International economic relations amid the pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war - of openness, honesty and trust

According to Dr. Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Dr. Ing. h. c. Porsche AG and former doctoral student of Prof. WAN Gang, the China Week at Clausthal University of Technology is an important platform - also in light of the current challenges. Like Clausthal University of Technology, Volkswagen AG also has a long tradition with China. According to Dr. Blume, VW is committed to expanding dialogue with China, open borders and a free market economy, whereby the exchange should be critical but never ideological.

In this context, Prof. Dr. Thomas Heberer from the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen points out that "China is a country with 1,000 systems", which can vary greatly depending on the province or city-country. Although he also considers the willingness to engage in dialog to be important, dialog competence, i.e. the ability to listen to the other person and ask questions about the common future, plays a more decisive role. To illustrate this, he quoted the historian and sinologist John K. Fairbanks, who said that trying to understand China without a substantial knowledge of Chinese history was like flying blind over the mountains.

Prof. Dr. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Director of the China Centrum Tübingen at the University of Tübingen, echoes Heberer's words and adds that in order to understand China, one must not only take into account the country's history, but also one's own. With regard to the new challenges, we need to readjust our dealings with China and rethink global economic supply chains. In this context, convenience and profit interests would only lead to dependency. From this position, it is not possible to raise a complaining finger at others. You can't expect or even wish for everyone to become like us [Germans]. The earth will not be able to bear the western lifestyle for everyone, which is why we must also ask ourselves within the EU how we can deal with the energy crisis - with more sweaters and less heating?

According to Dr. ZHOU Xiang-Qian, Co-Founder of IWC/GIC, the perspective for the future must be "Together we are strong." German-Chinese cooperation could certainly bring progress for both sides. The most important message is that "people do business" and good partnerships are more important than profit. In order to bridge the differences between the various systems, a common basis must be created or found that is based on shared values, considerate decision-making ethics and trust.

Mr. CHANG Qing, CEO of CARIAD's subsidiary in China, provides a good example of successful cooperation at this point. Although he would like to see an acceleration of the transformation of the Volkswagen Group mentioned by Dr. Blume, he welcomes the efforts to adapt to the local market with new solutions and the mission "from China for China".

The topic of human rights in connection with Korea, which had already been addressed on the two previous days of the event, once again led to an increase in the number of participants, both in the Aula Academica and online with over 40 connected guests. In his lecture, Prof. Dr. Gunter Schubert from the University of Tübingen posed the question "How dangerous is the situation in the Taiwan Strait?". It is a very complex conflict in which Taiwan plays a symbolic role for resistance and autocracy. Nevertheless, he does not allow himself to make an assessment of the various future scenarios and concludes: A military confrontation in the coming years, depending on the political climate and China's domestic political development, should not be seen as an unrealistic scenario - but it does not have to come.

Prof. Dr. Ole Döring, Foreign Studies College of Hunan Normal University, Changsha and Institute for Technology Futures at KIT, points out in this context that the press (and to some extent politicians) often lack the expertise to report appropriately on the political process in China. There is a lack of China expertise to recognize China expertise, because "there is no more idiotic way to waste opportunities" than to not use the showcase that China offers. He also appeals for "our China language" to be cleaned up. Words should be understood as they are meant and not as we would interpret them based on our own experience. There is no point in arguing about values. Here, too, the right language had to be found, with genuine interest and sobriety providing the basis for a realistic picture of China.

The concluding panel discussion once again put it in a nutshell: dialog with China and, in particular, personal exchange are and remain important. However, this requires a corresponding level of competence - one should not only talk about differences, but also take into account the similarities. In terms of economic cooperation, this means that cooperation with China should not be complicated by additional regulations, for example. Otherwise there would be a risk of closing oneself off, which in turn would greatly hinder the exchange of ideas and new knowledge. In principle, companies from Germany would enjoy an advantage in China due to the positive image of "Made in Germany". However, the lack of understanding for Chinese processes needs to be worked on. This common and mutual understanding should ultimately be based on openness, honesty and trust as elementary means of international understanding.