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Why is it taking so long for the German government to abandon its failed China policy of 'change through trade'? A thread 1/11
When it comes to the People's Republic of China (henceforth #China), the German government has largely engaged in foreign trade promotion (Außenwirtschaftsförderung) 2/11
In his PhD thesis Norbert Schultes has pointed out that in foreign trade promotion the German government has let the private sector take the lead, which explains the highly corporatist approach 3/11
https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/9049/1/Schultes_Norbert.pdf
https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/9049/1/Schultes_Norbert.pdf
This makes foreign policy change through legislative means much harder, as the German government has essentially outsourced its foreign policy to the private sector 4/11 https://www.soas.ac.uk/blogs/study/china-europe-2020/
Outsourcing foreign policy to the private sector has also meant that corporate propaganda has always loomed large in the German public discourse about China 5/11
To justify trade and investments with an authoritarian China corporate lobbyists have for decades hyped the significance of the Chinese market for Germany’s traditionally export-oriented economy 6/11 https://www.wz.de/politik/inland/li-deutschland-und-china-traumpaar-in-der-wirtschaft_aid-29978211
German media has often uncritically amplified such corporate propaganda 7/11 https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/auto/trotz-abgasskandal-der-wichtigste-markt-der-welt-china/12504544-3.html
I recently discussed this problem with a German media professional. In this conversation it became clear to me that groupthink contributed to this rather unfortunate practice among journalists 8/11 https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/groupthink-decisions/
Germany's outdated China policy will only change if politicians and parliamentarians reassert the central role of the state and strengthen both democratic security and industrial policy 9/11 https://dgap.org/en/research/publications/how-democratic-security-can-protect-europe-rising-china
Academics and journalists should play their part by deconstructing both government and corporate propaganda which hypes the significance of China's market for Germany's export-oriented economy 10/11 https://twitter.com/AMFChina/status/1282933266341933057?s=20
Last but not least German citizens should take note of the totalitarian turn in Xi's China and demand an end to Germany's failed China policy of 'change through trade' /End https://www.change.org/p/politicians-europe-can-no-longer-afford-germany-s-failed-china-policy-of-change-through-trade
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