Wires uncrossed

China's emergence as a global power is the hope and guarantor for a fairer and more harmonious world

In July, the German government and mobile phone providers agreed to remove any components of Chinese manufacturers from the country's 5G network by 2026. This is also to take place for the access to networks, primarily radio masts, by 2029. The German government wants this agreement to begin being implemented by the end of 2025 or start of 2026. Penalties are threatened if this timetable is breached.

In July 2023, the Federal Cabinet approved a 61-page paper, setting out how Germany intends to deal with China in the future: "We do not want to decouple ourselves from China, but rather minimize our risks." The German government is working toward a "de-risking of economic relations with China".

The reasons given are China has changed and is acting more aggressively. The accusation that China is not part of the West's "community of values" prompts no desire to decouple from China, however, because the country is needed as an economic and climate action partner and the Chinese market is needed for German products.

None of this has anything to do with democracy and freedom, international understanding and openness to the world.

The German economy has been in decline for years, its infrastructure is considered dilapidated and in dire need of renovation because there has been no investment for decades. But what do you read about this in the German press? The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung puts the icing on the cake, writing: "Measured by its economic output per capita, China is not even in the second league. In this respect, China is similar to emerging countries such as Costa Rica, Argentina, Mexico or Romania, which have a similar per capita income."

Not a word about the fact that China has lifted around 800 million people out of abject poverty in just a few decades. That is as many people as the combined populations of the European Union, with 450 million, and the United States, with 350 million. Nothing about the fact that per capita income in China has risen 50-fold over the past three decades. Nothing about the fact that China's success story continues unabated — in contrast to the EU and the US.

Against the backdrop of an economic war unleashed by the US, the EU, above all Germany, is increasingly joining under the dictates of the US, China is pushing ahead with independent development of cutting-edge technologies in order to make itself independent of foreign countries.

The third plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in July spoke of "new quality productive forces". In the German Democratic Republic in the 1960s, we called this "disruption prevention". The West tried to gag us economically during the Cold War — just as the West is trying to do with China today. The difference between the GDR back then and China today, however, is that China now has the economic power with constant growth potential and the Communist Party has the political leadership strength, based on a viable social and economic concept, to successfully plan and, above all, implement such a strategy. This is because at the third plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee in December 1978, Deng Xiaoping introduced a reform and opening-up policy that is now to be deepened comprehensively and with the aim of advancing Chinese modernization, as President Xi Jinping explained at the 2024 plenum.

The fact that these reform and opening-up measures will be implemented by the 80th anniversary of the People's Republic in 2029 is a testament to the dynamism of the Chinese economy. This will enable further steps to be taken, at the end of which the goal of creating "a socialist market economy with high standards" and "improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics" will have been achieved.

I was a political functionary in the GDR. We also made bold plans, just like the Soviet Union did. But quite a few of them turned out to be castles in the air. We lacked the economic power, the necessary driving forces of production and ultimately the confidence in victory to fulfill all our dreams.

With my own experience, combined with the demise of Soviet-style European socialism, I take a rather critical view of lofty plans — with one exception: the resolutions of the CPC, coupled with the capabilities of the Chinese people.

The recently held third plenum provided the right contemporary answers to these false claims. China has now strategically taken over the global market leadership in climate protection technologies. About 39 percent of all wind turbines worldwide are located in China. Around one-third of all solar power systems are installed here, and China dominates over 90 percent of the global market for solar cell production. China is now also a leader in electromobility.

The development of new quality productive forces will not only secure the future of China, but also of the world.

The consistent policy of the CPC to further increase the prosperity of the population, and to constantly strengthen the country's economic and defense power with a high global impact, are important guarantees in the current tense global political situation to stand up for the resolution of conflicts and the preservation of peace with a balanced and predictable policy.

The author is a researcher at Edition Ost in Berlin. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.