This is a non-official translation and reproduction of the Chinese speech from the Chinese-German Forum)
Good morning and best wishes from the southwest of Germany to Qingdao!
Ladies and gentlemen, and dear colleague Wan Gang,
China and Germany are linked by a privileged partnership. This includes regular government consultations, numerous collaborations in science and research，partnerships between universities and close economic relations for many years. This includes exchanges on the major issues of the future. It also includes the German-Chinese, Chinese-German Dialogue Forum led by my colleague Wan Gang and myself with representatives from civil society in China and Germany.
What are we talking about? What are we talking about? In the time of the pandemic, which we all feel is a turning point, it is a time for a new awareness of our shared responsibility. It is not a time to allow ourselves to be divided. It is not a time when any region of the world can believe that it can solve the great challenges of the future on its own.
Cooperation, partnership, exchange and science, culture and business have never been as valuable as they are today. This time of the pandemic teaches us this in a very special way. It is a turning point that we are experiencing, it brings the global world into focus, everyone is affected, everyone is dependent on each other. This also and especially applies to the relationship between politics and science.
Science has always been internationally oriented. Scientific progress knows no national borders. International progress in the globalization of science is older than all our debates about globalization. And that is why it has become so clear in recent months: the respect of politics for science, a new respect for the facts，politicians who are in regular contact with virologists, epidemiologists, doctors and many experts in order to provide the right answers in our societies to the pandemic, to this coronavirus.
We should not forget this: the new importance of science in our societies. We should not be so quick to forget how good the dialog between science and research on the one hand and politics on the other has been during this time of the pandemic. What we are experiencing now is a good example that can also be applied to other major issues. Topics such as climate change, demographic developments in our societies, the issue of biodiversity and all the questions associated with how we deal with natural resources today and in the future. We only have one earth. We need a greater concern for this earth, for creation, regardless of the region of the world, every region is also dependent on the global community on this issue.
Turning point, new respect for the facts, and yet this is becoming clear to us in the relationships between our countries, in the relationships between the societies in our countries, how responsibility for the future is perceived is playing an ever greater role. Responsibility for the future lies with politics, but not only with politics. Science also bears responsibility for the future. This has become abundantly clear in recent days. We have learned that the behavior of citizens, the way they deal with bans, can create a new distance, but also a new closeness. Distancing rules that were previously foreign to us have become important, are significant for dealing with the pandemic and create a new closeness.
And of course we are also concerned with the question of how new closeness can arise in the relationship between our countries, between different regions of the world. Relations have become difficult everywhere. A lot of political consensus，which had already been reached，is threatening to break down, causing nervousness everywhere. It is as if we are in the midst of a phase of great nervousness with regard to the tasks that lie ahead in our countries. And here, too, science can help. Can science help to make clear to us what a new concern for creation, a new concern for mankind looks like? Respect not only for abstract facts, but also respect for people can create a new closeness in the global community. We respect cultural diversity. We know that cultural diversity is a great treasure.
And yet one of the great tasks for the future to which science contributes is that we find consensus, that we come to an understanding about how to deal with people, with societies, with the responsibility in our societies for the great future. There is a Chinese character, you know it better than I do, that stands for crisis and for opportunity. One character, two meanings that stand for what is possible.
I often think about this at the moment: what do we have to do to turn the crisis into an opportunity? Times of crisis are also times of renewal. Silence, slowing down, an almost meditative atmosphere in cities and communities, where things used to be loud and hectic, help us to distinguish between the important and the unimportant and to think about priorities. Yes, we probably don't just need new approaches, but also new priorities, opening windows that are important for reconstruction and debates about the consequences of the crisis. We should not simply carry on as we did before the crisis.
We should be sensitive enough to use the experience we gained during the crisis for renewal now. Renewal in terms of cooperation, partnership, a better understanding of global community, instead of new nationalisms. And above all, we should try to create spaces for renewal, new paths for renewal, with the young generation in mind.
We are also working on this in the Dialogue Forum, the young generation in our societies deserves all the attention it can get so that it can make an impact in our societies with its talents, its creativity, its willingness to perform, its will to shape things. In other words, they can take the new paths that are now opening up. Hence the idea of a Chinese-German, German-Chinese boys' academy, hence the idea that the exchange of young scientists can also gain importance in the partnerships between our universities.
These new relationships between politics and science will create new opportunities out of the crisis. We want to work towards this, we want to create space for this in the relations between our two countries, which we know applies to Europe and China, it applies to Germany and China. There are many people who are very interested in each other and yet it is noticeable that it has become more difficult, more difficult than ten years ago, so the experience that scientists in our two countries have gained is all the more important.
With this in mind, I look forward to further cooperation and discussions in our Dialogue Forum and wish your annual conference all the best, a good course and much success, good results and a good spirit, as has emanated from science in many situations.
Best wishes again from southwest Germany to Qingdao!
Germany is one of China's most important partners. One year after China and the Federal Republic of Germany established diplomatic relations in 1972, academic exchange between China and Germany officially began. At that time, three German DAAD scholarship holders came to Beijing as the first group of exchange students. In 1974, the first group of Chinese students with DAAD scholarships went to Germany. In October 1978, during the visit of Fang Yi, then Vice Premier of the State Council and Director of the National Commission for Science and Technology in Germany, China and Germany signed the "Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (STC) between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany" and officially established intergovernmental scientific and technological cooperation.
In 2014, President Xi Jinping visited Germany and it was agreed during the visit that Sino-German relations would be further developed into a comprehensive strategic partnership. In the same year, Premier Li Keqiang visited Germany and called on both sides to jointly publish the "Framework of Action for Sino-German Cooperation" with the theme "Shaping Innovation Together". In 2015, the BMBF presented the "China Strategy", which was followed by the publication of the "Germany Strategy" by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology in November 2016. This publication included a call for China and Germany to seize the opportunity to deepen cooperation on technological innovation in order to promote "Made in China 2025", "Internet +" and Germany's "High-Tech Strategy" and "Industry 4.0". China and Germany should strengthen strategic coordination between the "One Belt One Road" initiative and Germany's international development initiative to jointly respond to major global challenges and share important development opportunities.
Over the past 40 years, the cooperation between China and Germany in scientific research and innovation has grown up from scratch, from the simplest to the deeper cooperation, and has developed rapidly. Especially after the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Germany in 2014, which is characterized not only by mutual political trust between the two countries, but also by the practical cooperation achieved so far. The deeper cooperation has reached an unprecedented high level and achieved fruitful cooperation results in the fields of science and technology, education and innovation.
Nevertheless, the future global development is full of uncertainties. Therefore, I believe that China and Germany should further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field of scientific and technological innovation, accelerate the establishment of an open source and open innovative cooperation model, and assume corresponding responsibilities for global peace and development.
I personally think that the open source and open innovation model should include the following three aspects:
The first aspect is sharing. In an increasingly open and interconnected world, innovation and development are no longer just internal to one country. There will be more and more overlaps and conflicts of interest between countries and the sharing of innovation resources has become an important part of national science and technology innovation collaboration activities. Germany has some world-leading key technologies in areas such as smart manufacturing and automobiles and China in areas including 5G, mobile payment, internet applications. In addition, China has enormous innovation potential and market opportunities and can usefully complement Germany's technological advantages. For both China and Germany, deepening the innovation partnership and further promoting the opening up and joint use of innovation resources and their research capacities represents a win-win situation. As a result, both partners will jointly benefit from the development opportunities of the latest world technologies and industrial progress.
The second aspect is joint innovation. "Moving forward together" was once the theme of the Sino-German Year of Science and Education 2009-2010, and cooperation in science, technology and innovation between China and Germany already has a good foundation. The Fraunhofer Institute, the Helmholtz Institute, the DAAD and other major scientific research institutions have established branches in China. With the joint support of the Chinese and German governments, scientists and entrepreneurs from China and Germany have carried out fruitful cooperation in the fields of sustainable development, automotive industry, life sciences and others. It is very important for China and Germany to further strengthen cooperation in science, technology and innovation, quickly transform the results of cooperative scientific research into actual productivity, realize the multiplication of knowledge and value, the multiplication of innovation efficiency and the creation of knowledge wealth through innovation cooperation.
The third aspect is a win-win situation. If only one side of a collaboration is profitable, it is inevitably not sustainable. From the more than 40-year process of Sino-German technology and innovation cooperation, it can be seen that the cooperation between China and Germany in the field of technology and innovation is a win-win situation. The area of win-win cooperation between China and Germany is far greater than the existing contradictions and differences, and the complementarity in the area of innovation cooperation is far greater than the competition. For China and Germany, the prospects for future cooperation are broad. On the basis of the existing successful cooperation, China and Germany will continue to join hands and cooperate to meet the future challenges. They will certainly work together to positively influence the future of human development.
Education cooperation is the foundation for innovative open source cooperation. The results and experiences of Sino-German education cooperation from Sino-German College of Tongji University, Sino-German Faculty of Engineering of QUST, Sino-German Cooperation Project of Hefei University, Sichuan University-TUC Dual Campus, etc. should be promoted. Innovative open-source cooperation concepts should also be integrated into the whole process of joint education to promote cultural exchanges between China and Germany. In order to promote the exchange and cooperation of young scholars between China and Germany, the China-Germany Academy of Young Scholars, which is in preparation, should be a platform for exploring and promoting open source and open innovation models. I especially hope that this will be a prime example of open source and open innovation models in the future.
Thank you very much
(This is a non-official translation and reproduction of the Chinese speech from the Chinese-German Forum)
Dear Mr. Wan Gang, dear Ms. Schavan, ladies and gentlemen,
I am speaking to you as the representative of the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony for university cooperation between Lower Saxony and China. The Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony supports the universities and universities of applied sciences in Lower Saxony in their cooperation efforts and accompanies the mutual exchange with great strategic interest. May I convey the warmest greetings to you from our Minister, Björn Thümler.
The universities in Lower Saxony have also set up the China Network to intensify cooperation with Chinese partners in culture, education, research and technology transfer and to exchange views on the strategic framework conditions for cooperation between Lower Saxony and China. Against this background, I see myself as an ambassador for the universities in Lower Saxony with their Chinese partners.
I have fond memories of my visits to Qingdao. I was in Qingdao for the first time in 2008. At that time, I accompanied our then Minister President and later Federal President Christian Wulff.
As President of Clausthal University of Technology, I signed no fewer than seven agreements with our current Minister President Stephan Weil during a delegation trip at the end of May 2017. It was an impressive scene when the Clausthal cooperation partners gathered at the Sino-German Ecopark in Qingdao in the presence of Minister President Weil, the then State Secretary and current State Minister Birgit Honé and the Lower Saxony business delegation. Of course, representatives from Qingdao University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology and Qingdao University of Technology were also present. I was particularly impressed by your high-speed train, which connects Beijing with Shanghai and Jinan with Qingdao,
and by your good Qingdao beer.
The industrialized nations are facing major technical and ecological challenges. In order to be prepared for the changes and to intensify the dialog with China in the joint fields of action, the universities in Lower Saxony want to implement an international cooperative doctoral college together with Chinese partner universities, whose research program (including energy including hydrogen technologies, e-mobility and intelligent manufacturing, etc.) is based on the fields of action of the China strategy of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Germany strategy of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST). Joint development projects with industry (e.g. VW, Siemens etc.) as well as summer and winter schools complete the program. So far, we have been able to gain Zhengzhou University, Beihang University, Sichuan University and Anhui University as partners. The kick-off meeting, which I am organizing together with the President and the China Representative of Clausthal University of Technology, Professor Schachtner and Professor Hou, is to take place at Clausthal University of Technology at the beginning of November.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, which is forcing us to communicate more digitally, I would like to mention that the universities in Lower Saxony have many years of extensive experience in the use and development of digital teaching/learning technologies and are networked with each other through extensive collaborative projects.
Lower Saxony offers excellent conditions for successful cooperation between science and industry. Last year, the Hannover Braunschweig Göttingen Wolfsburg metropolitan region celebrated its tenth anniversary. The metropolitan region has established itself as a developer, promoter and partner of innovative projects at regional, national and international level. The Hanover Braunschweig Göttingen Wolfsburg metropolitan region is one of the world's leading vehicle manufacturing regions. The corporate headquarters and production facilities of Volkswagen AG and the automotive supplier Continental AG are located here.
I cordially invite you to participate in this platform and thank you for your attention!
Dear Mr. President and Chairman Professor Wan Gang, Dear Chairwoman Annette Schavan, Ladies and Gentlemen,
China is an important and strategic partner for Clausthal University of Technology, which is why it was particularly important to us to set up a China Competence Center at our university, and we are currently in the process of developing our China strategy up to 2030. Many prominent Chinese personalities such as President Wan Gang (host of today's video conference), but also Professor Xu Delong (Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences from 2014 to 2018) and Professor Xu Huibin (President of Beihang University since 2015) have studied or completed their doctorates with us at Clausthal University of Technology, which we are particularly proud of. I very much hope to promote even more such excellent Chinese and German young talent through close German-Chinese cooperation after the pandemic.
At Clausthal University of Technology, we recently defined the "Circular Economy" as the guiding theme for the future direction of our research fields and study programs and developed a corresponding concept for the future. To this end, we will also establish nine additional professorships in the field of digital transformation over the next two years. We would therefore like to drive forward our innovative collaboration with China in the following areas:
- the sustainable circular economy, in particular the topic of recycling,
- sustainable energy systems, in particular hydrogen technology (reference to Mr. Hou) and - sustainable energy systems. Hou) and
- digitalization, or rather digital transformation,
- plus other topics that are very important to us, such as high-performance materials, e-mobility, smart manufacturing and Factory 4.0 or - to show the range - mining, especially post-mining.
Despite the pandemic, we are currently very active - in addition to our existing partnerships with Chinese universities such as Sichuan, Beihang, Tongji, Zhengzhou, Northeast Petroleum in Daqing and, last but not least, Qust - .... we are very active in planning and implementing the following five cooperation projects in particular together with our Chinese and German partner universities:
1) Establishment of the Chinese-German International University College (CDIHK) with a double campus at Clausthal University of Technology and Sichuan University, funded by the DAAD for an initial four years: in the middle of the pandemic, the application for the first joint Bachelor's degree program in "Electrical Engineering" with a double degree was submitted to China's Ministry of Education. Approval is expected this year. Further joint degree courses such as "Computer Science" or "Digital Technologies" will follow.
2) Establishment of the Chinese-Lower Saxony cooperative doctoral college, which Mr Hanschke has just reported on.
3) Establishment of a new, English-language Master's degree course in "Intelligent Manufacturing" at Clausthal University of Technology and Zhengzhou University with a double degree as part of a "Sino-German Lighthouse Cooperation Project on Intelligent Manufacturing" jointly funded by the BMWi and the Chinese Ministry of Industry and IT (MIIT) since the beginning of 2020. The three industrial partners "Volkswagen AG (VW), Rudolf Schapping Strategic Consulting (RSBK) and SAIC Volkswagen" are also involved.
4) Establishment of a joint research institute for high-performance materials and process technology on the Chinese-German campus of Qingdao University of Science and Technology (QUST). We held a very informative and forward-looking video conference on 27 July 2020 with QUST under the leadership of Party Secretary Professor Ma Lianxiang (to whom I extend my special greetings). We agreed to further deepen the connection between QUST and TU Clausthal and, in particular, to intensify joint research through the joint supervision of doctoral students, initially in the fields of materials science and intelligent manufacturing within the framework of this first joint institute, and later to establish further joint research institutes, e.g. for the circular economy or for sustainable energy systems.
5) Such joint research institutes are also the building blocks of the "Chinese-German Academy of Young Scientists" initiated by Mr. Wan Gang and Ms. Annette Schavan in September 2019. I have already discussed this several times with my counterpart, the President of Paderborn University, Prof. Birgitt Riegraf. We both agree to form the German Alliance for Cooperation in Science and Education with China and to jointly promote this initiative with the Chinese Alliance.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, we see many opportunities in the innovative cooperation between Germany and China, within the framework of the "Sino-German Academy for Young Elite Researchers", but especially between Clausthal University of Technology and our Chinese partner universities, which we would like to take advantage of together with you, in the exchange of students, but also in research, transfer and the promotion of young talent. I am very sure that today's event will make an important contribution to future cooperation between China and Germany. Dear Professor Wan Gang, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you personally for the protective masks, gloves and goggles you donated - and especially for your constant support and personal commitment. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to conclude by saying that we at Clausthal University of Technology are very happy to make our contribution to German-Chinese cooperation and would also like to use our experience and knowledge to contribute to further expansion. We hope and wish that our cooperation and our mutual friendship will emerge even stronger from the pandemic, please stay healthy during this corona time and all the best, Glückauf.
Dear Chairman Professor Wan Gang, dear Chairwoman Schavan, dear colleagues from China and Germany, ladies and gentlemen,
"Good afternoon大家好"
It is a great pleasure and also a great honor for me to welcome you from President Wan Gang's alma mater and to briefly introduce our cooperation with China in the field of sustainable energy systems through four selected cooperation projects that I personally coordinate:
1. The Sino-German Energy Research Center was jointly founded in Chengdu in August 2006 by Sichuan University and Clausthal University of Technology. A further eight Chinese partner universities and a further four universities in Lower Saxony joined in October 2008 by signing a declaration in the presence of the then Minister President of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, and the Chinese Research Minister, Wan Gang, at the German Embassy in Beijing. The joint energy research center has got off to a very successful start, with a total of six major joint projects successfully completed to date. In addition, the joint energy research center has successfully organized seven Sino-German energy conferences and three workshops on the topic of "repository research" since 2007 and has jointly published more than 200 papers in internationally renowned SCI journals.
2The Sino-German Innovation Platform "Clean Energy"
was founded in Clausthal in April 2016 in the presence of the Chinese Minister of Research, Professor Wan Gang, and the BMBF State Secretary Dr. Schütte, and coordinated by Clausthal University of Technology and Sichuan University in Germany and China respectively, with a total of more than 22 partners from both countries. The focus is particularly on the areas ofCO2 Capture Utilization & Storage, Power-to-X, massive underground energy storage and geothermal regenerative power plants. As part of this platform, we have organized four Sino-German conferences for sustainable energy systems in Germany and China and formulated a green energy strategy for Yunnan Province in 2019, which was further developed in 2020.
3Energy research and demonstration projects in the Sino-German Ecopark in Qingdao
In May 2017, the management committee of the Sino-German Ecopark and Clausthal University of Technology signed a joint declaration of intent for cooperation research and demonstration projects in the fields of smart mobility, smart city, intelligent manufacturing, power to X and storage, smart energy and energy efficiency. Clausthal University of Technology will prepare a proposal for the concrete further development of this cooperation.
4.Proposed BMBF joint project "Chinese innovation policy using the examples of China Standards 2035 and the energy transition (INNOSE)"
Together with our colleagues Mr. Hanschke and Mr. Esderts, who were also present, and Professor Stoll (Professor of International Business Law and Environmental Law at the University of Göttingen and Director of the Sino-German Institute of Law at the University of Göttingen and the University of Nanjing) and in close cooperation with our 13 active Chinese partner universities including QUST, Tongji and Beihang University, we submitted the application for a joint project under the leadership of Clausthal University of Technology to the BMBF 10 days ago. The aims of the project are to improve and expand innovative cooperation with China in the areas of energy transition, climate change and standards and to develop individual recommendations for action for companies, professional associations, institutions and political players in Germany and Europe.
The current developments in Germany are worth mentioning in this context: two months ago, the German government published its national hydrogen strategy with 38 measures for sector coupling and for completing the energy transition. The aim is to significantly reduceCO2 emissions, particularly in industry and transport, with the help of green hydrogen, which is produced exclusively from renewable energies.
We all know that the social and technological challenges in the areas of energy transition, sustainable green development and climate change are enormous and can hardly be mastered by a single country. To this end, we as the EU want to work closely with China, because without China we will not be able to achieve sustainable results in these areas. Based on the existing cooperation and the national hydrogen strategy of Germany and, in the foreseeable future, China, I therefore propose the following:
1) To bundle and better coordinate the existing and planned Sino-German platforms in the field of sustainable energy systems.
2) Innovative hydrogen technologies (in particular efficient production of green and blue hydrogen, fuel cells and fuel cell cars, transport and storage, including deep underground, use and reuse) and sector coupling as core elements of the energy transition should be jointly promoted by both governments as soon as possible and suitable demonstration projects should be established together with, for example, the Institute for Bioenergy and Bioprocess of the CAS in the Sino-German Ecopark in Qingdau.
3) to dovetail and better coordinate developments in the energy transition in both countries.
Ladies and gentlemen, the will, mutual respect and trust, our China expertise and the active involvement of Chinese alumni, a functioning infrastructure and broad participation are the most important factors that, based on our extensive experience, lead to the success of German-Chinese cooperation. We look forward to further cooperation, especially against the backdrop of a new everyday life for all of us, in which joint prevention and control of the epidemic currently play an important role.
Now it remains for me to wish you an inspiring annual conference and good luck and health to us all!
"Thank you very much谢谢"