'China Not Just a Market but Also an Innovation Partner'

Taicang, a county-level city in Jiangsu province not far from Shanghai, has been open to the outside world since ancient times. Today, it is home to more than 560 German-invested enterprises and a large German community. For Juergen Haering, a German entrepreneur and foreign expert who has travelled regularly to work in Taicang for more than two decades, the feeling that this was the right place came immediately.

"It was quieter and much smaller," he recalls. "But I immediately felt something very special here: people genuinely wanted to make things happen, and they were able to move quickly."

At that time, though he did not see the mature industrial ecosystem that exists today, he saw potential: openness toward German companies, a pragmatic way of working, and a willingness to build trust over the long term.

A second home

"To be precise, we have never truly experienced what one would call 'difficult times,'" he said, adding that running a manufacturing enterprise and growing it from a modest operation into what it is today is by no means a straight path upward. There were periods when Haering invested a great deal of effort but did not see immediate results. At such moments, he asked himself, "Are we still moving in the right direction?"

But he never seriously considered giving up on Taicang or China. "What kept me going was, first of all, our people," he said. He has seen young employees join as apprentices, grow into skilled technicians, and later become engineers and managers. He has also seen trust develop over many years between the company, its customers, its partners, and the city.

For Haering, manufacturing requires long-term thinking. "You cannot allow one or two difficult years to destroy a vision that has taken 10 or 20 years to build," he says. German industry, in his view, is traditionally strong in quality, process discipline and long-term planning, while China impressed him deeply with its speed of learning and execution. Combining these strengths has always given him confidence that solutions can be found, even in difficult times.

For Haering, home is no longer only where he was born. "It is also the place where, after being away, you return and naturally feel: 'I am back,'" he says. "Taicang has become such a place for me."

A platform for mutual learning

What touches Haering most is not that the city has become larger, or that economic numbers have grown. "It is that the relationship between people has changed," he says. More than 20 years ago, Sino-German cooperation was largely about German companies investing in China. Today, he sees something much more balanced: Chinese and German engineers work side by side, more Chinese companies are becoming international, and German companies are also learning from China's speed, digitalization and engineering efficiency.

This is especially clear in the way young people are trained. Haering introduced the German dual education system in Taicang in 2013. He remembers a moment repeated many times: A young apprentice stands beside a machine, unsure how to solve a problem and needing an instructor to tell him what to do. Then, after theoretical education and practical training, one day he faces a similar problem and no longer waits for someone else to provide the answer. He analyzes the cause, checks the process, adjusts the machine and solves the problem himself. More importantly, he can explain why he made those decisions.

"That is the moment when you realize that education is really working," Haering says. "You are no longer training someone who can simply follow instructions. You are developing a skilled professional who can think, make judgments and take responsibility." When he later saw some of these young people become key technicians, engineers and even managers, he became even more convinced. "We are not only manufacturing precision components. We are also developing the future of manufacturing," he says.

For him, this represents Taicang's real transformation: from being a location where German companies invested in China into a platform where China and Germany can understand each other, learn from each other and grow together. "That means more to me than any economic statistic," he says.

A shared future

Asked what he usually tells a hesitant German CEO who is considering China, and Taicang in particular, Haering says he usually tells them two things. "First, do not come to China only because of cost," he says. "If your only objective is to find a cheaper production location, your way of thinking may already be outdated." China today, he says, is not simply a manufacturing base. It is one of the world's most important industrial ecosystems, with integrated supply chains, engineering talent, rapid response capabilities and new opportunities in electric mobility, intelligent manufacturing, robotics and embodied intelligence. "Second, come and see it yourself, and think long term."

Taicang has developed a very special Sino-German environment, he says. Germany and China, in his view, should develop products together, develop processes together and address global markets together. "Come here, see it for yourself, talk to the people, and then make your decision."

When Haering first came to China more than two decades ago, he naturally looked at the country through the eyes of a German manufacturing entrepreneur. "Today, my perspective is completely different," he says. He increasingly sees China as an innovation partner and a partner in the global industrial ecosystem. In his view, the greatest strength of Chinese manufacturing is not simply its scale. "It is the combination of openness, hard work, speed and an extraordinary ability to learn," he says. In many fields, the journey from an idea to engineering and then to mass production can happen remarkably quickly.

He wishes more Germans understood that China is far too complex to be explained by a few simple labels. Germany has important strengths: engineering processes, quality systems, vocational education and long-term thinking. China also has very clear strengths: speed, market scale, integrated supply chains and engineering execution. "The real question should be: How can we combine our strengths and solve the challenges of the future together?" he says.

After more than 20 years in China, Haering believes that understanding is more valuable than judging, dialogue more valuable than stereotypes, and cooperation can achieve more than competition alone. For him, the 2025 Chinese Government Friendship Award is both an honor and a responsibility and the work continues.

Haering often describes the potential of Sino-German cooperation in terms of "German craftsmanship, Chinese speed, global markets and future industries." The best cooperation, he stresses, is not about one side replacing the other. "It is about combining the strongest capabilities of both sides," he says.

Source: Science and Technology Daily