MERICS China Podcast

April 16, 2019China’s advances in research and development range from its ambitious space program to controversial experiments with gene editing. Yet scientific cooperating with China can also offer benefits and opportunities for Europe and its scientists. But how to spot the risks and where to draw red lines? Merics director Frank Pieke, co-author of a recent study on Europe-China cooperation in higher education and research, says Europe has been somewhat naïve in dealing with China’s strategic approach to research and development. Europe, he argues, urgently needs to develop its own research strategy to better defends its own interests when dealing with China. Listen to Frank Pieke in the latest Merics Experts podcast.

April 8, 2019China spends a lot to develop digital technologies. For Beijing, digitization is as a unique opportunity to upgrade its industries, increase social control, and become a global leader in digital technologies, says MERICS researcher Kristin-Shi-Kupfer. In a new study that she co-authored with MERICS research associate Mareike Ohlberg, she argues that China’s digital ambitions are mainly state-driven and rely on close cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the state, and private companies. China’s digital ambitions present a huge challenge to Europe, Shi-Kupfer says, but there also opportunities for cooperation. Listen to Kristin-Shi-Kuper, director of the MERICS research program on politics, society and media, in the latest MERICS Experts Podcast.

27. März 2019Die Veröffentlichung des BDI-Grundsatzpapiers zum künftigen Umgang der deutschen Wirtschaft mit China hat seit Januar für heftige Kontroversen gesorgt. Dem DIHK gingen die Forderung nach einem härteren Kurs gegenüber China teilweise zu weit, andere hätten sich noch klarere Worte gewünscht. Bei einem gemeinsamem Lunch-Talk von MERICS und Global Bridges am 28. Februar 2019 diskutierte der stellvertretende Direktor von MERICS Mikko Huotari mit Stefan Mair, Mitglied der Hauptgeschäftsführung des BDI, und dem Außenwirtschaftschef des DIHK Volker Treier über den Umgang der deutschen Wirtschaft mit China. Hören Sie einen gekürzten und bearbeiteten Mitschnitt der Veranstaltung im neuen MERICS Experts Podcast.

22. März 2019China baut derzeit systematisch einen digitalen Überwachungsstaat auf und verpasst der Einparteien-Diktatur damit ein digitales Update, sagt der langjährige China-Korrespondent und Buchautor Kai Strittmatter. Die KPC China nutze dabei das tiefverwurzelte Misstrauen in der Gesellschaft für ihre Herrschaftszwecke. Warum Strittmatter trotzdem gern in China gearbeitet hat und das chinesische Essen vermissen wird – er lebt jetzt in Kopenhagen – das erläuterte er am 25. Februar 2019 vor rund 150 Gästen in der Merics China Lounge im Gespräch mit MERICS-Kommunikationschefin Kerstin Lohse und Mareike Ohlberg, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am MERICS. Hören Sie einen gekürzten Mitschnitt der Veranstaltung im neuen MERICS Experts Podcast.

March 19, 2019Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Europe this week, with his state visit to Italy (March 21 to 24) attracting a lot of attention. That’s because the Italian coalition government is expected to endorse the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s ambitious global trade and infrastructure program. Rome’s move comes at a time when elsewhere in the EU concerns about BRI are growing and Europe tries to forge a coordinated China policy, says Lucrezia Poggetti, research associate at MERICS. In the latest MERICS Experts Podcast, she argues that Rome’s support for BRI would legitimize China’s geopolitical ambitions while Italy and Italian companies would get little in return.

Chinese direct investment in Europe has continued to decline in 2018, according to a new report by MERICS and Rhodium Group. The slowdown in FDI comes amid heated debates in Europe about Chinese influence and growing awareness that some investments from China - for instance in high tech sectors or infrastructure - might need closer scrutiny. Agatha Kratz, Associate Director at Rhodium Group in Paris, and MERICS deputy director Mikko Huotari discuss the latest Chinese FDI figures and recent policy changes in Europe that could eventually lead to a broader overhaul of Europe’s policy toward trade and investment with China.Read the full report at: https://www.merics.org/en/papers-on-china/chinese-fdi-in-europe-2018.

February 22, 2019Film fans still wonder why Zhang Yimou’s “One Second” was withdrawn from the Berlin Film Festival. The official explanation that “technical reasons” were to blame only fueled speculation that Chinese censors objected to the film’s debut. Leading Chinese film scholar Ying Zhu, who teaches in New York and Hong Kong, discusses Zhang Yimou’s case in the new MERICS Experts podcast. For Chinese filmmakers “censorship is a very challenging issue”, she notes, adding that controls over film narratives were tightened last year. The Chinese leadership regards film as a key soft-power tool and uses the cinema – often with help from Hollywood - to get is messages out. As the collaboration between China and Hollywood matures, Zhu warns, “we will see more and more stories with highly sanitized China images.”

January 28, 2019China wants to become the global leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) by 2030 and therefore pumps huge amounts of funding into AI research and development. But how realistic are China’s ambitions? How advanced is China in AI? Its facial recognition technology already ranks among the world’s best, says Jeffrey Ding of the University of Oxford, but in many other areas China still lags behind the United States. That’s because easy access to huge amount of data isn’t everything, says Ding in the latest MERICS Experts podcast.

January 11, 2019China’s policies in the north-western region of Xinjiang have come under international criticism in recent months, especially the detention of tens if not hundreds of thousands Muslim Uighurs. The Chinese government says the re-education camps and other surveillance measures in Xinjiang are part of a campaign to fight terrorism and religious extremism. But the independent researcher Adrian Zenz, who has studied numerous government documents on Xinjiang, says China attempts to enforce “complete control” and loyalty towards the Communist Party. The CCP wants long-term generational change and younger Uighurs to forget their religious and cultural roots, Zenz says in the latest MERICS Experts podcast.

13. Dezember 2018Chinas Transformation vom verarmten Bauernstaat zur zweitgrößten Volkswirtschaft der Welt hat viele Grundannahmen auf den Kopf gestellt: Ein rigides Einparteiensystem und eine dynamische Wirtschaftsentwicklung stehen nicht zwangsläufig im Widerspruch; wirtschaftlicher Aufstieg und mehr Wohlstand führen nicht automatisch zu einer politischen Öffnung. Die KP China ist anpassungsfähiger als viele erwartet haben, sagt Kristin Shi-Kupfer, Leiterin des Forschungsbereichs Politik, Gesellschaft und Medien beim MERICS, in ihrer Bilanz zu 40 Jahre Reform- und Öffnungspolitik. Die wirtschaftliche Öffnung hat die KPC geschickt genutzt und ist mittlerweile nicht nur Partner, sondern auch Rivale des Westens. Doch unter Xi Jinping droht sich das Land innenpolitisch wieder stärker zu verschließen, sagt Shi-Kupfer im neuen Merics Experts Podcast.