Sony‘s new gaming console has been sold out for months, and laptops and tablets are in short supply. The Volkswagen Group is also suffering from a shortage of the coveted parts, especially in China. Country manager Stephan Wöllenstein spoke of a “significant shortage of electronic parts.” In December, VW was able to produce around 50,000 […]
Beijing no longer sounds quite as hostile as it did last week. The mutual sanctions are to be understood “rather symbolically” as the measures of both sides “were not aimed at economic and trade cooperation”, writes China’s official news agency Xinhua. It remains to be hoped “that no faction crosses this subtle line amid the […]
Joe Biden’s staff had already announced before his election as US president that he won’t treat China with kid gloves either. Like his predecessor Donald Trump, he will also regard the People’s Republic as a rival. But many observers did not expect Biden to choose an aggressive China policy right at the start of his […]
Time and again, China’s leadership has had foreign journalists shadowed. In addition, the authorities try to indirectly influence reporting, for example, when employees of the Chinese Foreign Ministry invite foreign correspondents to “tea talks” during the annual visa renewal and politely but firmly advise them to report more on the positive developments in the country […]
Germany and most countries in Europe continue to struggle with the pandemic despite hundreds of thousands of vaccinations a day. Taiwan has not even begun its vaccination campaign. Apart from a mask requirement, life in the island state is nevertheless running largely normally. Shops and restaurants are open without restrictions, the famous night markets of […]
Most economists had actually assumed that China’s leadership would not set a growth target this year either. This was the approach taken by the Chinese Communist Party cadres last year on the grounds that there were too many imponderables in a pandemic year; expectations could hardly be met. With rigorous measures, however, China succeeded in […]
In decades, there has not been such a long article right at the front of the People’s Daily, the party organ of the Communist leadership. The text, which stretched over five newspaper pages and appeared last Wednesday, comprised 22,500 characters. The topic: China’s overcoming of extreme poverty.The following day’s ceremony in the Great Hall of […]
The Volkswagen Group is one of the largest German investors in China and has been operating a plant in the province of Xinjiang since 2013. The international accusations that China’s government systematically oppresses the Uyghur minority there also hit VW time and again. Does the Wolfsburg-based company also employ forced laborers at its plant in […]
The new US President, Joe Biden, wants to do just about everything differently from his predecessor. Biden wants to focus on understanding and involving allies in Europe and Asia more again. As one of his first acts in office, the US has joined the Paris Agreement on climate action, as well as the World Health […]
Southern Xinjiang is arid and barren. The Taklamakan, one of the most barren deserts in the world, is located in the area. Thanks to gigantic irrigation systems built by China’s government in recent decades, the region is nevertheless now one of the largest cotton-growing areas in the world. 87 percent of China’s cotton comes from […]
