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Home » Supplement » Germany

Taking relations well beyond business

By Zhang Qian | September 28, 2015, Monday | Print Edition

Peter Rothen has been deeply impressed by the positive energy and optimism in Shanghai since starting his new job and life in Shanghai last year.

“Shanghai is very much like its traffic on the streets. It never seems to stop and always finds a way forward,” Rothen says. “The speed of change within the city is dazzling and — sometimes for a European — breathtaking.”

Starting his career as a diplomat in 1980, Rothen has worked in many different countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and the United States. He has been the consul general at the German Consulate in Shanghai since September 2014.

Though he admits he had to adjust to Shanghai’s astonishing speed, the German consul general says exchanging ideas with China on a number of issues has been straight-forward due to the very open and positive attitude among people in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region in general. He says Sino-German relations are extremely strong and have deepened as well as broadened over the years.

“The very-well developed relations between China and Germany — from business to cultural exchange and academic cooperation — are a big advantage for us,” Rothen says. “I would say that the people of the two countries take a strong interest in each other and there is a willingness to cooperate.”

German businesspeople, of course, are among those keen to work in China. There were more than 3,500 German companies operating in the Yangtze River Delta Region in 2014, up 6 percent annually.

According to a report released by Ernst & Young in June 2014, Germany has become one of Chinese investors’ favorite target countries. Chinese enterprises have directly invested in 68 projects in Germany in 2013, a rise from 46 in 2012. China is now the third largest investor in Germany following the US and Switzerland.

The long history of fruitful exchanges of scientists and students between partner universities in Germany and China is the basis for a broad and comprehensive bilateral cooperation in various academic fields, in particular in engineering, natural and economic sciences.

As one of the largest projects in the education field between China and Germany, the Sino-German University (CDH) at Tongji University has been developed into an important platform for linking education, research, and business in the two countries in the past more than 15 years.

More Chinese students are studying in Germany than ever before. About 28,000 Chinese students were studying in Germany last year, the largest group of international students in the country.

“Chinese students are known for their determination to seek high quality education, and we are proud so many Chinese students are choosing Germany as their destination,” Rothen says.

Most of the Chinese students studying in Germany are in scientific fields since the country has a strong tradition of providing good education and research, he says. Interestingly, the presence of hard-working Chinese students in German universities has proven beneficial to locals by pushing them to do better.

“It is a win-win situation for students in both countries,” Rothen says. “And more importantly, it will also benefit the relationship between the two countries in the long run. I believe that nothing creates so much good will between two people than to live, work or study for a while in the other country. It is a wonderful way to bring people together, help them understand one another and create friendship between the two countries in a concrete sense.”

Though hoping to get more German students to China for the same reason, the consul still finds the language barrier a big obstacle.

“Yet still, I believe that things are developing in the right direction,” Rothen says.

In August, KMK president Brunhild Kurth and Chinese Vice Education Minister Hao Ping signed a joint statement on educational cooperation including promoting Mandarin-German language-study among primary and middle school students in Germany.

“The solid Sino-German relationship did help pave the way for much of our work, yet also posed a great challenge — how do you improve the relation further from the already high-level?” Rothen says. “An area that I think may allow much more cooperation to occur lies in cultural exchanges.”

Already, cultural exchanges between the two countries continue to grow.

The Cologne Symphony Orchestra will come in October, followed by Staatskapelle Dresden in November. And German jazz musicians will participate in the annual JZ Festival in October.

“Shanghai, in my view, is such a big place with so many well-educated, culturally interested people. I believe more German cultural groups will find good partners here,” says Rothen.

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