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intervened with hotels where activities involving Taiwan (such as trade shows) flew
the flag of the Republic of China. Probably in view of the costs incurred by cancelling a contract with their Taiwanese partners, the addressees in general did not comply.
In a similar incident, at the first of a series of tournaments between German third league soccer clubs and Chinese soccer clubs, the Chinese coach demanded that spectators be forbidden from holding up Tibetan flags. The German soccer association’s representative did not comply and no more football matches have been held.
Business
Close relationships, often decades old, between various enterprises and business associations (including a newly established one on the Belt and Road Initiative) are nurtured by the Chinese embassy, consulates, and representatives from Beijing. The Chinese government provides financial and logistical support for events like the Hamburg Summit or Asia Pacific Days in Berlin. A long-standing practice has been to include CEOs of major enterprises in advisory boards of mayors of major Chinese cities and provinces (remuneration seems not to play a role).
The issue of “weaponized” investment is growing in importance. In 2016, Chinese companies spent 12.5 billion euros on investments in Germany—about as much as the total investment of the entire previous decade. The main targets have been successful technology companies. The blitz has subsided in the wake of greater political scrutiny beginning in 2017 and German efforts, along with those of the United Kingdom and France, to limit China’s ability to buy, borrow, or steal leading European technology.
German enterprises in both China and Germany are major targets for information campaigns related to the Belt and Road Initiative. Enterprises generally respond positively although with circumspection (only 36 percent of German companies in China expect positive effects for their business). Especially large enterprises (e.g., Siemens) have played along and created their own “BRI Task Forces.” Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser said in Davos in 2018 that the Belt and Road would become the “new WTO.” Similar to instances elsewhere, when the Daimler company used a quote from the Dalai Lama on its Instagram account, it was confronted with massive protests in China’s media and it apologized publicly—twice—to China. The city of Duisburg (one of the terminals of the trans-Eurasian railroads) in January 2018 reached a “strategic cooperation” agreement with Huawei to turn Duisburg into a “smart city.” That entailed having Huawei build a “Rhine Cloud” to host Duisburg’s data.?
Media
German media have, for decades, been the target of official and unofficial Chinese criticism that they are “anti-Chinese.” China’s state-run media have sought to
Appendix 2
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