Christian Straube

Merz has touched down in Beijing and met with Premier Li Qiang already - dinner planned with Xi in the evening. Will keep this 🧵today

No readout yet, wires quote Merz as saying: "We have very specific concerns ​regarding our cooperation, which we want to improve and make fair"

Friedrich Merz und Gordon Schnieder auf dem Politischen Aschermittwoch in Trier. YouTube video by CDU

I could not find a transcript but the recording at www.youtube.com/live/_pS9KN3..., at 1:25:55 he talks about his upcoming trip to China

Book cover - looks kind of like painted grasses that would grow alongside a river. A blurb from Salman Rushdie says its "Extraordinary, ambitious, evocative, dazzling"

Author pic. The print on her dress is exquisite. Lots of repeating natural patterns in bold bright colours.

02. ZAMBIA

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell

Serpell’s debut novel follows three families for three generations and more than 100 years of their lives in Zambia.

#ReadTheWorld

The great slowdown: Germany at a standstill as ‘China shock’ hits As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture.

The great slowdown: Germany at a standstill as ‘China shock’ hits

As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture

My report from a rather depressing week in Berlin

Reverse Deng? For Professionals Only - The Wire China Countries contemplating letting Chinese firms invest in areas like EVs should seek to emulate China’s strategy in full.

The tables have turned. Western governments are now contemplating extracting industry-leading know-how from Chinese investment in order to help modernize their domestic manufacturing.

Die neue US Sicherheitsstrategie spricht vieles aus, was Beobachter schon wussten. Das heutige demokratische Europa, die EU als Institution wird offen zum Gegner erklärt, und ein Regimewandel angestrebt. Die Verharmlosung dieses Dokuments wäre fatal für Europa. Die Konsequenzen sind dramatisch.

🚀 Launching: Decoding China Dictionary 2025 Edition

We're thrilled to unveil our new website featuring the expanded Decoding China Dictionary!

www.decodingchina.eu

Map of the world entitled "Copper Extraction Spheres of Control" The map is divided into a blue American sphere, a red Chinese sphere, a yellow Russian sphere, a green "coalition of the willing" and a little blue undrafted sphere. The map shows Latin Ameria as part of the American sphere and countries adjacent to China and in Central Africa as part of the Chinese sphere.

I keep seeing this incredibly silly map of copper producers showing "spheres of influence that are quickly becoming spheres of control".

Both the premise (is the US going to control Brazil because Brazil produces 1% of the world's copper? No) and the details are wrong.

Map showing Zambia and its export routes to the Indian Ocean. The map has two black lines connected Zambia with Dar es Salaam and Nacala.

Map showing Zambia's new copper export routes in the 1960s after Rhodesia's government abruptly cut off transport links going south.

Zambia was remarkably successful in swiftly re-orientating the industry eastwards:

The novel's clear killer quote.

After the coronation Tanzania’s Gen Z uprising meets a state whose old bargains have collapsed.

In Tanzania, the Gen Z uprising meets a state whose old bargains have collapsed. africasacountry.com/2025/11/afte...

I have a new, long piece in The Ideas Letter called “The Great Reckoning: What the West Should Learn from China," arguing that we must learn from China even (or especially) when its successes unsettle our assumptions. Link below.

The China Tech Canon How does the paideía of the Chinese tech elite differ from their counterparts in Silicon Valley?

The China Tech Canon

The communities paying the price for Zambia’s toxic mining disaster Those affected by a catastrophic spill at a copper mine in Chambishi say the authorities are not doing enough

A catastrophic spill at a copper mine in Zambia released acidic effluent into the Chambishi Stream, contaminating one of Zambia’s most important waterways. Several months on, those affected say the authorities are not doing enough.

🔗: https://loom.ly/FCcka9s

The new issue of the Made in China Journal is out! This time we explore what it means to come of age in China today, at a moment when the paths to adulthood are increasingly uncertain, yet the pressure to succeed remains relentless. Download the whole issue at madeinchinajournal.com/2025/10/27/b...

"Wir fragen uns heute viel stärker: Was wollen wir eigentlich erreichen?" In Deutschland nach mehr Chinakompetenz zu rufen, aber immer weniger dafür zu tun, kann nicht funktionieren, sagt Joanna Klabisch von der Stiftung Asienhaus.

www.klimareporter.de/internationa...
In Deutschland nach mehr Chinakompetenz zu rufen, aber weniger dafür zu tun, funktioniert nicht, sagt Joanna Klabisch von der Stiftung Asienhaus. Zivilgesellschaftliche Kooperation mit China sei heute schwieriger, aber weiterhin möglich. Teil 17 der Serie.

Why does the EU have such bad leaders? Scathing, honest and enlightening explanation from Luis Garicano

open.substack.com/pu...

Screencap of a post-doc job ad (for a German university, but they're taking applications in English): Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) The Department of Chinese Studies is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) Bewerbungsfrist: 21 October 2025 Eintrittstermin: 01. Januar 2026 Arbeitsumfang: Part-time position (70 %) Subproject: “SINOFANTASY – Fantasy fiction across the Chinese mediasphere (platforms, creative labor, fandom, participatory culture, transmediality)”

This is easily the coolest postdoc posting I've seen in a while, but it's a bit outside my wheelhouse and my dissertation timeline. The University ot Freiburg (universität-freiburg) is seeking a researcher on contemporary Chinese fantasy fiction and then some.

uni-freiburg.de/stellenangeb...

An apt US intelligence analysis of Zaire, March 1979.

X post: One interesting difference I've noticed between the West and China, that few speak about, is the difference in approach when it comes to narrative management. To a large extent the West's approach is to change the narrative in order to change reality, whereas China's approach is almost the opposite: change reality in order to change the narrative. It's basically materialism vs idealism.

even though I have an entire research programme on the kind of binary narrative exemplified by the post (China this "the west" that, I even have a forthcoming book on it), at this point I find it extremely boring. and social media is horrible. bc this kind of stuff guarantees virality.

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Jerome A. Cohen, the eminent scholar of Chinese law. Our condolences to his family and all those who loved him.

He authored many books, most recently the memoir, "Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law."

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Zambia Belonging A counter-archive of found and crowd-sourced photographs from Zambia’s past.

The artist Sana Ginwalla has created an online photo archive based on 1000 uncollected negatives, slides and prints that she found in the attic of Lusaka’s oldest photo studios. What a great initiative:

www.zambiabelonging.com

Scottish Centre for China Studies autumn seminar series starts next week

Dr Yu Sun (Uni of Glasgow)

Rating villagers’ morality via data scoring systems: everyday surveillance and techno-moral governance in rural China

Wed 24 Sept, 4–5.30pm
Register online: uofglasgow.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Africa’s Place on the World Map World maps are not neutral and marginalize Africa, says the “Correct the Map” campaign. The European side should therefore review its map...

🌍 The #AU is calling for a new world #map that shows Africa’s real size 👉 #CorrectTheMap campaign.

Ahead of the #EUAU summit, @karolineeickhoff.bsky.social explains how maps shape our view of the world and urges the European side to review its use of visualizations.

📃 t1p.de/6wka6

“China’s Vulnerability Paradox” | ChinaFile China’s appetite for critical minerals, fossil fuel, timber, and other commodities is the subject of countless news articles and has created anxiety in capital cities around the world. The dominant narrative is one of concern over Beijing’s dominance of global supply chains. Yet while the country clearly exhibits strengths as a commodity superpower, it also suffers from

A new book by political economist Pascale Massot examines how China is heavily import-dependent for many raw metals and minerals despite its market size and power. Author Paul French asked her all about it:

Is This a New World Order? | ChinaFile From August 31 to September 1, China hosted twenty foreign leaders in Tianjin for a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, the biggest meeting since the formation of the security group in 2002. Group photos of all the attendees and video and photos of Xi Jinping enjoying moments of bonhomie with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

How should we think about China's military parade, the SCO Summit, and the diplomatic theater performed for the cameras by Xi, Modi, Putin, and Kim?

We asked Farwa Aamer, Katie Stallard, Tanvi Madan, Maria Repnikova, and Sun Chenghao:

The EU's strategic foresight report 2025 is out and it rings the bell for a "change in the global order"

"We're witnessing the erosion of the rules-based international order & fracturing of the global landscape... a return to the previous status quo seems increasingly unlikely"

At the centre of this rivalry lies the small town of Kapiri Mposhi in central Zambia, a strategic hub where three competing corridors – China’s Tazara, the US-backed Lobito Corridor and Japan’s Nacala Corridor – converge.

Chart showing the corporate structure of Gold One Group Limited. The chart shows there are five intermediary companies between mine and its ultimate owners.

Normal corporate structure for the mining industry:
Chinese state-owned company owns a Cayman Islands holding company that owns an intermediary investment company in Cyprus that owns a holding company in South Africa that owns one small gold mine near Johannesburg.

The Woman Holding Chinese Mining Giants Accountable - Inside Climate News Jingjing Zhang has fought polluting Chinese companies for decades. Now she’s teaching lawyers across the Global South how to do the same. Her work has never been more urgent.

‘Jingjing Zhang has fought polluting Chinese companies for decades. Now she’s teaching lawyers across the #GlobalSouth how to do the same. Her work has never been more urgent.’ - by @katiesurma.bsky.social for @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/2408202... #Zambia #Copperbelt