Contrary to all protestations, Europe is decoupling itself from China. Not with a big gesture, but quietly and quietly – from below. Many German cities maintained partnerships with China, which they are now ending.
Bernd Ziesemer
At first glance, everything seems to be running as usual in Duisburg: in the port, Chinese containers are still being heaved off the trains that roll every week from Chongqing, 10,000 kilometers away, to the Lower Rhine. The rail connection between China and the Ruhr area is part of the New Silk Road, with which China wants to create a network of modern trade routes in the world; Inaugurated in 2011 with a lot of optimism, celebrated in 2014 with great fanfare when Xi Jinping visited this terminus as part of a state visit.
At least since then, Duisburg has actually been considered a “China city”, which even employs a “China representative”: Markus Teuber, 69, still proudly guides visitors through the so-called logport, where the tracks from China end. Until shortly before the corona pandemic, the associated hopes had been fulfilled: more and more trains, ever faster connections. Today, however, Teuber says: “There will be no stormy development.”
Where the Ruhr and Rhine meet, disillusionment spreads. The whole thing was a huge marketing success, but in the end the New Silk Road never had the weight that it got in the public eye. “A train from China has 80 containers, a container ship 24,000,” calculates a port spokesman. Every year only 200,000 containers come from China by train. The entire port, on the other hand, handles 4.3 million containers, and business with the China trains only accounts for around three to five percent of turnover. The local chamber of industry and commerce has recently even spoken of the need to “readjust” German-Chinese relations. In other words: to dim down.
Source: Stern
