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The Washington Post

Trains laden with containers of clothes and solar panels straight from China still trundle into the station here about five times a day, but other plans to forge links between this German city and Beijing have ground to a halt.
Duisburg’s aspirations of using Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies to modernise its administration, schools and traffic systems are on ice. Construction of a Chinese business hub on the Rhine River has been abandoned, and embarrassment hangs in the air.
Local officials who not long ago touted Duisburg as Germany’s “China City” say that’s not a tagline they want to use any more.
“Public opinion has changed, political opinion has changed,” says Markus Teuber, the China commissioner for Duisburg, the sole German city to have such a post.

The shift in this western German city of 500,000 mirrors a broader rethink in Europe on relations with Beijing.
Trade continues to flow – China remains the 27-nation European Union’s top trading partner. Yet the EU has inched closer to Washington’s sceptical view of Beijing, a trend the United States expects to continue despite a Chinese “charm offensive”, according to US military documents leaked on the group-chat platform Discord.
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Hopes that China would help boost Europe’s economies have been clouded by concerns about competition, influence and exposure. Beijing’s authoritarian turn under President Xi Jinping, its belligerence toward self-ruled Taiwan and its failure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have all set off alarms.
European policymakers are wary after seeing how dependence on Russian energy limited their leverage when President Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled toward Kyiv.
“We are no longer this naive continent that thinks, ‘Wow, the wonderful China market, look at these oppor­tunities!’” says Philippe Le Corre, a French analyst with the Asia Society Policy Institute. “I think everyone has got it.”
Many European leaders agree on the need for “smart de-risking”, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz put it in a speech in Strasbourg in May. But Europe remains divided on what that should involve.
The splits are apparent in the rhetoric of different European leaders – and in the ongoing negotiation of a new strategic policy from Germany, which as the EU’s largest economy accounts for half of the bloc’s €223 billion (HK$1.91 trillion) in annual exports to China.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck first mentioned in September last year that a new policy was in the works. A draft written by the German Foreign Ministry in early November provides insight into some of the guardrails under debate, but officials say internal wrangling is still under way.
Coalition partners are broadly in line but “nitty-gritty details” need to be worked out, according to one German official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal government policy.
He pushed back on the idea of a delay, yet acknowledged that it would be “optimistic” to expect the strategy before the end of the year.
As European policymakers have been hashing out their positions, China has embarked on a new effort to shape perceptions, advance defence objectives and counter US influence, according to two US joint chiefs of staff briefing documents leaked on Discord.
“Beijing is supplementing its ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy” – assertive, bombastic – “with a more measured approach,” one undated briefing document described, citing public statements by Chinese officials in March.
Germany regards China as a competitor, rival and a partner and sees itself closely aligned with its European and transatlantic partners
Steffen Hebestreit, a German government spokesman
The effort “privately aims to divide the US from Europe by taking advantage of the EU’s economic challenges stemming from the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” according to a second document, which included an assessment by the joint chiefs’ intelligence arm, known as J2.
China’s push has been largely failing, the undated assessment determined, based on March conversations with European diplomats.
“Beijing likely does not fully recognise the extent to which European partners are wary of the PRC’s intentions, and believes its changing rhetoric is sufficient to frustrate transatlantic ties,” it concluded, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
“European officials likely will aim to secure their economic interests while increasingly aligning with US views on the PRC.”
Indeed, the Italian government indicated in May that it intends to pull out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is pushing for export controls on sensitive technologies.
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But wariness levels are uneven across Europe. Hungary’s populist government has been deepening connections, with Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó signing a new deal with Huawei during a visit to Beijing in May.
And the leaked US briefing documents appear to have been written before French President Emmanuel Macron was feted with a state visit to Beijing in April, touted China’s potential as a peace­maker and warned Europe that it risked becoming a “vassal” to the US and getting “caught up in crises that are not ours”.
No country is as pivotal as Germany for Europe’s relationship with China. In addition to being responsible for such a significant portion of EU exports to the mainland, Germany accounts for most EU investments in China, with some 5,200 German companies engaged in manufacturing there, employing 1.1 million people.
Late last year, Scholz rankled allies when he became the first Group of Seven leader to visit China after the Covid-19 pandemic, taking along a business delegation.
On a map accompanying the leaked US documents, almost all of Europe was marked as having “minimal receptivity” to China’s overtures, except Germany and Serbia, which were assessed to have “moderate receptivity”.
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German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit declined to comment on the document. “Generally, Germany regards China as a competitor, rival and a partner and sees itself closely aligned with its European and transatlantic partners,” he wrote in an email.
The uncertain position of Europe’s largest economy is what makes it “so relevant and interesting to China”, says Tim Rühlig, a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. “Germany is quite important on this balance on where the EU ends up.”
Scholz has repeatedly stressed that Berlin is seeking to “de-risk” rather than “decouple” from Beijing.
German officials want to strengthen regulation of foreign investments in critical infrastructure.
The Interior Ministry is investigating the risk of existing Chinese components in Germany’s 5G network and the implications of Germany’s rail network, Deutsche Bahn, signing a contract with Huawei for the backbone of its signalling-and-control network.

The Economics Ministry, meanwhile, has suggested “stress tests” that would anticipate vulnerabilities if sanctions against China were imposed, according to an internal ministry document.
When it comes to overall strategy, Germany’s new China policy “will explain what de-risking means in actual terms concerning trade and technology science, culture and also on different levels of government within Germany”, says Nils Schmid, parliamentary foreign affairs spokesman for Scholz’s Social Democrats.
The draft indicates that German officials are considering controls on outbound investments, “with a view to avoiding unwanted technology transfer, especially in the case of sensitive dual-use technologies and technologies that can be used for surveillance and repression”.
The draft, first reported in November by German news outlet Der Spiegel, takes a harder line than Germany sometimes has in the past, calling out the Chinese leadership for being willing to use their market as leverage, admonishing Beijing for human rights violations and referencing the need for companies doing work in China to be “respecting environmental standards and labour rights and ensuring no forced labour in the supply chain”.
Just how much of the early draft will end up as policy remains unclear, with the Foreign Ministry, headed by Germany’s Green Party, more strident on China than Scholz’s chancellery. “It’s a very preliminary draft,” the German official says.
Duisburg had not that much good news in the past years, that they made the mistake to stress too much a positive thing
Johannes Pflug, head of the China Business Network Duisburg
A broader national security strategy, which will include a chapter on China, will be released in the coming weeks, with a more detailed China strategy to follow, the official says.
For Duisburg – a city with high unemployment and a skyline dotted with the hulking vestiges of its former place at the heart of German industry – the draw of Beijing had been strong.
Local German officials pitched the potential of their inland port, one of the largest in the world, and pinned their hopes of an economic turnaround on China.
Xi visited in 2014 to meet a newly arrived train from Chongqing, in western China. Soon, about 80 per cent of trains from China to Europe were stopping in Duisburg. Local officials liked to point out that Chinese maps labelled Duisburg more prominently than Berlin or Paris.
Even as other countries were blocking Huawei from critical infrastructure, Duisburg was going all in. It signed a 2018 memorandum with the tech giant to build infrastructure for government service portals and a “smart-city nervous system”.

But that era is now over.
In 2022, officials said the Huawei partnership had not been renewed, and the copy of the memorandum had been deleted from the city’s website. Visits to Duisburg by Chinese business delegations, which used to happen every week, have slowed to a trickle.
An effort by “alleged Chinese diplomats” to reach out to local security officials earlier this year was flagged as a concern, according to one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
“Since there were fears of spying attempts, no meeting took place in the end,” the official says.
And Chinese shipping giant Cosco – which has been the subject of controversy with its recent purchase of a stake in the German port of Hamburg – quietly sold its 30 per cent share in the Duisburg Gateway Terminal in October.
Markus Bangen, CEO of the Duisburg port, says contractual terms prevent him from commenting on the specifics, but he implies that Cosco was asked to leave.

“There are rules in our contracts, and you have to follow these rules,” he says. “If you don’t do so, it’s like in soccer, there’s a yellow card. Sometimes the second yellow card, but then follows the red card: you’re kicked out.”
Duisburg officials are now keen to downplay the city’s links to Beijing.
Johannes Pflug, head of the China Business Network Duisburg and formerly the city’s China commissioner, says the trains from China – which had been trumpeted in numerous press releases – are only a small fraction of the port’s business.
“The city of Duisburg had not that much good news in the past years, that they made the mistake to stress too much a positive thing.” Now the city is more clear-eyed, he says. “For the port of Duisburg, I can confirm, yeah, we made a mistake.”


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China-EU relations

Germany’s China City no more: how failed plans for Duisburg reflect Europe’s changing view of Beijing

Duisburg, with the world’s biggest inland port, has served as a major hub for Chinese trade with Europe. Photo: Fabian Ritte for The Washington Post

When he became Duisburg’s China commissioner in 2021, Markus Teuber was tasked with trying to get more Chinese companies to settle in the city. Photo: The Washington Post

A container from China arrives at the port of Duisburg. Photo: The Washington Post

Duisburg is a former industrial city that sought to reinvent itself through trade with China. Photo: The Washington Post

Xi Jinping (centre) stands with Germany’s then vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (second left), Duisburg’s mayor (left), the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia (second right) and then CEO of Duisburger Hafen AG, Erich Staake, to welcome a container train that had travelled from Chongqing, China, in 2014. Photo: Getty Images

Markus Bangen, CEO of Duisburger Hafen AG, which runs the Duisburg port. Photo: The Washington Post

Should Beijing earn Unesco World Heritage listing for old city? History of its conservation sets poor precedent

Visitors look at a laser performance in front of the Yongdingmen, or central south gate, in Beijing, rebuilt in 2003. The city is seeking Unesco World Heritage status for a large area of its former imperial inner city, including this gate. Photo: Getty Images

The Forbidden City, part of the so-called Central Axis comprising 15 building complexes for which Beijing is seeking a Unesco World Heritage listing. Some of the buildings have been badly restored, others demolished and replaced with modern ones. Photo: Getty Images

A view of the Imperial City from around 1920 appears to show the view south from the top of Prospect Hill, as described by Liang Sicheng 30 years later. Photo: Getty Images

The walls of the narrow Thousand Steps Passage. Surrounding administrative buildings and assorted gates were torn down in the late 1950s for the construction of Beijing’s vast Tiananmen Square, palaces in the sort of neoclassical style beloved of Hitler and Stalin built in their place. Photo: Peter Neville-Hadley

The funeral procession in 1916 of Yuan Shikai, a Qing dynasty official who became the first president of the Republic of China, shows the Zhonghuamen gate, right in the middle of what is now Tiananmen Square, that was pulled down and later site of the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. Photo: Getty Images

Beijing city walls in the early 1920s. Liang Sicheng wanted to save them and turn their tops into a park, but Mao Zedong had them torn down.

Only this short fragment of the old city walls near Beijing Station remains. Photo: Peter Neville-Hadley

Visitors enjoy a laser performance in front of the Yongdingmen, or central south gate. Originally a gate in the Outer City walls that were built in 1553, it was rebuilt in the later Qing dynasty style in 2003, and is included in Beijing’s application for Unesco World Heritage status. Photo: Getty Images

Zhengyangmen, the gate tower of the central south gate of Beijing’s Inner City wall, was extensively damaged during the Boxer Uprising. Photo: Historical Photographs of China

The view north up Beijing’s Central Axis towards the Zhengyangmen, rebuilt with arbitrary extra decoration by a German architect in 1915. Photo: Peter Neville-Hadley

How Chinese tech giant Meituan cracked food delivery by drone in densely built Shenzhen

Food delivery platform Meituan is using China’s tech hub Shenzhen as a testing ground for drone deliveries, and with residents getting used to the technology, it could soon take off in a big way. Photo: Meituan

Food delivery platform Meituan is using China’s tech hub Shenzhen as a testing ground for drone deliveries, and with residents getting used to the technology, it could soon take off in a big way. Photo: Getty images

Food delivery platform Meituan is using China’s tech hub, Shenzhen, as a testing ground for drone deliveries, and with residents getting used to the technology, it could soon take off in a big way. Photo: Getty images

A Meituan drone delivers a drink to one of its “M-port” kiosks, in Shenzhen, China. Photo: Zeyi Yang

The drink-containing box ready for collection from the kiosk. Photo: Zeyi Yang

Meituan uses standardised cardboard boxes to hold its food and drink deliveries. Photo: Zeyi Yang

Meituan’s delivery drones in Shenzhen are stationed at one of five depots, including this one atop a large shopping mall. Photo: Zeyi Yang

Meituan’s part human, part automated delivery system requires a runner to pick up the delivery item before it gets loaded onto a drone. Photo: Getty Images

A Meituan employee fixes a delivery box to a drone. Photo: Getty Images

Shenzhen has been chosen by Meituan as the centre of its drone delivery services because the city’s legislation is particularly accommodating of the technology. Photo: Meituan

Meituan recently gained approval from China’s air authority for drone delivery in urban areas. Photo: Getty Images

Tea delivered intact by a Meituan drone. Photo: Zeyi Yang

Laos farmers cling to a way of life that’s vanishing as developer drains marsh they rely on for water

A farmer and his cattle at the boundaries of the That Luang Lake SEZ, Vientiane, Laos. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A farmer in front of his home on the boundary of the That Luang Lake Specific Economic Zone in Vientiane Laos. His and others’ livelihoods are at risk as their source of water dries up thanks to a Chinese developer. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

Families gather around That Luang artificial lake on the outskirts of Vientiane for a sunset stroll and exercise. The lake has become an important public space for the Laos capital’s growing middle class. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

Influencers shoot a live video on TikTok beside That Luang artificial lake. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A couple stare at the artificial lake within the That Luang Lake SEZ on their wedding day. The lakeside has become a popular spot for wedding photo shoots. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

High-rise condominiums and hotels inside the That Luang Lake SEZ. Thanks to a 2019 amendment to the Land Law, foreigners are now able to own non-landed property in Laos. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A sign at a construction site inside That Luang SEZ. The developer plans to expand amenities within the zone by attracting other investors to build shopping centres, hotels, office towers and residential areas. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A diorama on display at the Qube Hotel, in one of That Luang Lake SEZ’s high-rise buildings, projects the future of the area. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A house to be soon torn down to make space for a road connecting the That Luang Lake SEZ to other parts of Vientiane. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

Pha That Luang, a national symbol of Laos. The 45-metre-high, gold-covered Buddhist stupa is near the That Luang Marsh. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A view of That Luang artificial lake from the 15th floor of the Qube Hotel. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A fisherman retracts his net under the monsoon rain from a canal at the boundary of the That Luang SEZ. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A farmer and his cattle at the boundaries of the That Luang Lake SEZ. Farmers continue to raise their cattle, often ignoring restrictions. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A farmer guides his goats back to their barn after sunset at That Luang Marsh. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A farmer looks out at his livestock grazing on That Luang Marsh, just outside the boundaries of the SEZ. Deeds sold on drained land encouraged farmers to sell their properties. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

A farmer and his cattle warm up around a fire after sundown, beside a water channel that sets the boundary of the That Luang Lake SEZ. Photo: Nicholas Bosoni

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Long a champion of co-operation with China, Duisburg has abandoned its partnerships there amid growing scepticism in the European Union towards Beijing


Long a champion of cooperation with China, the German city of Duisburg has abandoned its partnerships there, a move that reflects broader uncertainty in the European Union about Beijing.


Germany’s China City no more: how failed plans for Duisburg reflect Europe’s changing view of Beijing

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Long a champion of co-operation with China, Duisburg has abandoned its partnerships there amid growing scepticism in the European Union towards Beijing

Long a champion of co-operation with China, Duisburg has abandoned its partnerships there amid growing scepticism in the European Union towards Beijing