Thread by @AMFChina

Benjamin Creutzfeldt has written a very problematic opinion editorial for @China_Table. Employing cherry-picked anecdotes about China's alleged openness he uses logical fallacies to make his case for an unconditional 🇩🇪 engagement with 🇨🇳. A short 🧵/1 table.media/en/china/stand…

To support his claim that "the Chinese" still welcome us with open arms, he invokes motives such as a Lunar New Year Festival, pandas, student exchanges, Huawei study tours, and conference invitations. The introduction of 14-day visa free travel to China is also mentioned /2

He then discusses 🇩🇪s strained political relationship with 🇨🇳. He blames (1) strict quarantine requirements during Covid-19; (2) German 'unease' about the authoritarian form of politics in China, and (3) supposedly negative media reporting on the current state of affairs /3

(1) The CCP's draconian Zero Covid-policies certainly served as a wake up call for western expats and Chinese citizens alike. They could experience first-hand how little regard the Party has for human suffering. So no disagreements here /4

(2) When Creutzfeldt starts talking about German 'unease' about China's authoritarianism he argues that 'although something like this existed in large parts of Europe until a few decades ago, we feel insecure and threatened in our modern democratic self-image' /5

This is too simplistic. Germans have experienced both Nazi rule and the Communist dictatorship of the GDR. Drawing lessons from our dark past means that we need to be extra vigilant about the rise of autocratic regimes, where domestic repression leads to external aggression /6

(3) According to Creutzfeldt, German media portrays China in a negative light. Some Sinologists have trotted out this trope in the past, such as #Heberer in 2010 () or more recently #Leutner et al in 2021 () /7boell.de/sites/default/…
rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_…

In fact the German-language media essentially reflects what is learned from our interaction with 🇨🇳. For the empirical part of my new book "Germany and China" I drew on a close reading of more than 300 media reports in TAZ, SZ, FAZ, Handelsblatt, WirtschaftsWoche and NZZ /8

I found that while the vast majority of reports were critical of developments in China under Xi, journalists writing for the centre-left TAZ as well as centre-right NZZ at times also employed policy images with emotive appeals which were more friendly towards China /9

I also pointed out that German newspapers as well as @China_Table or +49security have also regularly published op-eds by proverbial ‘China understanders’ (Chinaversteher) as well as regime critics (Chinakritiker), thus guaranteeing viewpoint diversity /10

I further argued that the professionalism of German China correspondents needs to be acknowledged, too. @thorstenbenner is right when stating that ‘we are lucky to have some excellent and well-informed journalists working about and/or in China’ /11 archive.is/yOQN9#selectio…

Let us not forget that journalists such as Friederike Böge @FriederikeBoege, Christoph Giesen @christophgiesen, Marcel Grzanna @asienreporter and Kai Strittmatter know China very well. Often considerable China experience is coupled with subject matter expertise /12

For example Dana Heide @Dana_Heide has provided excellent in-depth reporting on topics where industry policy, technology and German–China relations intersect. The same could also be said about Nina Bovensiepen @NinBov, Silke Wettach and many other German journalists /13

Yet Creutzfeldt argues that 'we won't get anywhere with this youthful cancel culture', followed by numerous logical fallacies. Straw man 1: Regardless of the CCP, Creutzfeldt argues, we should 'neither ignore or minimise China'. I have yet to meet someone who does that /14

Straw man 2: 'Nor should students from there be refused entry because of their origin.' The insinuation is that screening Chinese students and scholars for possible affiliations with the PLA is a form of modern-day McCarthyism. But such due diligence is perfectly legitimate /15

Straw man 3: 'Talking and negotiating with the people of Taiwan is important, but it is not an alternative.' This is a false choice, since it is of course possible to critically engage both with autocratic China and upgrade our diplomatic relationship with democratic Taiwan /16

Creutzfeldt concludes his ill-conceived op-ed with a reference to Confucius. His emotive appeal is a call for more people-to-people exchanges. Here we need to be mindful that it is the Chinese Communist Party which is poisoning the well for genuine intercultural dialogue /17

One wonders what Creutzfeldt hopes to achieve with this problematic op-ed in @China_Table. He employs numerous logical fallacies, thus resulting in a lack of nuance. His op-ed is also devoid of any autocracy competence /End table.media/en/china/stand…