Prof. Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider

Prof. Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider is a German political scientist and renowned expert on East Asia. From 1998 to 2020, he taught political science (specialising in Chinese politics and international relations) at the Free University of Berlin. Since October 2020, he has been a partner at Berlin Global Advisors (BGA), a geopolitical risk consultancy. He advises decision-makers from politics and business on dealing with the world's second-largest economy.

From 1999 to 2001, he was Executive Director of the Otto Suhr Institute, from 2003 to 2016 Otto Wolff Director of the Research Institute of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), and from 2012 to 2017 he was a member of the 6th Advisory Board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy. Prof. Sandschneider is a member of the board of trustees of the Journalists Network and, since 2014, one of the two deans of the Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance of the Zeit Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius in Hamburg. From 2012 to 2017, he was a member of the advisory board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy.

Prof. Sandschneider studied English, classical philology and political science at Saarland University until 1981. He received his doctorate in 1986 (‘Military and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1969–1985’). This was followed in 1993 by his habilitation (‘Stability and Transformation of Political Systems’).

From 1995 to 1998, he taught as a professor of international relations at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. From October 1999 to March 2001, he was managing director of the Otto Suhr Institute at the Free University of Berlin, one of the leading political science institutions in Germany. From 2001 to 2003, he was Dean of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Free University of Berlin.

His academic work focuses on geopolitics, German foreign policy, transatlantic relations, politics in the Asia-Pacific region and, in particular, the observation of Chinese domestic and foreign policy. He is the author, co-author or editor of several books and numerous academic articles and newspaper articles. As a commentator, he is a sought-after guest on all major regional and national media outlets, including radio and television.

He makes it clear that there is a double standard in dealing with China: the US talks about values, but what it really means is geopolitical influence. Europe also talks about values, but what it really means is economic interests. Sanctions do not help, especially not the people in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Verbal escalation and military power displays should give way to dialogue. He emphasises that the world's problems can only be solved with China, not against it.

Western policy towards China must be a management task and not a problem that needs to be solved quickly and definitively with all possible means. China's rise does not spell the downfall of the West, but rather symbolises the need to finally banish the disastrous power-political thinking patterns of the 20th century. Misguided approaches and political affronts must be avoided in the German debate on China. It should be noted that ‘Russia is now China's junior partner’. He analyses the epochal shifts and explains how Europe must position itself in the core conflict of the 21st century between the US and China. A geopolitical and economic paradigm shift is taking place.