Can you take diplomacy into your
own hands?

In global business, you have to!

What to do if you, as I, are concerned about the direction our world is heading and feel that too many global leaders are caught up in their own power and ideology games?
Cold and hot wars dominate our news, economic imbalances are spiraling out of control, climate change is unchecked, and no concerted action seems likely or even possible to tackle mankind's predominant challenges.

I am German. My and my parents' generation asked my grand parents generation: "Why didn't you speak up during Nazi Germany? Couldn't you do something?"  I doubt that I would have found the courage back then, and at any rate what counts is now and the future.
There are enough worrying centrifugal forces and growing polarization within and between societies right now.

I am against any form of extremism, no matter if driven by ideology, religion, lust for power or else.
The reality is usually more complex, more nuanced and often also more unpleasant than most people would care for.
But I still think that we should learn from thousands of years of human history and thrive to avoid the worst excesses.  

I don't even know where the biggest danger currently comes from. It could be the far right, but it could just as well be the far left, or how they resonate with each other. 
Or it could be racial tensions or social tensions. Wealth inequality. It could be religious fault-lines.
I try to learn and share about what worries me most, what I have a certain grasp on, and which seems the most underrepresented.  

It got increasingly difficult to find quality media who can still afford the luxury of trying to be as objective as possible instead of catering to one  camp or faction and offering them their desired echo chamber. Similarly, it's increasingly hard or to find a political representation that would represent at least the biggest parts of my views well.       

At the same time, I can't believe there is no room for a voice of reason and moderation, even if I am aware that it's an ungrateful and non-lucrative role, and that I must expect hate speech from all sides at once.
But shouldn't some people still step up and do it?
Or do we really first always need yet another purging catastrophe until a new generation vows once more: "Never again!"?   

One current major threat: The Thucydides Trap suggests that armed conflict between the re-nascent super-power China and the incumbent global hegemon USA is more likely than collaboration.   

As a man of action, I follow the French proverb: 
"On n’est jamais mieux servi que par soi-même",

meaning "If you want a thing done well, do it yourself".

I am no career diplomat, nor do I have any formal such training.
I don't even intend to always be diplomatic or "politically correct".
Instead, I have every intention of using straight talk. 
I don't represent any one side, besides Gunter Schöch's authentic state of knowledge and resulting opinion: 
Describing what I see to the best of my abilities, learning from discussion partners who share their original thoughts and opinions, while commenting myself on the pros and cons and weighing the arguments. 
Accountable only to my own consciousness and not bound to any diplomatic protocol, I want to make best use of my freedom of speech.  

Finally, a portion of humor and ability for self-mockery should make even an unpleasant truth somewhat bearable.
This also means my views can and will evolve over time. 

 

I think that doing global business together is the very best (most elegant) way to bring people together. Frankly only very few oppose earning money. Building trust is an important part of doing business together, and deeper personal relations can develop from there. 

I should therefore put my energy into helping everyone who is willing to go overseas. I can find cooperation partners (no matter if individual experts, teams, companies to cooperate with / invest in / JV / take over...). 
That's the easy part. 

The very hard part is to facilitate trustful relationships. But I know from many years of experience I can be a "catalyst" like in a chemical reaction: Not directly part of the reacting components, nor part of the resulting product, and yet indispensable to make the reaction happen at all. 
That is by understanding the needs, hopes and fears of all sides involved, identifying the common ground, and moderating the exchange by addressing all important elements. Technical, financial, and most importantly, human. Who has what influence on the decision process? Who wants what and why? Where are the roadblocks, and how to overcome them? etc. 
I thoroughly enjoy that process in itself. 
And then it feeds into an even much more important cause.   

So the the Maverick Diplomat is my own independent,
undogmatic, bi-directional channel between China and the West.
With experience in the US since 1989, China since 2004, and as a born and convinced European, who is publishing about Sino-Western relations since 2018, I feel: 
​
When, if not now? Who, if not me? 

Let's harness the power of the internet to contribute my fair share. 

Instead of ideological narrow-mindedness, I want to foster better fact-based mutual understanding, personal relationships and promote global business and a peaceful co-existence .
I believe in a multi-polar world in which ideally more than 2 powers keep each other reasonable. 
We should all learn from each other what works under which circumstances, and tolerate remaining differences. 
 

So I mainly publish about geopolitics, macroeconomics and Sino-Western relations, making a distinction between US, EU and European countries. 
If all this is appealing to you, read on!
Otherwise, go back to the echo-chamber of your choice! 
Find my main social media channels in China and the West here.
Find my news paper opinion editorials in China here.