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September 30, 2016

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Home » Supplement » Germany

Diplomat sees deepening of Sino-German ties

By Yao Minji | September 30, 2016, Friday | Print Edition

IT was two years ago when Peter Rothen came to China for his first Asian post: the German consul general in Shanghai with duties over the east China region.

“I really didn’t imagine this region is so well-developed,” he recalled. “Since my first day here, I have been overwhelmed by the region’s high-level development all the time, and I’m very impressed by China’s energy in pushing for development. I have learned a lot about China and I’m very fond of China.”

Rothen spoke high the bullet train service he often takes to go to Hangzhou, where he recently attended the G20 Summit and joined discussions on global economy. He said he was glad that the G20 leaders were able to enjoy the beautiful West Lake panorama.

“China and the host city of Hangzhou did a fantastic job to organize the G20 Summit. Everything went smoothly. The delegations really felt it and appreciated that.”

Leaders of G20 members, guest countries and international organizations engaged in extensive discussions and reached a consensus on pursuing innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economic growth.

He said Germany will take over the chairmanship next year and host the summit in Hamburg in July 2017.

“The main purpose of G20 meetings is to let leaders of the world’s major economies to have a thorough dialogue on key issues. Unlike other meetings and those of the United Nations which always have an agenda and close with a resolution, G20 is a multilateral platform where leaders can have open-ended discussions,” he explained.

“I believe in the value of free discussions because you are not under pressure to achieve a specific result. In most cases, it is more difficult to reach right solutions under pressure because you will end up with lots of compromises. G20 really allows leaders to discuss the state of the world and talk about solutions in a more flexible way. This can and does yield results as is shown in the final document.”

In the past two years, much has happened in international politics, including the Brexit with its consequences slowly playing out, the German consul general said. “We didn’t expect it to happen. The situation is that nobody has had any experience for that because it never happened before,” Rothen added.

“I think the good thing is that both sides want things to change as little as possible. We just have to see how we can deal with it. I’m pretty sure that we are able to handle the Briexit well and reduce its damages to the minimum,” he told Shanghai Daily in the interview.

Rothen noted that the Sino-German relationship developed steadily in recent years with regular high-level exchanges between their leaders and increased Chinese investment in German companies.

“Business ties are pretty much the same in the past two years, very close and very intense. This has not changed despite a slower economic growth in China,” the consul general said. “What did change is that it is no longer one-way investment by German companies in China. More and more Chinese companies are investing in Germany too. That is the new trend.”

In his view, Chinese companies are investing abroad in the hope of diversifying their portfolios. Germany is their top choice because it is the gateway into the European market.

Last year 260 Chinese companies invested in Germany, up 37 percent from 2014 and outnumbering US investors by eight. Many record-breaking mergers and acquisitions were announced, causing heated discussions in both countries.

“We have a completely new situation here after China became an investor. This is something Westerners, German companies included, have to get used to,” Rothen said. “I think it is a healthy development. We have no reason to fear Chinese investors.”

The German diplomat said that since more Chinese companies are investing abroad, foreign companies hope to get more access to the China market with fewer restrictions on foreign investment.

“Our bilateral trade has reached a high level, which can be maintained and may grow even more, especially in the area of the so-called digital economy,” he continued. “In Germany, we named it Industry 4.0. Here, it is called Made in China 2025. They mean basically the same thing, digital economy. This is an area where Germany and China can, and will, work closely together.”

Rothen noted that the two countries have also cooperated well in youth exchange and declared 2016 as the Year of German-Chinese Student and Youth Exchange in order to highlight existing exchange programs and to strengthen friendship between the two peoples.

”It’s very much a people-to-people relationship. The idea of youth exchanges is to cultivate interest in each other’s country and to communicate with each other. This is very important,” he said.

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