HF: The main contribution will be that cooperative civil society projects for pragmatic low level goals will establish trust and trust networks, which are essential but scarce ingredients for effective international cooperation. In terms of trust networks we have made very constructive experiences within the EU-China Civil Society Dialogue Programme in general and within the climate NGO cooperation between Germany and China in particular. Stored trust accumulated by past regular civil society interaction is a big asset on which future cooperation can be built.

The second big contribution of citizen diplomacy is developing shared goals and values on the societal level which no other actors are able to make. A precondition of this is the institutionalization of regular and ongoing dialogue and cooperation and a steady mutual flow of ideas. Shared narratives cannot be developed in the context of one international conference. Flows of ideas can only take place, as Alex Pentland and his team have verified in Social Physics, within social networks. These cultural transformations are only feasible if cooperation is institutionalised within durable networks and structures.

A third pragmatic but effective contribution of civil society can be made when stakeholders and citizens are included in cooperation projects. They can mobilise the necessary societal acceptance, legitimacy and support for often challenging political and economic projects. If such projects are embedded in popular participation there is a chance of establishing a kind of virtuous circle by building storages of support and trust for future bigger challenges. The mutual flow of social innovation ideas between European and Chinese innovation societies can be another contribution of citizen diplomacy because innovations are facilitated by dense interactions, a large number and diverse ideas within the context of consensus building.

To sum up and put it simple: A conflict of interests between political, economic and societal partners who are accustomed to work and communicate jointly, who know and appreciate each other and who share some common perspectives is easier to resolve. We have to acknowledge that we are starting from a situation where we cannot agree on all values. Nevertheless, even with a minimalist “ethic of strangers”, the way it is understood by Kwame Anthony Appiah, we will be at least be able to work and live together in a sustainable way without endangering global stability – with the perspective of future rounds of virtuous circles by co-developing shared norms and values.

AF: In a way the vision you lay out is very clear. Would you mind giving a few more examples of what you consider sustainable civil society partnerships between Europe and China?

HF: This is not so easy because mainstream European civil society is not yet broadly engaged with China. When I talked to one of the leading members of a European association of civil society organisations he researched within this organisation about European-Chinese projects and there was not one positive reply. It is much easier to name some sustainable US American civil society partnerships with China, for instance the successful campaign against Apple. This campaign was directed specifically against the IT supply chain of Apple where toxic materials were used in the IT production. This campaign was organised in China by Green Choice, which received support from two big US NGOs, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Pacific Environment. There are many opportunities of such kind of NGO cooperation for European mainstream NGOs but these opportunities now still are used only selectively and marginally. Nevertheless, in Europe I can think of two specific examples. My favorite example is the cooperation between Germanwatch including other German climate actors and the China Climate Action Network (CCAN) which was facilitated by Patrick Schroeder, a CIM expert working with CCAN. There also has been a smaller project of the Global Nature Fund, the international arm of Umwelthilfe, which set up the China chapter of the global Living Lakes Network. It was supported by CANGO and some other Chinese environmental NGOs and coordinated by Mountain River Lake Sustainable Development Organisation (MRLDO) in Nanchang. However I do not know the actual status of this project. Some international NGOs, so-called INGOs, play really significant roles in China. In the context of the big issue of global energy transition, the fight against what is called coal lock-in is decisive for future energy scenarios. The China chapters of WWF and Greenpeace are playing a leading role within the rising renewable and sustainability advocacy coalition in the Chinese and global conflict against the fossil fuel advocacy coalition – mainly coal. Recent reports and activities of WWF and Greenpeace supported by very knowledgeable international professional networks such as Carbon Tracker have been very effective. If we reflect on the dimensions of this conflict we have to acknowledge that some of the conflicts regarding sustainability issues are of global nature though with national variations because of different national landscapes, e.g. in terms of resource endowments. You may know that the Koch brothers, which own a huge US coal conglomerate, are leading a heavily financed campaign against renewables, not only in the US but also globally, since the Koch brothers are interested to export coal to China. Viewed from this perspective the promotion of sustainable development and the fight against the still incumbent anti-sustainability coalition in many countries is a global task and another reason to reinvigorate EU–China civil society cooperation.