by Moritz Nicolaus Lohmann
Co – Founder of Hamburg Welcomes You, Germany
Every single time I tell my German friends about another trip to China or another decision to further study the country that has fascinated me for such a long time I get the question: “why China?”
And instead of just answering, “why not?” or to point to the sometimes bleak looking prospects of the European economy, and choose a different approach – I ask back:
Have you ever gone 2500 km overnight in a high speed train? That is the distance between Stockholm and Madrid – easily a 48h journey in Europe. And yet Beijing to Hong Kong, a similar distance is totally doable between dinner and breakfast.
Or I will ask: have you ever been to cities where a new metro line gets finished approximately every two years? No, not announced – finished.
Or lastly, I ask: have you never wondered why China just produced the same growth in renewable energies in 1 year that Germany did in 10?
All this doesn’t mean that I don’t like my own country. I actually think there’s a lot of hope for Germany, but I think we cannot walk the road to growth alone. And instead of fulfilling a prophecy told by many and becoming “Washington’s lapdog”, I think it’s more than necessary for Germany to keep a healthy balance of allies. We want to carry out more efficient public infrastructure projects? Then we ought to look to a country that has been able to do so astoundingly well in the last 20 years.
We want to learn about scaling up wind and solar parks? Then it might not be enough to only look north to Norway, where high amounts of energy are used to pump water up the mountain just to be able to release it in a pinch. Instead, a look eastward might help us realize that building a very large amount of wind and solar parks in a short amount of time is indeed possible.
All of this goes to say that though China has become an important trading partner for Western Europe, it is still societally underrated here. In Germany, some people think of spring rolls and cheap plastic goods when they get asked what comes from China. I think this will drastically change soon – and rightfully so. My hope is that with a change in perception of what comes out of China, we will also see a change of attitude towards China in Germany.
Why? Well frankly: We only have one planet – and it’s safe to say that both Chinese and German thinkers agree on the fact that quickly and effectively building up renewable energy is one of if not the best strategy to mitigate carbon emissions. And the best way to reduce these emissions is cooperation – not tomorrow, today. There must be a common future, where we can combat climate change multilaterally and grow in unison. It is not some far distance scenario – it is within reach for us to grasp.
But grasp it we MUST.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.