Otto Wolff's Trip to China and the West German-Chinese Trade Agreement in 1957

Guido Samarani, Carla Meneguzzi Rostagni and Sofia Graziani (eds.), "Roads to Reconciliation People’s Republic of China, Western Europe and Italy During the Cold War Period (1949-1971)", Ca' Foscari University Press, 2018

This article deals with the relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People’s Republic of China during the early Cold War decades. The traditional historiographical paradigm of the East-West confrontation assumes that any form of cooperation was impossible between the two countries. However, a shift of focus from the political sphere to the economic one reveals how pattern of conduct predating 1949, as well as purely economic reasons, brought actors from both sides to agree on a set of rules for bilateral exchange, and to improve the trade performance despite the highs and lows of the political climate and the bloc allegiance of both countries.

Diw Economic Bulletin, 2012

M. Schatz, L. De Giorgi, P. Ludes, "Contact Zones in China. Multidisciplinary Perspectives", De Gruyter, 2020

Contact Zones in China, 2020

Nearly 30 years on from its first formulation, the contact zone paradigm is still being debated and refined as its first formulator, Mary Louise Pratt, dialogues with her most constructive critics. Though originally proposed as a research tool in the field of literacy and literary theories, it has proved versatile, thought-provoking and generally popular in many other walks of the humanities, and indeed wherever the notion of "culture" is amenable to problemanalysis (Hong 2001, 259-83; Giffard 2016, 29-41). Without any claim to exhaustiveness in what is potentially an infinite topic, my chapter sets out to assess the contact zone paradigm in a field where it has not yet been seriously applied: economic history in its broadest sense. I will attempt this by means of a case study that dates back to the post-colonial era, but which I will try to frame in a longer-term analysis: the negotiations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of China in the years following 1949, their aim being to promote and regulate trade between the two countries, despite the geopolitical impediments and the unfavourable ideological climate caused by the Cold War. Contact Zones and Economic History Although recent economic research seems intent chiefly on defining and quantifying the negative effect of cultural factors on economic exchange, viewing them as mere "biases" or "barriers" (Guiso, Sapienza and Zingales 2004, 1-25; Kónya 2006, 494-507), many other disciplines agree that conflict and cultural contamination have always been an intrinsic component of economic action (Spillman 2006, 1047-71). Since prehistoric times that component has affected much more than the purely material side to the exchange of goods and services; it has played a powerful part in producing social meanings and relations within the societies

Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 2018

This paper contributes to the recent discussion concerning the interactions between China and Germany in the context of Industry 4.0, highlighting the most relevant innovation and trade trends and the policy implications of this collaboration. The qualitative analysis examines the features of the innovation systems in Germany and China and the strategies implemented to boost the innovation process. The quantitative analysis exploits trade, patent and publications data to identify trends related to China-Germany cooperation. The paper provides insights into the policy implications for both countries of Sino-German cooperation in relation to Industry 4.0.

German Politics

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Economic History Yearbook), 2022

This article examines the research literature on the economic aspects of the "Sino-Soviet Alliance", which lasted from the end of the Chinese Civil war until the Sino-Soviet split (1949-1960/63). The Soviet and Eastern European contribution to China's industrialization, called the "largest technology transfer in human history" by some, still awaits detailed examination. This article aims to structure the field as well as inspire future research. The included studies range from on-the-ground microstudies of engineers at specific industrial construction projects to macro-perspectives on economic exchange, trade and governmental negotiations. In contrast to classical Cold War perspectives, which assume a primacy of (geo-)politics, the paper builds on more recent studies, arguing that economic rationales mattered in both the split and the forging of the alliance. The literature review suggests that the room for manoeuvre of actors beyond the Kremlin and party leaderships has to be measured anew, and that the impact of the alliance on Eastern Europe awaits further research. Finally, the influence of the West with its technologies and world markets becomes visible when these apparently exclusive East-East relations are examined more closely.

Contemporary European History, 1994

Journal of Contemporary History, 2023

During the 1950s and the early 1960s, many specialists from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were sent to China by the government to assist in the latter’s socialist construction, in which the GDR government had significant room to manoeuvre. These experts helped improve the GDR’s economic relations with China during their tenure there, enjoying preferential treatment from the Chinese government. Their living conditions were much better than those of the average Chinese around them, which triggered resentment and violence from ordinary Chinese people. Meanwhile, East Germans were deeply concerned about China’s technological catch-up via imitation and reproduction. The hierarchical system of socialist economic and technological cooperation and the legacy of technology transfer between Germany and China since the late 19th century were the two main reasons for this predicament in bilateral relations, which undermined their cooperation even before the bilateral split became widely known.

Ever since, Goldman

Świat Idei i Polityki, 2015

Together with the acceleration of globalization processes, power in international relations has moved from the political and military space to the economic one. Today, true power means ability and capacity to integrate with the global economy. Therefore, economic diplomacy, which is not a new phenomenon, became one of the most important elements of foreign policy of all countries. The aim of the article is to present the importance of economic diplomacy in foreign policy in the era of globalization with a particular emphasis on the economic activity of China.

1988

In the postwar history of Western Europe, the period from 1958 to 1972 stands out as the time of the economic division of this part of the world into two trading blocs: the European Economic Community (EEC), established in 1958, and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), formed two years later. Before 1958, institutions dealing with the entire region had helped to shape trade policy in Europe; after 1972, the two trading blocs fused into one as all EFTA countries either joined the EEC or concluded free-trade agreements with the Community. This paper investigates some of the causes and consequences of the EEC-EFTA rift in the 1960s, focusing on the role played by Germany, i.e., the country which, of all EEC members, had the closest trade links to countries across the divide. Therefore, we will sketch out some arguments of the theory of regional liberalisation (Chapter II), discuss the major determinants of the actual German trade policy in the 1950s and 1960s (Chapter III), asse...

Economic Diplomacy

The trajectory of US economic strength relative to China has driven a reassessment of the US’ rules of engagement on trade and investment. China is turning more authoritarian, more focused on self-sufficiency, challenging US dominance in international institutions, global markets, and critical technologies. It selectively honors the market-based rules of the international trade order. Structural features of the Chinese economy and its management blunt the effectiveness of international rules-based trade policy tools. The US, in response, is becoming more aggressive, with protective trade measures and proactive industrial policy. A new cold war is emerging, confounding the broad foundation of collaborative interdependence that vastly accelerating world economic growth for the past 35 years. This paper examines the nature of these shifts and the need for and scope of more constructive economic statecraft by both the US and China in order to build a workable, new rules-based framework ...

China Review International, 2000

Sino-American relations in the postwar era is not a new field of research. But Sino-American economic cooperation in the context of the Cold War in Asia can be an interesting topic to explore. This review looks at two recent publications with different insights into the issue of Sino-American economic and strategic relations during the postwar period in Asia. In his Sino-American Economic Relations, -, George Wei offers a general review of the economic relations between the Chinese Nationalist government and the United States during the five years prior to the Communist takeover of mainland China. According to Wei, the Nationalist government had inherited the tradition of a planned economy with the state playing a major role. In the preparation of a national economic policy, the government stressed centralization of economy over freedom of private interests. The "General Principles," issued in November , "aimed fundamentally at building a planned economy" for China in its postwar reconstruction (Wei, p. ). In anticipation of an allied victory in World War II and as part of the ongoing Sino-American wartime alliance, the Nationalist government expected American dollars to continue to pour in toward the reconstruction of a war-torn China.