Keywords

1 Dynamic Asia—Sleepy Europe

Asia is growing. It is quite simple to track this development, if you take a look at Asian Cities. Shanghai’s Pudong for example just 21 years ago was a peripheral suburb with buildings that seldom rose beyond four or five stories. Less than a generation later large skyscrapers mark the scene, visually engraving a vivid history of economic success and large sums of money pouring into the country from all over world. Massive funds from everywhere have been attracted by a prosperous outlook on the future in Asia. Not only in Shanghai, also in Singapore, Kula Lumpur and other Asian Cities.

In Europe we will not find such a development. Even countries and cities that are doing extraordinary well (like London or Barcelona) cannot match the pace of their Asian sisters. If we take a look into the IMF-statistics, the picture becomes even clearer: Germany—Europe powerhouse right now—contributed to World-GDP-growth in 2012 with 0.3 %. China in contrast contributed to stunning 37.4 %. Given the assumption that no disruption occurs, the next century truly will be the “Asian one”.

Is this a new development? Probably not so much. The late economist Angus Maddison from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) calculated that for more than eighteen of the passed twenty centuries, a combined China and India have contributed with more than 50 % of the world GDP. So, “the past two centuries of Western domination of world history are exception, not the rule, during 2000 years of Global history.”[1]. So maybe the world is just swinging back into it’s ‘natural balance’ after two centuries of unexpected Western predominance.

However, this development will have a large impact—on Asia, as on the West as well.

2 Asian Investments will Change the West

Western Investments have changed Asian Countries during the last three decades. The impact of this development can be seen across Asia, not only in cities like Singapore or Shanghai, where a multi-national, western influenced atmosphere and business culture has developed.

The “Westernization” of different cultures has been an academic topic for years. Buruma and Margalit worked out, that fear about the “westernization of culture” (often a homonym for ‘Americanization’) has been a topic for years around the globe.

What we will observe in the near future is the impact of the Asian Century on western countries. A large part of the original ‘Westernization’ of Asian culture has been introduced by foreign investments: Western products, western Management styles, Western culture and soft power. During the next 10–20 years, we will experience a development into the opposite direction. As more and more Asian companies go out and become global players, they will export their values and culture with them as well.

A good example is China: Although large parts of the country remain underdeveloped, more and more Chinese companies become economically involved abroad, buying foreign companies or founding foreign bases. The Chinese Central Government supports and fosters this development, proclaiming the 走出去 zou chu qu (‘going out’) strategy. Only recently a Chinese official in a conversation with me coined this development to a good phrase: “Right now, whole Europe is on sale. And we will buy.”

Chinese Investments in Germany already expanded massively during the last 20 years. From 1990 to 2009 they rose from 70 million € to more than 600 million € in 2009. This equals a steady increase of 14 % a year. Concerning to experts, Chinese OFDI in Germany will rise above 2 billion € within the next 7 years (Table 20.1).

Table 20.1 Chinese OFDI in germany (1990–2009) (Source: German Federal Bank 2011)
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3 How German Cities Prepare for the ‘Asian Century’

In the end, all investments are local. Each company has to evaluate any given micro-location regarding it’s strengths and weaknesses. And in international—even more in cross-cultural—investment decisions support for investors by local government is one important indicator that has to be checked first. So, we wanted to know, if German Cities show any kind of effort to prepare for and to attract investment from the Middle Kingdom. The results are quite interesting, see Fig. 20.1

Fig. 20.1
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Twinning Agreement of Germany’s fifty biggest Cities. Development and status-quo 2013

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Asia became the second most important region for sistership agreements, straight after Europe. We discovered that sixteen out of Germany’s fifty biggest cities employ a special ‘China Desk’; 54 % of these employ at least one person working full-time on China-related issues. And German cities also developed a new kind of ‘strategic partnerships’. We analysed several cities in detail. Among the most interesting cases was the relative small City of Oldenburg (奥尔登堡市), who’s Mayor Gerd Schwandner recently has been awarded honorary citizen of Chinese city, an honour given only to half a dozen German people. Oldenburg’s China Desk, headed by native Chinese Wei Zuo developed a so called ‘four track’ strategy, using science, culture, economy and exchange on an administrative level to create ties between themselves and six Chinese Counterparts.

To sum it up, our impression is that the administrative branches of German Cities are quite active to connect themselves with China and thus prepare for the Asian Century yet to come.

But what about the political branch? German cities traditionally are self-governed (“Kommunale Selbstverwaltung”), which means, that a directly elected Mayor—who generally is the most powerful political figure because he directly controls the administration—is checked by a local parliament. Parliament seats are usually taken by voluntary politicians (“Hobbypolitiker”), meeting once a month or less frequently. Nevertheless, they play a vital role in formulating municipal policies.

We wanted to know: What do party politicians and members on a local level think about Chinese Investments and China in general?

4 The case of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)

The Christian Democratic Union is the predominant party in Germany’s electoral system. Except two elections (1972 and 1998) it has been the strongest party in all elections to the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag). For 44 out of 64 years the German Chancellor was a Christian Democrat, this means more than 2/3 of the history of the Federal Republic of Germany has been ruled by Chancellors from the CDU. Reason enough for us, to start our analysis with this party in Spring 2013.

4.1 Acknowledging the Asian Century to Come—But Disliking it

First of all, we asked CDU party members if they think that China will become more influential in the future. Of our participants, 99 % think so. Almost 40 % even believe that in the near future China will become the most important country of the world (Fig. 20.2).

Fig. 20.2
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China’s image within the CDU-survey

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Anyhow, only 16 % have a positive perception of China. Almost half of the participants of our survey regarded China’s image as negative.

This gloomy picture becomes clearer, when we go into more details.

4.2 China vs. the U.S.: The lack of Trust Worthiness

What if China was a person? What would her perception be like within the CDU?

We asked our participants to rate China concerning these items: Sympathetic, trust worthy, egoistic, influential, innovative, good reputation, Nation with culture (Fig. 20.3).

Fig. 20.3
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China’s image in comparision to the United States

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To get a more meaningful picture, we asked participants to do exactly the same for the United States. The reason is quite simple: The CDU under it’s first chancellor Konrad Adenauer established the deep-rooting ties modern Germany has with it’s Western Allies (“Westbindung”), especially the United States.

Interestingly, both large powers are regarded as similar in aspects as “influential” or “egoistic” (as if Germany was not)

4.3 Sceptic About Chinese OFDI

Does this general perception have an influence on the way CDU party members see investments from an Asian country?

Presumably yes. At least the question whether Chinese investments are positive or negative splits the entity of all participants into two halves: 46.3 % regard this trend as being negative and 41.1 % think this is a positive development (Fig. 20.4).

Fig. 20.4
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Perception of Chinese Direct Investments

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In other words: Chinese companies generally invest almost 30 million € each year in Germany. These investments help to save or increase jobs and prosperity in Germany—but the ‘help’ from abroad is anything but welcome.

The situation within the CDU concerning a negative Chinese image heavily reflects the general situation in the German public. From representative polls we know that most Germans are sceptical towards China’s (and Asia’s) rise—and even towards Chinese investments in our country. What can be done to convince people—either party members or the general public—about the positive aspects of the Chinese and Asian rise?

5 What Can be Done to Better Prepare for the ‘Asian Century’?

5.1 Strengthen Ties on a Municipal Level.

Our survey on the CDU indicates that party members expect their CDU-Chancellor to criticise China more often. However, they also believe that municipalities should strengthen their ties with Chinese cities for mutual benefit of the citizens. In other words: people seem to expect politicians on the national level to be critical against China but to do more to connect the municipality with it’s Chinese counterparts. So, City-to-City liaisons could be a kind of “Trojan horse” to make people in Germany feel more comfortable with China (see graphics) (Fig. 20.5).

Fig. 20.5
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How public Authorities should behave regarding China—on a national and local level

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5.2 Communicate Contemporary Asian Success Stories—Apart from Culture.

As mentioned above, the CDU party members very well realise that China is a nation with culture. To promote a more positive view on China, the Chinese Embassy, as well as other official bodies very often highlight the 5,000 years of Chinese history. Our survey indicates this might be the wrong strategy: People already know about China’s long and honourable history. Anyhow, this perception does not relate into a more positive view on China in general. We think that the time might has come to publish different stories on China in specific and Asia in general. Stories about successful transformation of Asian societies. From poor, rural societies to urban middle-class dominated ones.

6 Summary, Discussion and Results

During the Asian Century we will see more and more OFDI from Asia to Europe. This development will have a mutual benefit—and it will change Western societies exactly in the same way that western commitment has changed Asia.

Public authorities in Germany and elsewhere in Europe will do more to market investment opportunities and to attract OFDI from Asia, especially from China. Until now, responsible politicians fail to convince their own followers on the positive aspects of this trend. Public opinion in Germany still is quite hostile to increasing OFDI from China. Especially the media often depicts the Middle Kingdom negatively.

And politics? In the case of the CDU party members we have monitored that scepticism can be attributed to a lack of trust due to a lack of knowledge. Two necessary actions should be taken: (1) city-to-city liaisons between Asia and Europe should be fostered. Cultural aspects and exchange should be used in the future as they have been a bridge to mutual understanding in the past. Nevertheless, additional stories should be told to the European audience: About Asian values, about positive developments like rising wages and the massive growth of middle class households across Asia. Also political successes should be explained: Asian societies live in relative personal freedom, stability and peace. The West should learn more about this. Maybe it will lead to more Asian ‘soft power’ in the world.

7 Our Methodology

In Spring 2012 we did some research on the “China Strategies” of Germany’s fifty biggest Cities. The backbone of our research then were in-depth, qualitative interviews with officials representing some cities of the survey. From April to May 2013 we conducted an online-survey within three regional branches of the CDU in the state of Lower Saxony. Out of each branch, three local chapters were selected due to their spatial structure: Three urban branches, three suburban branches and three rural branches. 432 people opened the questionnaire, 192 people filled in at least one question. Until now, we only conducted our descriptive statistics.