Around 40 participants joined the first roundtable of the Sino-German Center at Frankfurt School on December 9th. Jochen Metzger, Director of Payments and Settlements at Deutsche Bundesbank and Dr. Stephan Bredt, Director General Economic Sector at the Economic Ministry of Hessen, addressed the introductory statements. Jochen Metzger stressed especially the importance of new developments in the world of central banks like, for instance, the introduction of digital currencies, a field in which the Chinese Central Bank, People’s Bank of China, is in fact a frontrunner. Dr. Bredt focussed on the role of central banks for sustainable and green finance and pointed out the strong interest of the government of Hessen to develop Frankfurt further on as a RMB-hub.

Statements have been also given by Dingxin Gao, chief representative of PBoC in Frankfurt and Dr. Han Chen, Co-CEO of CEINEX. Whereas Mr Gao confirmed that PBoC is strongly researching in the field of digital central bank money, Dr. Chen stressed the development of a Shanghai – Frankfurt stock connect. All speakers confirmed the need to accelerate the Sino-German Finance cooperation in the future and the importance of the Sino-German Center for this development.

Journey on paper: China in the eyes of Europeans in the past 400 years
– A book collector’s story

Dr. Han Chen, Co-CEO of CEINEX, the joint venture established by Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), Deutsche Börse Group (DBAG), and China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX), is a passionate book collector as well. He collects ancient books about China published in Europe in the final stage of the middle and the beginning of the modern age.

In November he delivered a presentation at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management about ‘China in the eyes of Europeans in the past 400 years’ based on his book collection. The event was jointly organised by the Sino-German Center at Frankfurt School and the Center for East-Asian Studies at J. W. Goethe University.  Dr Chen shows on the basis of selected books from his collection the changing European perspectives on China. It seems that the Europeans look first up to the Chinese culture and achievements but changed this perspective gradually over time ending up with a poor judgement of I

In the lively and interesting discussion after the presentation, another important point despite the changing perspective of Europeans about China has been discovered. It seems that the mutual know-how and understanding about each other has turned around. Whereas in the past Europeans knew a lot about China, today Chinese experts know more about Europe than Europeans about China. In any case, the event shows again that understanding history can help to better promote exchanges and cooperation between Europe and China.

The Sino-German Center at the China Banking Day

The 6^th China Banking Day of the Euro Finance Week took place on November 20^th at the Congress Center in Frankfurt. The Sino-German Center was present with its Executive Board Members Dr. Stephan Bredt from the Ministry of Economics of the state of Hessen, Prof. Horst Löchel from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, and Prof. Rüdiger von Rosen, President of the Frankfurt Society of Trade, Industry and Sciences. Dr. Bredt joint the panel about ‘Trade Relations between China, Europe and Germany’ where he stressed the importance of institutes like the Sino-German Center for the economic and political relationship between Europe and China. Prof. Löchel moderated the panel about ‘The two-way opening of the Chinese financial markets’. It turned out that China accelerates the opening up of its financial sector whereas Europe slowed down a little bit. The Sino-German Center was also present with a stall conducted by the project coordinator of the center Shasha Yuan.