Archive for ‘German government’

26/04/2020

China’s rolling stock manufacturer donates medical equipment to Germany

GERMANY-BERLIN-CRRC-MEDICAL EQUIPMENT-DONATION

Photo taken with a mobile phone on April 24, 2020 shows a handover ceremony of medical equipment donated by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Zhuzhou Locomotive Co. Ltd. in Berlin, Germany. China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), the world’s largest rolling stock manufacturer by production volume, donated a shipment of medical equipment to Germany via the German Red Cross on Friday to help the country fight the coronavirus. Responding to the call from the German government and the Chinese Embassy in Germany, and in accordance with an arrangement between CRRC and CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co. Ltd. (CRRC ZELC), the company donated 1,000 protective suits, 20,000 FFP2 masks and 80,000 surgical masks. (CRRC ZELC/Handout via Xinhua)

BERLIN, April 24 (Xinhua) — China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), the world’s largest rolling stock manufacturer by production volume, donated a shipment of medical equipment to Germany via the German Red Cross on Friday to help the country fight the coronavirus.

Responding to the call from the German government and the Chinese Embassy in Germany, and in accordance with an arrangement between CRRC and CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co. Ltd. (CRRC ZELC), the company donated 1,000 protective suits, 20,000 FFP2 masks and 80,000 surgical masks.

CRRC ZELC said that the donated materials will be distributed to medical staff and volunteers who are fighting the pandemic on the frontlines.

Cheng Jian, general manager of CRRC ZELC Verkehrstechnik GmbH, said that the only way to overcome the crisis is to unite strengths and meet the challenges together.

“We wish to undertake our social responsibility as part of the community. We firmly believe that with joint efforts of the international community, Germany will quickly overcome the crisis, and production and life will return to normal soon,” Cheng said.

According to Jens Quade, president of the Mueggelspree regional branch of the German Red Cross, the risk of new coronavirus infections could be reduced through the generous donation from CRRC ZELC.

“The donated material will be distributed to the Berlin Red Cross, Berlin hospitals and/or medical institutions. We will do our best to provide the necessary assistance to the people who are most in need,” Quade said.

Source: Xinhua

06/09/2019

‘Hong’ and ‘Kong’ top Berlin panda name poll

Two panda cubsImage copyright AFP
Image caption Meet Hong and Kong?

Two newborn panda cubs at Berlin Zoo have been unexpectedly caught up in Hong Kong’s political unrest, after German newspapers started a campaign to name them “Hong” and “Kong”.

The pair were born on Saturday evening to Meng Meng – a panda on loan from China.

One of Berlin’s leading papers, Der Tagesspiegel, asked its readers to come up with name suggestions.

Top of the poll: “Hong” and “Kong”.

One reader wrote in to say they should be named “in solidarity with a city fighting for survival”.

Other suggested names included “Joshua Wong Chi-fung” and “Agnes Chow Ting” – after two prominent Hong Kong democracy activists.

Loaning pandas to zoos around the world is part of China’s soft diplomacy, aimed at winning hearts and minds abroad.

As the cubs will have to be returned to China in two to four years, the paper suggested that naming them after the activists might even be a sneaky way of keeping them in Germany.

The poll is in no way binding or even related to the zoo – but it was soon picked up by Germany’s leading tabloid, Bild, which issued a passionate call “to politicise” the naming of the little pandas.

“Bild is choosing to call the panda cubs Hong and Kong because it’s China’s brutal politics that lies behind these panda babies,” the paper wrote on Thursday.

“Bild is demanding of the German government that it reacts in a political way to the birth of these small bears.”

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently on a visit to China, Bild said she could even relay the news to President Xi Jinping in person.

Panda mother with cubImage copyright EPA
Image caption Mother panda Meng Meng has been on loan to Germany since 2017

Hong Kong activists had already called on Ms Merkel to raise their cause during her talks in Beijing.

In an earlier interview with Bild, activist Joshua Wong had suggested the zoo should name the animals “Freedom” and “Democracy”.

The German media’s foray into panda PR came as Hong Kong’s government launched a series of full-page adverts in international newspapers, designed to reassure investors that the city is still open for business.

The ads, which will run in leading papers around the world, say the government is determined to achieve a “peaceful, rational and reasonable resolution” to present political tensions.

Source: The BBC

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