Where do Germans and Chinese diverge and converge? Chinese technology firm Huawei presented the results of a large-scale study today - in cooperation with the GIGA.
The second-most popular country in the world for the Chinese is Germany, coming in just after France. Germans see China as one of their most important trade partners – in some cases even more important than the United States. When it comes to digitisation, though, people in Germany and people in China demonstrate very different feelings: 60 per cent of Germans believe that jobs will be lost because of ever-increasing digitisation. By contrast, 57 per cent of Chinese people are convinced that digitisation will create additional jobs. Essentially, while 53 per cent of Germans view digital innovations more as a hazard, approximately 66 per cent of Chinese see the benefits of such innovations. This is the finding of the large-scale study conducted by the ICT company Huawei, which was undertaken this year for the third time (the first two studies having been carried out in 2012 and 2014). In a first, this year a section of the study was specifically dedicated to digitisation.
The Huawei study was carried out in conjunction with the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), the University of Duisburg-Essen, and TNS Emnid. In total, 2,600 individuals were interviewed for the representative survey (from each country: 1,000 regular citizens, 200 economic decision makers, and 100 political decision makers). Empirical findings and statistical indicators placed the perceptions into a larger scientific context. In addition, reports by important print media outlets in each country about the other country were assessed in the framework of a media analysis.
