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With his introductory speech on Chinas perception in the German public and the media's role within this discourse Prof. Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider, Otto Wolff-Director of the Research Institute of the DGAP, inspired a controversial discussion.

Both Germany and China are lacking knowledge about each other, Prof. Dr. Sandschneider analyzed. Furthermore, domestically driven foreign policy would contribute to the continuation of China images which are led by political interests.

German foreign correspondents and the head of the press division of the German Embassy/Beijing, Marcus Bleinroth, jointly debated not only challenges faced by foreign correspondents in their daily work, but also the expectations which are put on journalists with respect to the mediation of China images.

The participants did not agree on whether the mediation of China images is actually task of China correspondents.

According to an expert, quality journalism is becoming less relevant to the general public; the influence of print media is already declining, not least because of the rise of online media.

In a subsequent lecture, the workshop participants took the opportunity to continue the critical debate about the role of values and interests within the German-Chinese cooperation.