On March 22, China's Foreign Ministry imposed sanctions on EU individuals and institutions that maliciously spread lies about China. Among the lists, there is one German institution that has attracted the attention of many people: the German Mercator Center for Chinese Studies. So what exactly is this China Research Center, and why is it sanctioned by the Chinese government?
Mercator Institute for China Studies, Germany (Mercator Institute for China Studies, German Mercator-Institut für China-Studien) was founded in 2013 and is located in Berlin, germany.
The Mercator Center for Chinese Studies was funded by one of Germany's largest private foundations, the Stiftung Mercator.
In November 2013, the Mercator Foundation invested in the establishment of the Mercator China Research Center (MERCIS). With a total investment of 18.4 million euros, the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies has suddenly become the largest institution in Germany and europe to study China. It has also become an important think tank for the China policy of the German and EU governments.
When the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies was established in late 2013, it received widespread attention and acclaim from German social and political circles. Media reports say that the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies has filled the gap in German research on China and provided very necessary support for the German government and the business community to exchange with China.
German media report on the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies (from tageesspiegel.de)
Of course, there are also criticisms that the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies has almost monopolized the Chinese research business in Germany. Because of the strong investment of the Mercator Foundation, the Mercator Center for China Studies has recruited many "China experts" from Europe and the United States, including many experts from Harvard in the United States, Oxford in the United Kingdom and other world-renowned universities to study China. In just a few years, the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies has not only become the main advisory body for the German government's China policy, but also a source of material for many German media reports on China. Many Of the German media reports on China are based on research reports from the Mercator Center for China Studies and interviews with experts.
The Mercator Center for Chinese Studies claims to be a fully independent, non-profit research institute that claims to present a pluralistic image of China to Germany through independent research. The aim is to become a world-renowned research center for China, to explore the opportunities and challenges of China's development to Germany and even Europe.
If we look at the purpose of the center, its purpose should be to report on China objectively and comprehensively through multiple perspectives. Unfortunately, if you have ever participated in the activities of the Mercator Research Center or read some of its reports on China, you will find that the articles and arguments published by the agency are the same as those published by the vast majority of so-called Chinese experts and the media in the West, which is nothing more than to evaluate the Phenomenon of China from a Western perspective. It seems that just as many Western media have "scandalized" China in order to cater to the image of China by many readers, much of the report of the Mercator Research Center is more like catering to the tastes of Westerners, and it has not achieved the "objective and fair" evaluation of independent institutions.
Logically, as an objective institution and an institution that studies China, it is entirely necessary to understand a thing from a variety of different angles, such as analyzing it from a Western perspective, and also analyzing it from a Chinese perspective, and finally letting the reader judge for himself. That's what an objective report should do. Unfortunately, the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies still cannot get rid of the "colored glasses" of many people in the West, and can only analyze China's affairs from the perspective of Westerners.
I have listened to the report of the Mercator Research Center in some German forums, and I am very dissatisfied with the content of the report - the research center that the Foundation has spent tens of millions of dollars to establish seems to be no big different from the reports published by some German journalists in China, and the only difference may be the addition of some so-called data statistics. However, I also have great doubts about the authenticity of their data, because the data sources listed in several reports are actually data from some German institutions and some non-official website information in China... Whether such data is reliable is worth exploring. But as a research center that has invested tens of millions of euros, researchers are only collecting some data from the Internet instead of going to China for field research and research, which is really surprising.
As mentioned earlier, the Mercator China Research Center's reporting not only advises the German government on China policy, but also provides information and advice on China to EU institutions such as the European Parliament, and also has a great influence in the German and European media. It can be said that the agency's research report has influenced the China policy of the German and even EU governments to a certain extent, which can be described as crucial.
It is a pity that research institutions with such an important mission cannot be objectively neutral, especially on some sensitive issues, which are used by some people to spread rumors against China, which in turn affects Germany's and even European China policy. This is very much in line with its goal of "establishing the largest research center on China in Germany and even in Europe". Now sanctioned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, it is believed that its future work will become more difficult, which can be said to be self-inflicted.
When talking about the Mercator Center for Chinese Studies, it is also necessary to mention its "golden father", the German Mercator Foundation.
The Stiftung Mercator is a private, non-profit foundation in Germany funded by the Schmidt family, the majority shareholder of the German METRO Group, and one of the largest private foundations in Germany.
The Foundation was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The Foundation is known as the famous duisburg cartographer and cosmologist Gerhard Berger. Named after Gerhard Mercator.
The name "Mercator" is synonymous with global thinking, scientific precision and entrepreneurship, the main purpose of the Mercator Foundation is to promote tolerance across cultures and races, and its main areas of cooperation are "diversity and integration", "climate change", and "cultural education" three themes.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that the Mercator Foundation has a number of projects in China, and in 2012, the Mercator Foundation established the "Sino-German Bridge to the Future - Youth Leaders Exchange Camp" project, which aims to promote the exchange of Chinese and German youth.
From the official website of the Mercator Foundation, it is known that the fund has also cooperated with official institutions such as the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China and the China Foundation Development Forum.
In 2019, the foundation also established the German-Chinese Educational Exchange Center in Berlin, Germany.
It can be seen that the Mercator Foundation is very keen on Sino-German exchanges and has a number of cooperation projects in China. The Mercator Center for Chinese Studies is also the core institution of the Mercator Foundation's China program.
From the foreign ministry's document, we can see that not only will the Mercator China Research Center be sanctioned, but its affiliated enterprises will also be restricted from communicating with China. Then the Mercator Foundation, as the "patron" of the Mercator China Research Center, is bound to be implicated. As a result, it is unclear whether cooperation projects in the field of education, including the Sino-German Bridge of the Future, will be affected.