60 years of
This year, Sweden and
China celebrate their
60th anniversary of
diplomatic relations,
with Sweden the first
Western country to
recognise the People’s
Republic of China.
Text: Jan Hökerberg, Bamboo, [email protected]
friendship
O
n its National Day, 1 October, 2009, China
celebrated the 60th birthday of the founding
of the People’s Republic of China. This was a
huge event. A military parade involving 10,000
troops and a display of many high-tech weapons was held
at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and celebrations were
conducted all over the country. This parade was immediately
followed by a civilian parade involving 100,000 participants.
As the Chinese calendar comes full circle every 60 years,
the 60th birthday is considered a very special anniversary.
This year marks another 60th anniversary. In May, 1950,
Sweden became the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic.
“Being No 1 always has value. We remember the number
ones. Who was the first man on the moon? Neil Armstrong.
Who was the second? Don’t know,” said the then Swedish chamber chairman Anders Hägglund in an editorial in
Dragon News in May 2000 when the 50th anniversary was
celebrated.
Leading Swedish diplomats confirm that the fact that
Sweden was the first Western country to recognise the new
regime in China always plays an important role in the dialogue between the two nations.
“It was always pointed out when I met with Chinese politicians, not only at a high level, but also locally,” says Börje
Ljunggren, former Swedish ambassador to China (2002-06).
Mikael Lindström, the current Swedish ambassador to
China, reminds how important it is in China to keep the
relationship with old friends (lao pengyou): “The fact that
Sweden was first among Western countries to establish diplomatic relations is even mentioned in Chinese school books.”
Lars Danielsson, consul-general of Sweden in Hong
Kong and who was assigned to Beijing as a diplomat in the
early 1980s, agrees: “The Chinese think this is very important, and it is always included in their background briefs.
They say to us that they are proud that Sweden was the first
country to recognise China and they also point out the fact
that China and Sweden have no complications in their bilateral agreements.”
He adds: “There are few places in the world where economics, politics and business are so closely tied as in China.”
When he was living in China in the 1980s, he travelled
in the provinces, and when he explained about Sweden he
had to show a world map. “Today,” he says, “knowledge
about Sweden is so much greater among Chinese.”
The fact that Sweden was first
among Western countries to
establish diplomatic relations is even
mentioned in Chinese school books.”
Mikael Lindström, ambassador
Historically, Sweden and China have
ties that go a long way back. In 1847, the
two countries signed a trade and friendship
agreement. Swedish companies exported to
China already in the late 19th century and
early 20th century.
“When the People’s Republic of China
was formed in 1949 and the Kuomintang
fled to Taiwan, the intention of the Swedish
government was originally to follow the
United Kingdom and establish diplomatic
relations when the UK did so. But negotiations between the UK and China proceeded
slowly, and the Swedish government decided
to go ahead neverthless,” says Ljunggren,
who has described in detail this historic
event in his book Kina – vår tids drama
(published in Swedish).
“Sweden’s then foreign minister Östen
Undén had a clear legal and at the same time
a very pragmatic view on the issue. He said
that if a country controls its territory, then
you can recognise it,” Ljunggren says.
Torsten Hammarström was Sweden’s
first ambassador to the People’s Republic of
China. When he handed over his letter of
credentials in June 1950, he was received by
chairman Mao Zedong personally, which
was quite unusual, and a sign that China
attached great importance to this diplomatic
breakthrough.
Since the establishment of diplomatic
ties, and especially since China’s launch in
the late 1970’s of its “reform and opening
up” policy, the economic and trade relations
between Sweden and China have grown
vigorously.
The Swedish Trading Co, which was
founded in 1913, opened a branch in Hong
Kong, and already in the 1920s the company
was successfully distributing products to
China from well-known Swedish enterprises, such as Aga, LM Ericsson, SKF, Asea,
Karlstads Mekaniska Verkstad and PrimusBahco.
12 DRAGONNEWS • NO.02/2010
Sweden’s ambassador, Torsten Hammarström, handed over
his letter of credentials in June 1950 and was received by
chairman Mao Zedong personally, which was a sign that China
attached great importance to this diplomatic breakthrough.
Former Swedish ambassador Börje Ljunggren meets
China’s President Hu Jintao.
China is moving up the value chain and is interested to learn from Sweden in many areas,
according to ambassador Mikael Lindström.
Another trading company, Ekman & Co, also
had business in both
Shanghai and Hong
Kong at a very early
stage.
In 1950, Torsten
Rasborn was recruited
as the head of the
Swedish Trading Co
in Hong Kong. He
managed to substantially increase the local
sales of telephones
and switches made
by Ericsson, laundry
machines and kitchen
equipment from
Electrolux and x-ray
machines from ElemaSchönander, etc.
Rasborn was
active in doing
business with the new
Sweden’s Prime
Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has visited
China three times;
here he meets
with Premier
Wen Jiabao.
two countries surpassed US$100 million
for the first time. The same year, Sweden
became the first Western nation to support
the new opening up policy by signing a
bilateral agreement with China on scientific,
technological and industrial cooperation.
Sweden and China set up a Mixed
Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation at a vice-ministerial level in 1979.
Sweden applied the generalised preferential
In 1957, Sweden and China signed
system (GPS) to China in 1980 and began
an Inter-Governmental Trade Agreement.
to make direct investments in China and
A Chinese trade delegation visited Sweden
provide China concessionin 1959. Meanwhile, the
al loans in 1982. Sweden
Swedish company Atlas
lifted quota restrictions
Copco held a mining
on porcelain in 1985 and
equipment exhibition in
on textile products and
Beijing in 1965, which
clothes in 1991. In 1988,
was the first exhibition
The year when President Hu
a direct air route between
ever held by a Swedish
Jintao visited Sweden, which
Beijing and Stockholm
enterprise independently
was the first ever state visit
was opened and operated
in China.
from China since the founding
by Air China and SAS.
In 1972, Sweden
of the People’s Republic.
organised a large industrial
exhibition in Beijing, with
Since the 1990s, the
172 participating companies, the biggest
economic and trade relations between the
two sides have developed rapidly. The trade
effort so far by Swedish business anywhere in
volume surpassed US$1 billion in 1994. In
the world.
2003, the total trade volume between China
The United Nations (UN) Conferand Sweden was more than US$4 billion.
ence on the Human Environment, held in
Today, China is Sweden’s leading trade
Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, was the UN’s
partner in Asia, and the trade volume in
first major conference on international
2009 equalled US$9.5 billion. More than
environmental issues, and marked a turning
500 Swedish companies have established
point in the development of international
themselves in China.
environmental politics.
A major event in the Sino-Swedish
This was also the first global UN conferrelations took place in 2006, when a replica
ence that People’s Republic attended after
of an old sailing ship, Götheborg, which
taking over China’s seat at the UN from
used to ply the route between Göteborg and
Taiwan, which held the seat until 1971.
Guangzhou, returned to China, receiving a
In 1978, the trade volume between the
great deal of media attention. The ship enjoyed thousands of visitors during its stops
in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The Swedish King and Queen were, symbolically, on board when the ship reached
ed every day in its national news about
Chinese shores.
the race,” says the Swedish ambassador,
“Sweden interests China in many ways.
Mikael Lindström.
Since the 1980s, there have been hundreds
Two teams of people with different backof delegations coming to Sweden to study
grounds, mainly Chinese, but also some
different issues, from how to promote inSwedes, worked together for 72 hours,
novations to our experience of building the
developing new solutions to old problems.
sustainable township of Hammarby Sjöstad
There were several experts on site to proin Stockholm,” says Ljunggren.
vide assistance and support, and after the
“China is in a transition from being ‘the
72 hours had passed the two teams had
factory of the world’ to move higher up the
filed for a number of new patents.
value chain. Sweden is one of the leading
Furthermore, a Sweden China Innovacountries in the world when it comes to
tion Forum was arranged on 21 May and a
innovation and therefore China is very inCEO Summit on 22 May.
terested to learn from Sweden in that area,”
says Lindström.
regime in China. “He visited the first
Canton Fair in 1956, where he, as an ‘old
China hand’, received the first participant
card, No 001, which Torsten is very proud
of and keeps in a silver case,” writes the
Swedish merchant Lennart Larsson Jr in
his biography, Ett brokigt liv, published in
Swedish in 1993.
Sweden’s then
foreign minister Östen Undén
had a clear legal and
at the same time a
very pragmatic view
on the issue. He said
that if a government
controls its territory,
then you can recognise it.”
Börje Ljunggren, former Swedish
ambassador to China
2007
Sweden-China Innovation week
Between 16 and 22 May, the Embassy
of Sweden organised a Sweden-China
Innovation Week together with the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, the Swedish
Trade Council and a number of Swedish
multinational companies with a strong
commitment to China.
The innovation week started on 16
May with a “72 hours Race of Innovation”.
The concept was developed by Professor
Kaj Mickos based on the idea that anyone
given the right guidance and support can
be an innovator.
“We got a lot of publicity. CCTV report-
DRAGONNEWS • NO.02/2010 13
There are few places in the world
where economics, politics and business are so closely tied together as in China.”
Lars Danielsson, consul-general
Swedish industrial leaders are also
very welcome in China. For example, Jacob
Wallenberg, the chairman of Investor, is today the chairman of the advisory board for
the mayor of Shanghai, Han Zheng. Swedish architecture firms have been invited to
plan several of China’s new so-called ecocities. Issues such as environmental technology and corporate social responsibility
are on the top of the agenda for Chinese
decision-makers and they know they can
learn much from Sweden in these areas.
However, even if China is Sweden’s
biggest export market in Asia and exports
increased by 21 per cent last year, Sweden
is losing market share in China compared
to other nations.
“One reason is that China’s trade is
steadily growing and involves more and
more countries. Then, the existing trade
partners get less share,” says Lindström.
Recently, there have been some major
investments involving Chinese and Swedish companies. Geely’s acquisition of the
Volvo Car Corporation is still at an early
stage, but could prove to be a breakthrough
for Volvo on the Chinese market. On the
other hand, the Hangzhou-based Fanerdun
Group’s investment plans in Kalmar, Sweden, to build a European centre for SinoEuropean trade has failed to eventuate.
The idea was lacking realism.“In both these
cases we are talking about Chinese entrepreneurs that act quickly wherever there are
opportunities,” says Ljunggren.
Li Shufu, the owner of Geely, started
to manufacture refrigerators, and his company built its first car just some 12 years
ago. Today, Geely is China’s largest private
carmaker. In March 2010, Li signed one
of China’s highest-profile takeovers of a foreign brand at a ceremony in Volvo’s hometown of Göteborg with China’s Minister of
Industry and Information Technology, Li
Yizhong, in attendance.
Political exchanges between Sweden
and China have been frequent. The Swedish
14 DRAGONNEWS • NO.02/2010
Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin made a
visit to China in 1981, meeting with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. In 1987, Prime
Minister Ingvar Carlsson also met with
Deng, and in 1996 Prime Minister Göran
Persson went to Beijing and Shanghai meeting, among others, President Jiang Zemin.
Sweden’s current prime minister,
Fredrik Reinfeldt, has visited China three
times during his political term. During his
first visit in April 2008, Reinfeldt met with
Premier Wen Jiabao, as well as with President Hu Jintao. Reinfeldt visited China a
second time when attending the seventh
Asia-Europe Meeting, held in Beijing. The
third time Reinfeldt came to China was in
December 2009, during his Swedish EUpresidency. As holder of the rotating presidency, he chaired the EU-China Summit
in Nanjing, alongside Premier Wen and the
president of the European Commission,
José Manuel Barroso.
Most of these visits have also included
large delegations of Swedish business leaders.
Sweden has also welcomed many visits
by Chinese ministers, including those of
Consul-general Lars Danielsson confirms that
“knowledge about Sweden is so much greater among
Chinese today ”compared to a few decades ago.
Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo in 1997, of Li
Tieying, Chairman of the NPC, and of VicePremier Wu Yi, in 2006. In 2007, President
Hu Jintao made the first Chinese state visit
ever to China since the founding of the People’s Republic. Most recently, in the spring of
2010, Sweden had the honour of receiving
Vice President Xi Jinping as its guest.
Cultural exchanges between the two
countries have also been frequent, as well
as scientific and technological exchanges.
Bbilateral scientific and technological cooperation has now been expanded to over
80 programmes covering 20 fields, such as
communication, environmental protection,
pharmaceutics, agriculture, forestry and
space navigation. b
Why a 60th anniversary is so special
Sixty years represent a full circle in the
Chinese calendar and is a truly special
anniversary.
The Chinese zodiac is a scheme that
relates each year to an animal and its
reputed attributes, in a 12-year cycle.
According to legend, these were the
animals that appeared before Buddha
(or the Jade Emperor, depending on
the story) in response to an invitation.
The 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac
represent the order of each animal’s
arrival. The legends depicting each animal’s journey differ slightly, but their
order is set in stone: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey,
rooster, dog and pig.
These 12 animals represent the
rotating 12-year cycle that is the basis
of the Chinese zodiac. In addition to the
12 animals, the Chinese zodiac involves
five elements: metal, wood, water, fire
and Earth. These elements are associated with the five major planets: Venus,
Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. The
combinations presented by these five
elements and the 12 animals combine to
create a 60-year cycle. This cycle, along
with yin and yang, the positions of the
sun and moon, and a person’s date and
time of birth are all used to help foresee
a person’s future.