@rudyakmarina
Ass. Prof & China scholar @UniHeidelberg | Decoding (Global) China, #ChineseAid, 🇨🇳-🇷🇺& 🇨🇳-Central Asia relations | ex aid-worker | 🌹 www.decodingchina.eu www.deconspirator.eu Out now: Dialog mit dem Drachen (in German)
After a long pause, China Aid Blog is back, and has now moved to Substack (like all the cool kids do). Follow & subscribe for occasional posts & research notes from my desk as I try to bring more light into the black box of Chinese aid & development finance
open.substack.com/pub/chinaaid...
In Kopenhagen gibt es die Vorschrift, dass alle wichtigen Radwege bei Schneefall bis spätestens 08:00 Uhr morgens geräumt sein müssen, damit die Menschen sicher mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit fahren können. So sieht dass dann aus❤️😀
Revising a chapter on the implication of Chinese development finance for EU's own development policy, whose last draft version I did about a month ago. Almost feels outdated already. Sh...'s moving so fast.
Zahnarztbesuche aus der Krankenversicherung rausnehmen, wie es der CDU-Wirtschaftsrat fordert? Was für ein uninformierter Unsinn. Zahngesundheit ist mitnichten „nur“ eine Frage von Ästhetik, sie beeinflusst Herzgesundheit. Sich nicht darum zu kümmern produziert viel höhere Kosten.
Thank you so much to @neysunm.bsky.social & @penn-us-china.bsky.social for bringing us to DC und to Jifeng Books for hosting this discussion!
I’ve rooted for Legacy, but I have to admit: Starfleet Academy is probably the trek I (we) never knew we needed. Especially now.
#StarTrek
Very happy to share that we've launched the new edition of the Decoding China Dictionary — and officially launched ourselves as a non-profit organisation!
W/t @dbandurski.bsky.social, Katja Drinhausen, @jerkerhellstrom.bsky.social, @malinoud.bsky.social
Follow us here @decodingchina.bsky.social!
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
(FT) Hörtipp | Soll die EU weg von den USA - und hin zu China?
Es diskutieren: @rudyakmarina.bsky.social (Uni Heidelberg), Felix Lee, @salx.bsky.social (ORF) und Jörg Wuttke
Absolutely agree on BMWE, though there the radio silence is not only on China but pretty much on everything, including pressing intra-German reform issues. 🤷♀️
Very much second what @rudyakmarina.bsky.social writes here (and in the thread). I don't think it's a smart idea to cancel visits because of disagreements - for me, that's not a sign of strength but rather closes the doors for better understanding and smart engagement.
To sum it up: in my view, the mistake is not in the SPD side. It is a problem that - as legitimate as the reasons may be - there was still not official visit to China. Here I absolutely agree with what @maximilianiras.bsky.social wrote in China.Table:
table.media/en/china/opi...
Not to mention that the people he wanted to meet in Beijing except Wang Yi are physically not there these dates, but are either meeting Trump or EU-counterparts in Brussels - meeting whom is clearly (and understandably) deemed more important than meeting the German FM.
Here, I disagree, again. Diplomacy is sometimes like a thread mill: you don’t get anywhere but it’s still a good exercise. As for Wadephul, it’s a legitimate question why an FM to FM meeting at this point was apparently unacceptable (Bluesky is not an ideal platform to discuss this).
I disagree and believe that a multi-leveled and multi-stakeholder approach that utilizes a broad instrument toolkit serves German interests best. I see no benefit and a lot of harm in lack of direct high-level communication with China. I also think it was wrong for Wadephul to cancel the tip.
It was long known in German policy circles. The party dialogue is always in autumn, taking turns. Germany last year, China this year.
But also, since 2 days in German news, e.g.
archive.is/xXfP8
www.thepioneer.de/originals/ha...
Why the conclusion that party-to-party talks mean a risk to become a “pawn”? The people who lead the dialogue on the SPD side are neither naive nor stupid. More so, especially now, closing (or destroying) a long-standing and working communication mechanism would be no most unwise thing to do.
Why is this a scoop? It was planned and known for a long time.
Glad to be quoted in this report about Chinese citizens fighting for Ukraine (yes, there are many Chinese sympathetic towards Ukraine, 22% by our estimate). Special thanks go to @davidstroup.bsky.social for the referral.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Vielen Dank an Thorsten Giersch und die Weimer Media Group für diese Rezension meines Buchs
"Dialog mit dem Drachen: Wie uns strategische Empathie gegenüber #China stärken kann"
-- und die Empfehlung des Buchs für Führungskräfte.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbKz...
📖 www.campus.de/buecher-camp...
Der Österreichische Rundfunk (ORF) hat unseren Dialog im Journal Panorama unter dem Titel "Chinas Aufstieg zur Supermacht und die Folgen" zusammengefasst und eine ganze Sendung daraus gemacht. Nachzuhören unter: oe1.orf.at/player/20251...
#China #Europa
Was passiert, wenn zu viele den Glauben daran verlieren, dass man durch harte Arbeit aufsteigen kann? Wenn es gar nicht mehr in den Glauben geht, sondern schlichtweg unmöglich wird?
Ich hatte das Vergnügen, im Kreisky Forum mit Joerg Wuttke, Felix Lee und Alexandra Siebenhofer über Europas Handlungsspielräume zwischen Kooperation, Abhängigkeit und strategischer Distanz zu diskutieren.
Moderiert von Raimund Löw.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DI...
#China #Europe #Geopolitics
Aber wenn das Manuskript dann mal abgegeben ist… 🕺🏼💃🏼☀️
Kenya and China have agreed to restructure the East African country’s loan portfolio by converting an estimated $3.5 billion of outstanding debts from U.S. dollars into Chinese yuan.
These trends clearly indicate that Chinese companies are increasingly cautious, fearing possible secondary sanctions. However, this does not mean they will refrain from finding ways to circumvent them — for example, through third countries.
Overall, in the first eight months of 2025, trade between the two countries decreased by almost 9%, amounting to around US$145 billion. Russian exports to China fell by 8.8%, while Chinese imports to Russia declined by 8.2%.
At the same time, China has quietly halted deliveries of high-precision machine tools from China, Moscow Times reports (lnkd.in/emRQrU5r). According to Chinese Customs, in August 2025 Chinese exports to Russia fell by 16.4% year-on-year — twice the decline recorded in July, when the drop was 8.6%.
The answer is that China is, ultimately, on its own side. It will support Russia just enough to ensure the war in Ukraine continues—but not enough for Russia to win. In that sense, the Chinese envoy to the Un was right to note that if China had fully supported Russia, the war would already be over.
Had the opportunity to share my thoughts with the Poland-based Russian-language news service Vot Tak (vot-tak.tv) on the recent leak suggesting that China is providing intelligence to Russia regarding the war in Ukraine. The fundamental question remains: whose side is China on?
