Digital China Week 2020 was a complete success

Today's conclusion of this year's China Week 2020 was kicked off by the workshop on Chinese-Lower Saxony university cooperation in the morning. Here, too, more than 230 participants were already connected online at 9 a.m., following the contributions on Chinese-Lower Saxony university cooperation from different perspectives. In his introduction to the tasks and goals of the China Network of Lower Saxony's universities, which has been in existence since October 2018, Prof. Dr. Hanschke emphasized "that Lower Saxony has exceptional relations with China and has outstanding knowledge of China". In this context, Prof. Dr. Lackner from Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences spoke about Sino-German cooperation within the framework of universities of applied sciences and Prof. Dr. Thomas Vietor about the cooperation between TU Braunschweig and Tongji University within the framework of the Chinese-German University College (CDHK). According to Vietor, there are plans to intensify cooperation within the framework of endowed professorships in the areas of business, research and teaching.

Finally, the participants were given an insight into German-Chinese cooperation from various disciplines in the presentations by Prof. Dr. Georg Gesk from the University of Osnabrück, who gave a lecture on German and Chinese law. He was particularly keen to emphasize that China is currently not only seen as a foreign trade partner, but much more as an "important partner to prevent a second Cold War". The subsequent contribution by Prof. Dr. Hou on cooperation in the field of sustainable energy systems, supported by numerous press reports, illustrated very impressively the numerous collaborations that Clausthal University of Technology has successfully concluded or recently agreed with its 13 Chinese partner universities in this field in recent years. Clausthal University of Technology also has joint German-Chinese projects in the field of intelligent manufacturing, which were presented by Prof. Dr. Dietmar Möller.

Prof. Dr. Steffi Robak from Leibniz Universität Hannover reported as coordinator of the research working group of the Lower Saxony China Network Meeting. This working group, which includes colleagues from Hannover, Osnabrück, Braunschweig, Göttingen and Clausthal, recently produced a white paper entitled "Ways into Research with China - Knowledge, Access, Recommendations", which is aimed at "those who already cooperate with China in the higher education sector or are thinking about it." It is important to identify common goals and to have a good basis of trust, as has been built up over many years at TU Clausthal or TU Braunschweig, for example.

In the afternoon, Prof. Dr. Thomas Turek, board member of the Energy Storage Technologies Research Center at Clausthal University of Technology, spoke about the Lower Saxony Hydrogen Technologies Initiative. According to him, Lower Saxony is very well positioned to advance research in the field of hydrogen technologies.

Prof. Dr. Hou then thanked all those involved as the initiator of China Week. Offering China Week 2020 digitally due to coronavirus was the best decision that could have been made. With over 40 contributions and up to 400 participants in some cases, this year's program was praised several times and, according to Prof. Dr. Lackner, "should be a must-attend event for all China stakeholders in Lower Saxony". At the same time, an event like this would not be possible without the wide range of support - in fact, it would be unthinkable without virtually connected participants. Nevertheless, true to the motto "After the game is before the game", we do not want to rest on our laurels this week, which is why Prof. Dr. Hou would like to extend a warm invitation to China Week 2021.