Belgium in China

My view on the Belgian mission

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The mega mission

I already gave a short overview on the visit. Here my view on the Belgian mission, personal observations.
As I was rather unhappy with the way preparations were carried out and what happened, so I skipped the huge reception in Kempinski Hotel in the evening of 18 November. I did not miss much, too many people, the VIPs too far away, no contact.
Anyway I already had met the Princess, on 5 September 2008, in the embassy. See one of the pictures (in wheelchair Tennis player Marie Annick Sevenans) and a media article:

Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, accompanied by Prince Lorenz, will arrive in China for a few days. Her main objective is to attend Saturday’s Paralympic Opening Ceremony and wholeheartedly encourage the 20 Belgian athletes participating in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. The Princess will personally attend the wheelchair tennis competition on  Monday, September 8. Ms. Julie FERNANDEZ-FERNANDEZ, State Secretary for the handicapped, attached to the Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health, will also attend the Paralympics and will represent Belgium at the Closing Ceremony.

And I met earlier Jan Jambon as mentioned, thanks in part to Peter Ritzen.

Media comments, in Dutch

Achter de schermen van handelsmissie China: “Wij maken geen stofzuigers, onze technologie kunnen ze niet snel kopiëren”
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/11/18/achter-de-schermen-van-de-grootste-belgische-handelsmissie-ooit/

Achter de schermen van de Belgische handelsmissie in China (deel 2) : peren, studenten én voetbal
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/11/21/achter-de-schermen-van-de-chinese-handelsmissie-peren-voetbal/
In Shanghai is de Belgische handelsmissie in China afgesloten. Meer dan 630 deelnemers trokken 5 dagen door het land in de hoop een nieuwe afzetmarkt te vinden voor onze producten en expertise. Maar wat gaat dat op termijn opleveren? En was zo’n missie wel gepast op het ogenblik dat het democratisch protest in Hongkong de kop in werd geslagen?

The hacking

The hacking story received a lot of comments, some found it to be naive and out of context. Of course we know the Chinese will hack and spy but the “expert” proved to be rather naive indeed. See comment from VRT.

Just curious I checked my desktop (iMac) that is pretty well protected by its firewall and other basic tricks. Yes, there were some attempts of intrusions but overall it seemed pretty lame. See the screenshot.

As for the impact, I have my doubts.

Yes, a mission led by the Princess can indeed open doors and has a positive effect. However:

– Such a big delegation floods the Chinese administration and business world. As a result meetings can be too superficial and unfocused, and done in a rush.
– Many still have unrealistic and naive expectations in this market. A lot of noise concerning a “new platform to import Belgian products such as beer, cookies, Belgian fries and other”. Good luck with that. Many tried, most failed for a variety of reasons I don’t want to explain here.
– The proof will be: let’s see after one year what became of all the “signed deals”.

Preparation of the mission was in my view disappointing. People with proven local expertise were ignored. No further comments.

TV interview

I was interviewed by Bart Aerts of VRT NWS, we finally agreed on the location: Morel’s Restaurant. I understand the interview would come out in February 2020.

Present were Renaat Morel, Bart Aerts, Karl Lagatie en Vlad Vanderkelen.

Belgian mission to China

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A mega delegation

In November 2019 a huge Belgian mission to China of business people and government officials invaded Beijing and Shanghai. Numbers for the participants were officially far over 600 but I heard even larger numbers.

The official list:
Belgian Economic Mission to the People’s Republic of China, presided by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, Representative of His Majesty the King and in the presence of

  • HE Didier Reynders, Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs, and of Defence
  • HE Pieter De Crem, Federal Minister of the Interior, Security and Foreign Trade
  • HE Jan Jambon, Minister-President of the Government of Flanders and Flemish Minister for Foreign Policy, Culture, IT and Facilities
  • HE Willy Borsus, Vice-President of the Walloon Government and Minister of Economy, Foreign Trade, Research and Innovation, New Technologies, Agriculture, and Urban and Spatial Planning
  • HE Pascal Smet, State Secretary of the Brussels-Capital Region, responsible for Urbanism and Heritage, European and International Relations, Foreign Trade and Firefighting and Emergency Medical Assistance
  • HE Marc Vinck, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium in Beijing

High-level meetings

From the media:
On 18 November 2019, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan met in Zhongnanhai with Princess Astrid, the representative of the Belgian king and princess.

Wang said that the Chinese government warmly welcomes Her Royal Highness to lead a large economic and trade delegation to China. The Belgian Royal Family has long been committed to Sino-Belgian friendship In recent years, the successful exchange of visits between President Xi Jinping and King Philip has greatly promoted the development of bilateral relations. Belgium has a unique location and distinctive economic and cultural characteristics. At present, exchanges between China and Belgium at all levels and in all fields are developing. The all-round friendly and cooperative partnership maintains a high level of operation. Practical cooperation faces new opportunities. We hope that the Belgian royal family will continue to play an active role in implementing the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and taking China-Belgium and China-EU relations to a new level.

See also “Belgian Economic Mission in Beijing” by BelgiuminChina,
Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PrpZXR2GK7ibPWXF73Nibg
Or for those unable to connect:  191118 Belgium_mission

The hacking story (media articles in Dutch)

Waarom willen de Chinezen onze handelsmissie hacken? En moet u als toerist voorzorgen nemen? 5 vragen en 5 antwoorden.
De Belgische handelsmissie die deze week naar China trok, werd massaal aangevallen door hackers, zo blijkt nu. Omdat de delegatie goed was voorbereid, kon er gelukkig geen informatie gestolen worden. Maar waarom proberen de Chinezen informatie te ontfutselen van België? En loop je als particulier ook gevaar om gehackt te worden in China? Vijf vragen en vijf antwoorden van Tom Van de Weghe, die vijf jaar correspondent was in China en zich specialiseerde in cybersecurity en artificiële intelligentie aan de universiteit van Stanford.
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/11/23/waarom-willen-de-chinezen-ons-hacken-vijf-vragen-en-vijf-antwoo/

en ook:

23 November 2019 – Economische missie in China slachtoffer van massale cyberaanvallen
Bron: Belga
https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/economische-missie-in-china-slachtoffer-van-massale-cyberaanvallen/article-news-1535447.html

23 November 2019 – Buitenlandse Zaken ‘op de hoogte van problematiek’ van cyberaanvallen in China
Bron : Belga
https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/buitenlandse-zaken-op-de-hoogte-van-problematiek-van-cyberaanvallen-in-china/article-news-1535555.html

My comments.

I will comment in another post, soon.

The clip of my recent interview on VRT

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

As mentioned earlier, I was interviewed by the Belgian VRT at the occasion of the visit of our Belgian PM Charles Michel. See here the clip.

161031-interview

I finally managed to get the full segment, thanks to the help of VRT. The language is Dutch.
This is the direct link:
http://m.deredactie.be/#!/snippet/5817391ac9976f06001c35dd

I also uploaded the clip on Youtube (needs VPN in China): https://youtu.be/mXMiG4hEFTY

Or see here:

China-Belgium Economic Forum in Anbang

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Program of the Forum

On the occasion of the official visit to the People’s Republic of China by Prime Minister Charles Michel and to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Belgium, Michel Malherbe, Ambassador of Belgium and Wu Xiaohui, Chairman of Anbang Insurance Group jointly organized the China-Belgium Economic Forum on Monday 31 October at the Anbang Group Head Office in Beijing.
The Anbang buildings are state of the art and impressive. It was a great setting for a Forum that we can say was very successful.
There was a VIP line-up of speakers:

  • Wu Xiaohui, Chairman of Anbang Insurance Group
  • Zhong Shan, Vice Minister of Commerce and International Trade
  • Lawrence Summers, Former US Secretary of Treasury, Former President of Harvard University and Economist
  • H.E. Charles Michel, PM
  • Michela Ritondo, Fiscal Department for Foreign Investments, Federal Public Service Finance (Belgium)
  • Mattias Debroyer, Consulate General of Belgium in Shanghai

The speeches were followed by a panel discussion, with among others representatives of Huawei and Anbang.
To conclude there was a lively Q&A with PM Michel.
Pictured are, among others, our ambassador Michel Malherbe, Paul Lambert (Consul General Shanghai), Eddy De Cuyper (Counsellor, Customs Attaché at the embassy), and others.

Content of the Forum

We saw some pretty cool videos about Belgium, I checked and all are available on this Belgian website, an excellent overview of our country with well-done short videos:
http://focusonbelgium.be/en
See for example the video of Gent (Ghent), my hometown:
(you need VPN for the direct link, Https://vimeo.com/151404508)

The presentations by the Belgian side were very informative, giving a clear introduction to our country as well as indicating all the advantages of investing and operating there, such as also tax incentives.

As mentioned by China Daily, see:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2016-11/01/content_27235357.htm

Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance Group Co Ltd unveiled a three-year loan program that will offer a total of 10 billion euros ($10.97 billion) to help Chinese startups and smaller companies to do business in Europe. The plan was announced by Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui at the China-Belgium Economic Forum in Beijing. The loan will be extended through Anbang’s banking subsidiary Bank Nagelmackers in Belgium.
The loan program is part of Anbang’s response to a Chinese government call for greater support for local small business, which have faced growing difficulties in gaining access to capital amid the economic slowdown.

Interview VRT with Gilbert and the media

The previous day I was interviewed by VRT (Stefan Blommaert), near the Belgian Embassy along the Liangma River. See the pics of the interview in the previous post.
Pictured are several screenshots of the VRT TV News, the last group of pictures.
Overall the visit of our Belgian PM received wide media coverage in the Chinese media.

Belgian PM Charles Michel in the Embassy

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Garden Party for our PM Charles Michel in the Embassy

On the occasion of the official visit of H.E. Mr. Charles Michel, Prime Minister of Belgium, to celebrate 45 years of diplomatic relations between China and Belgium, H.E. Mr. Michel Malherbe, Ambassador of Belgium, invited the community to a Garden Party at his Residence on Sunday 30 October 2016 in the afternoon.
Before the Garden Party I was interviewed by Stefan Blommaert (Belgian VRT) along Liangma River, close to the embassy.
There was a large crowd to welcome the PM, some 500+ braving the chilly weather. Food by TRB.

Also attended: the ambassadors of the EU Delegation, Luxembourg, Russia and others. Also, the President of the EU Chamber, Joerg Wuttke.
Our PM cordially mingled with the guests to chat.
I also met several of the staff of Anbang Brussels who were happy to finally meet the father of a certain Valerie…
See pictured also Renaat and Susan Morel, Stella Chang (soprano), Sus van Elzen (Belgian writer and journalist) and other friends.