Good morning dear readers,
In Germany, people like to delight in the prejudice that the United Kingdom is little more than a dilapidated aircraft carrier with drunken Eton buffoons on the command bridge and nationalist hooligans in the engine room.
But yesterday the British showed us once again what they are above all: probably the most cosmopolitan nation in Europe. A country where a 42-year-old Hindu, son of Indian-African immigrants, can become conservative prime minister. Rishi Sunak’s appointment by King Charles this Tuesday is a mere formality.
In some other ways, Sunak fits the Tory prime minister cliché: Like his four direct predecessors, he studied at Oxford. Our London correspondent Torsten Riecke has put together everything else you should know about the newcomer at 10 Downing Street (for example about his wife).
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My prognosis: In Germany it will be many years before the first person with a migration background becomes Chancellor. If you want to understand better based on a specific case, why social advancement in Germany is often so rocky: Kirsten Ludowig conducted a powerful podcast interview with Natalya Nepomnyashcha. Born in Ukraine, Nepomnyashcha grew up with Hartz IV, today she is a consultant at EY.
(Photo: IMAGO/Nikita)
Shortly before Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SPD) trip to China, there is a risk of new trouble in German-Chinese relations: It’s about dealing with the Chinese IT group Huawei. Despite all the warnings, its components are still an integral part of German mobile networks. This was the result of research by the Handelsblatt.
The network operators Telefónica and Vodafone have dispensed with Huawei components in their 5G core networks. And Deutsche Telekom is currently removing the controversial parts from its core network. However, Huawei technology is still used in the significantly larger access networks. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser now wants to react and promises in the Handelsblatt to better protect the critical infrastructure.
Another piece of critical infrastructure is likely to come under Chinese control soon: the federal government announced on Monday in Dispute about the entry of the Chinese state-owned company Cosco in the port of Hamburg agreed on a compromise. According to information from the Handelsblatt, the Chinese should not be allowed to hold a stake of 35 percent as planned, but only 24.9 percent in a container terminal in the port. In this way, the federal government wants to prevent the state-owned company from having a blocking minority and being able to influence the decisions of the terminal’s operating company. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” was the first to report about it.
But the truth is that Beijing certainly doesn’t need a small stake in the smallest of Hamburg’s container terminals to cement its status as a powerhouse on the Elbe. In case of doubt, the role as by far the most important trading partner is sufficient. In the Port of Hamburg, freight to and from China (including Hong Kong) accounted for 29.5 percent of total container throughput in the first half of 2022. The USA, as the second most important trading partner, accounted for just 6.6 percent.
A typical feature of long-term political strategies: they are usually so long-term that their failure can never be clearly proven – at least not during the term of office of the responsible minister. The new “future strategy research and innovation” from the house of Federal Research and Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) is a welcome exception in many respects: The draft, which is available to the Handelsblatt, names fairly specific goals for the current legislative period.
By 2025, for example, it should be possible to found a company within 24 hours – in 2020, according to World Bank data, this would take eight days. And the proportion of academics, technicians and business administrators among 30 to 34 year olds in Germany is expected to increase from 50.5 to 52.5 percent.
In the car industry it is called facelift: Chrome strips replace black plastic, the navigation system gets a better user interface and the engine gets more power. In the media industry, this type of model maintenance is called “rebrush”, and we have subjected the print edition of the Handelsblatt to one. If you get your hands on a printed Handelsblatt at the kiosk, in the Lufthansa lounge or, ideally, of course, in your own mailbox in the coming days: Take a look and see how you like the changes – and feel free to email your opinion to our editor-in-chief at [email protected]. He has credibly assured me that he looks forward to reading from you.
I wish you a day with lots of chrome and little black plastic.
Best regards
Her
Christian Rickens
Editor-in-Chief Handelsblatt
