CEO of Volkswagen China: openness and competition drives innovation and future
Entering the 21st century, though production of old Santana cars has stopped, they have left an indelible mark in China’s history. Thanks to China’s reform and opening up, Santana became a household name across the country. This is the legend of Volkswagen in China. Today, 40 years after the policy of reform and opening up was launched, while looking back on the group’s history in China, Prof. Dr. Jochem Heizmann, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said he has tremendous respect for a forward-thinking and strategic decision made in the 1980s.
Canadian teacher Bryan: I have never experienced the changes of China in my Canadian hometown
With a brown plaid shirt and a soft voice, Bryan’s gentlemanly manners match his identity as a teacher. However, this seemingly quiet young man has being longing for unfettered freedom and likes to explore the world. And that was exactly the reason why he came all the way to China.
ZEISS Greater China President: Zeiss’s development in line with Shanghai FTZ
As a representative of the foreign companies in the Shanghai FTZ, Maximilian Foerst is fully aware of what that means. “I must say here the pilot FTZ has been extremely constructive.” Upgrading from a bonded area, the zone has successively launched a range of measures to promote the simplification of trade, finance and customs, which have proved to be efficient.
Sino-western cultural exchange envoy Rose Oliver: Traditional Chinese culture adds special glamour to the city
Since the reform and opening up that swept China, and with the rapid economic development, a large number of foreigners have flocked to Shanghai. Among them are not only white-collars bustling between buildings or night owls appearing in the night bars in downtown areas. Someday you might run into a foreign female Tai Chi master dressed in traditional white Tai Chi uniform teaching Tai Chi in a local park. She is Rose Oliver, MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), a Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award winner and founder of Double Dragon Alliance, an organization dedicated to celebrating martial arts and other Chinese culture, and Coordinator of International Teaching Faculty at Shanghai University.
Michael R. Phillips’s 42 years in China
A few desks against the wall; photos and professional books on a simple bookshelf; cockroach killers under the sofa—this is what the office of Michael R. Phillips is like. Hailing from Canada, Michael is a Canadian who can speak Chinese fluently. He is Director of the Suicide Research and Prevention Center of the Shanghai Mental Health Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. He is a professor in Psychiatry and Global Health at Emory University. He is also Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention.
Maurice Greenberg: Changes came quickly with right leadership and vision
One day in the fall of 1989, Maurice Greenberg, godfather of international insurance, and Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, had a meeting with then Shanghai mayor Zhu Rongji in a hotel in Shanghai’s Puxi area. Looking outside the window, Zhu Rongji pointed to Pudong, which was a field at that time, and told his foreign guests: I feel in maybe two or three years, there will be a city here.“I thought he was kidding,” said Mr. Greenberg, who realized later that Zhu was right.“With the right leadership and a lot of vision, changes came very quickly.”