Progress

There are many things to complain about in China, among them the fact that complaining about them publicly can lead to your visa being canceled (if you’re lucky enough to be a foreigner from a respected country). One thing I really can’t stand is privileged foreigners, usually expats, indulging in rants against their home countries while pointing out how China is doing everything better, usually including an apologetic sentence in the beginning or end (Yes, human rights, BUT …). Along with it often comes an arrogant attitude of someone who believes he embarked on the right side of history and the stupid people in his stupid home country are just dumb to understand that THIS IS THE FUTURE!!!!

Having said that, even with a more moderate point of view one has to admit that there are developments in China that are underreported in our media and that we can learn from or should at least be aware of. It’s also true that our media has a bias, though I’m not sure if bias is the right word. It’s rather a different setting of priorities. While many people, including me, think that the economical and technical developments happening in China will have the biggest impact on our own future and thus are the most important things to report about, journalists working for big publications often see their mandate in revealing the downsides, problems and dangers of China’s authoritarian governance – which is important too. So in order to get a bigger picture I think the best thing to do is to read traditional newspapers but also some other publications, such as techcrunch for news concerning China’s thriving start up scene or the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong based newspaper that’s sometimes a bit too comforting, but has many in detail reports about issues that are below the radar of foreign publications.

There’s one thing in particular that annoys me about Europe (especially Germany) and that I love about China: Openness to technological progress. When you think of automation and robotics, what’s your first thought? If you mainly consume German newspapers, chances are you’re worried about consequences for the labor market and the replacement of humans by machines. The same for literally all other new technologies: Gene editing = Disrupting nature, jeopardizing our planet. Sharing economy = Killing traditional businesses, threatening steady, stable jobs. Digital payment methods = Surveillance, dangers through hacking, transparent citizen. It’s good to have a critical assessment of new technologies, but if that leads the people of a country to reject them from the outset, something’s gone wrong. Add to that the excruciatingly long and often failing processes to plan and implement new infrastructure due to excessive standards and citizens who think a few hectar protection area for some animal species are actually more important than modern roads and train tracks (recent example: 10 years to rebuild a bridge in Berlin – cities like Dubai or Beijing would be unrecognizable after the same amount of time) and you can’t help but feel like Germans sometimes just really want to harm themselves. The funny thing is that Germany has amazing fundamental research and innovation potential, but often fails to realize that because of a lack of entrepreneurial spirit and the public aversion to new things.

China is the other extreme. As long as they do not threaten party-rule, innovations are not only welcome but actively promoted by the state as a way to modernize the country and ultimately make it globally competitive. It took China three (3!) years to go from a quasi-monopole for cash to nearly cashless in major cities. In less than the time it took Germany to build 500km of tracks for the Berlin-Munich connection, China – not having had high speed railways before – built an entire new network only for bullet trains which currently has a length of 27000km. And it’s not just visible on the bigger scale, you can see the pace of progress in your everyday life here too. Shops close and open, a new bike-sharing service appears and vanishes, some trend sets in and all of a sudden everybody uses an app for something that had to be done manually before. The key to this fast-lived environment is not just a lower amount of regulations or the very competitive spirit of young entrepreneurs here, it’s also that Chinese seem to more welcoming to changes in their everyday lives. Offer a German a solution for a minor problem (say an app that allows you to quickly buy public transport tickets on your phone) and he will ask: “Do I really need this? What about data privacy?” Offer it to a Chinese and he will take it for the initial discounts offered and happily keep using it for the time saved and comfort added.

I know, we’re doing quite good in Germany, so why change a running system? I think it’s this kind of wary, phlegmatic attitude that’s dangerous in the long run. The world doesn’t stop evolving because you’re happy with the status quo and isolating yourself from this only leads to a bigger impact when reality catches up with you. While I’m really happy that we have a government that puts the individual citizens and their concerns first, I’d love to see some more curiosity and a positive vision of the opportunities the future holds.