Chinese pressure blamed as Xi Jinping book events are cancelled in Germany
- Lectures on the book, co-authored by a pair of German journalists, were pulled at the last minute. One cancellation came after a Chinese consulate intervened
- The embassy in Berlin slammed what it saw as irresponsible remarks but did not deny the chain of events as reported
The book, titled Xi Jinping – the Most Powerful Man in the World, is authored by Stefan Aust, a journalist who once served as the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, and Adrian Geiges, a veteran China correspondent for Hamburg-based weekly current affairs magazine Stern.
The pair were due to present the book at the Confucius Institutes at the Leibniz University of Hanover and the University of Duisburg-Essen, according to Bild on Saturday. China runs a total of 13 Confucius Institutes with different educational institutions in Germany.
The event scheduled for Wednesday at Duisburg-Essen was suddenly cancelled, state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported. Bild reported that Feng Haiyang, the consul general of China in Düsseldorf, had personally intervened.