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December 11, 2015

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German editor is a veteran China watcher

IN 1975, German newspaper editor Theo Sommer was among the first foreign journalists to meet and talk with Deng Xiaoping, three years before China’s chief reform architect began modernizing the economy and opening the nation to the world.

Sommer, then editor-in-chief of the Die Zeit weekly, was accompanying then Chancellor Helmut Schmidt on his first state visit to China.

Sommer, now 85, subsequently made four visits to China, meeting Deng twice more, before publishing a book entitled “The Chinese Card” in 1979.

“It was a pretty thorough description, a mirror of the situation, at the time,” he said, admitting that in hindsight he had gotten some things wrong.

For example, the book quotes a Chinese academic with a utopian view of a Chinese future of skyscrapers, TV towers, supermalls, elevators and stylish clothing.

“I said these plans would never work because China didn’t have enough technicians, enough engineers,” he said, laughing aloud at his own misplaced judgment. “At the time, after traveling through the countryside where we saw farmers plowing fields with oxen and through cities where we saw millions of bicycles, it was impossible to imagine all of those things could come true.”

He added, “I was a China expert for five years. I’m no longer one.”

Sommer has served as Die Zeit’s foreign editor, deputy editor, editor-in-chief and now publisher and editor-at-large. The weekly circulation of the weekly is 500,000, with about 30,000 digital subscriptions. He said he expects up to half of all readers rely on online editions for news in 10 years’ time.

Sommer met with a group of Chinese journalists in Germany to share some of the views and experiences of his long lifetime. Shanghai Daily was among the participants.

 

Q: Germany has the second-largest aging population after Japan. How does that influence the media?

 

A: Die Zeit has a rather intellectual readership. We are doing very well in the 50-plus generation, though we are also the paper with the highest number of student subscriptions. The question is whether the younger generation will continue to read, or will they only scan the Internet?

Most problems are relevant to all age groups. There are only very few issues that really separate the generations.

 

Q: Many Chinese think the German media, including Die Zeit, tend to report more negative stories about China than positive ones. Do you think that is true?

 

A: I don’t think we are nasty, but we are comparing China to our own value system.

There is great admiration for what China has achieved, and there is also skepticism about facets of Chinese life. The interesting question is really whether, in the long run, you can have an authoritarian government and a free economy.

I’m not naïve. I don’t believe that a nation of 1.3 billion people can have the same government as 6 million Swiss. There are certain limits of your individual maneuvering space, and you have to take more care not to violate the rights of others.

 

Q: You previously talked about how the European Union, and Germany in particular, needs to play an important role in terms of Sino-US relations. Do you think the EU has the capacity to deal with that when it has so many other problems to address?

 

A: We have the capacity but we don’t use it. At the moment, we are preoccupied with our own problems.

I have observed European politics for years, and in that time, there have been many crises.

Now we are perhaps facing one of the worst. It may take us another three or five years to get over it but we will emerge stronger.

I agree with the Chinese idea that we are moving into a multipolar world. America will no longer be the only pole, no longer the dominant one, albeit it will remain strong. I’m sure in 20 years’ time, the EU will also be seen as a strong pole. I don’t know about India or Brazil. I’m not sure about the whole idea of the BRICs.

 

Q: The refugee migration crisis has been vexing for the EU. How will Germany cope?

 

A: We have to differentiate asylum seekers and refugees. Refugees are people like Syrians and Nigerians — those we have to take in. Last year we had 5000 asylum seekers from countries like Kosovo and Macedonia because of rumors that Germany would accept all of them. So those who come from countries that are “safe,” 99 percent are denied visas to stay, though many of them do stay. Each time we try to send them back, there is an uproar.

Germany has had deep experience of refugees. In 1945, at the end of the war, 12 to 13 million Germans either fled or were expelled from areas that had become Polish, or from Yugoslavia and Romania. They came here. We are actually a country of immigrants, with 16 percent of the population either born abroad or with parents from abroad.

Q: In your most recent visit to Shanghai in 2011, you said the city reminded you of New York. Can you elaborate on that?

 

A: China’s economic rise is unprecedented in the world history, I remember the “old China,” but now the cities are developing so quickly. Pudong was a swamp back then.  It’s an amazing feat to lift 600 million people out of poverty. It is something nobody else has done. I’ve also spent a lot of time in recent years in India. They are far behind you in terms of prosperity.

 

Q: You often talk about the race between the dragon and the elephant, China and India. You have said previously that you would hesitate about investing in India. What about China? Would you invest there?

 

A: If I were a billionaire, I would not put all my eggs in one basket, I would divide them up.

 

Q: Would China be one of those baskets?

 

A: It depends on how the government handles current problems. The question really is how far do you go with liberalizing private initiative and to what extent are you going to continue to subsidize state-owned companies with billions of renminbi?

 

Q: What is your opinion of President Xi Jinping, especially compared with Deng Xiaoping?

 

A: I can’t really compare. The situation is so different. Just as Deng took the initiative, Xi has taken another one, fighting against corruption, moving to Industry 4.0. The recent (market) crash shows that some of the sins of capitalism are possible even under a communist system.

 

Q: Do you think the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a challenge to the existing financial system?

 

A: I think it’s meant to be a challenge, but US$50 billion is too small an amount. It was wrong for the Americans to oppose it.

Formerly, differences were settled through wars. Now we have financial strategies, and it’s more humane than shooting at each other. But it serves the same purpose.

 

Q: Having seen China at the very beginning of its economic reconstruction, what would you say to Chinese, especially young Chinese, today?

 

A: Like every country, you have problems, but you seem to be tackling these problems and solving them one after the other. Your leadership has shown that it can deal with problems, and even if there are setbacks, that’s natural in history.

As long as you have the will and courage to correct yourself, things will move forward. I wish all Chinese, and especially young people, a prosperous and peaceful future within the family of nations.

I think we are growing together to be a family more than ever before, and China has a rightful and proud place at the table.




 

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