What They Say about the Forty Years of China-German Relations

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany, a conference was held in CASS during November 20-21, 2012.  It was organized by IES along with the Society of German Studies at the Chinese Association of European Studies, Center for German Studies at CASS, and supported by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. 

The following are the presentations made at the conference:

Li Yang (Vice President of CASS):  The Sino-German relations has stood the test and has witnessed remarkable progress in bilateral exchanges and all-around cooperation over the past 40 years since the establishment of bilateral foreign relations. At present, the Sino-German friendly cooperation is at a new historical starting point, with both countries steadfastly committed to pushing forward an all-round development of Sino-German strategic partnership oriented towards the future.

CASS will continue to intensify its efforts to expand and strengthen academic exchanges and cooperation with German institutes of higher learning, research institutes and other foundations so as to contribute to the promotion of mutual understanding and friendship between China and Germany.

Mei Zhaorong (Former Chinese Ambassador to Germany):  The Sino-German relations, despite its ups and downs over the past 40 years of diplomatic relations, has maintained strong momentum of development both in breadth and depth and brought benefits to the peoples of both countries. It has also helped enhance the development of Sino-EU relations, which is conducive to world peace and stability.

There is much for China to learn and draw from Germany in terms of its experience in attaining the status of a big power, development of its market economy as well as upgrading of its overall citizen quality through public education.

Despite the fast development of economic and trade relations between the two countries, there is still much room for improvement to boost mutual understanding and strengthen political mutual trust especially with regard to the promotion of cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries.

Dr. Michael Schaefer (German Ambassador to China): Since the establishment of bilateral relations between Germany and China, the bilateral relationship has witnessed smooth development in every area. The government-to-government consultation mechanism, established in 2011, has not only marked a new height in the development of bilateral relations but also constituted in a substantial way the basis for such development orientated toward the future.

The world order is now still undergoing profound changes, and the 21st century is characterized with an accelerated process of multi-polarization and cooperation. This makes it imperative for China, Europe, the U.S. as well as other emerging countries to take a cooperative approach so as to respond to the challenges in a more successful way. Such a trend has brought new opportunities for the development of bilateral relations between Germany and China, and China’s importance to Germany is growing in intensity.

Since the unification of Germany, it was the deep-going reform in Germany that has enabled it to pull through the international financial crisis and European debt crisis successfully. What Germany needs most at present is a stable Euro and a powerful Europe, but enough efforts should be made to stimulate economic growth while addressing the issues of sovereign debt crisis.   
 
The 18th National Congress of Communist Party of China indicated that China’s steady and sustained development would conform to the interests of Germany and that both countries could strengthen and expand cooperation in many areas. In order to improve mutual trust and understanding between the two peoples, it is necessary to promote cultural and educational exchanges in an all-round way.

Li Xiaosi (Deputy Director of the European Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry): Over the past 40 years since the establishment of bilateral relations between China and Germany, political, economic, cultural and educational exchanges have developing steadily. The development of Sino-German relations has a solid foundation and is beneficial to both sides, which adds to an increasing potential to forge a long-term, steady and future-orientated development. Beside, the influence of bilateral relationship has far exceeded that of both countries.

There are many opportunities and great potential for the continued development of bilateral relations, but there are also many challenges as well, which makes it all the more imperative for both countries to understand each other, give due attention to each other’s interests, seek more common ground, control and manage the differences in a proper way.

There should be a correct approach to view the relationship of cooperation and competition between China and Germany, and it is important for both sides to realize that economic complementarities far outweigh the competition, and at the same time it is fundamental to make the best out of the positive factors in competition and take a correct view of competition with a developmental perspective.

The Sino-German and Sino-EU relationships do not actually run counter to each other, and there is no such “special relationship” between China and Germany at the expense of the interests of other countries. What both countries should seek to do is to intensify the cooperative relationship, broaden the areas of cooperation, promote bilateral investment, and work on the improvement of dialogue mechanism and its efficiency so as to advance the Sino-German and Sino-European relations to a new height.

Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider, Otto Wolff-Director of the Research Institute, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP): There are three “deficits”—the first of which is about an understanding and cognitive deficit between the two sides. For example, China is dissatisfied with Germany’s critical attitude toward China’s human rights issue while the German public demonstrate a complete different view of the political structural reform with their Chinese counterparts.

The second deficit results from a lack of mutual trust, which is the prerequisite for the ultimate solution of other issues, and the last deficit is co-evolution, which means that cooperation should be substituted for confrontation and compromise for containment.

There are three key challenges facing the world: first, with the acceleration of the process of multi-polarization our world is getting increasingly volatile, fragile and may even run the risk of collapse; second, as the international relations are getting more and more complex, it calls for a more flexible and pragmatic approach instead of a “grand strategy” to cope with various kinds of issues; third, we should take a correct approach toward the growing self-confidence.

What China can expect to benefit from the history of Germany is that both sides should make efforts to intensify cooperation in international affairs instead of resorting to nationalism as self-confidence began to rise; by the same token what Germany should learn from China is its pragmatism.

For China, it is necessary not to show sensibility over the German media’s negative reports about China.

Zhou Hong (Director of IES, CASS):  There are two prominent features of globalization: one is about the rules and regulations originating from the West such as the market economy, which is now gaining spatial expansion at an unprecedented level; and the other is about the power transition that is still underway between the different nations and political actors, which can be explained from the perspective of traditional theories of international relations. Whenever there is power transition it will inevitably entail friction, confrontations or even wars, until a new equilibrium is reached. Our world is locked in a precarious state of interdependence. The driving force behind large-scale cross-border trade, population movement, and information dissemination is the market rules, which has not only changed our division of labor but also the ways of cooperation and competition.

The role of sovereign states is still crucial, acting as a powerful force behind market competition. While acknowledging the coexistence and interweaving nature of cooperation and competition in modern times, we are also faced with the greatest challenge of sorting out the areas of cooperation and competition so that we can substitute cooperation for rivalry and take action to control such rivalry accordingly. The development of Sino-German relationship has provided such a model and will conceivably gain momentum of enhanced cooperation in the future.