This year marks the 45th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up and the 30th anniversary of Taicang’s cooperation with Germany. After years of hard work and struggle, Taicang, in the wave of reform and opening up, seized the development opportunity, deeply cultivated the development of German enterprises, and walked out of a road of cooperation with Germany with its own characteristics.

In order to dig deeper into the story and experience of Taicang’s cooperation with Germany, Taicang City Financial Media Center, together with Taicang Gaoxin District and Taicang City Commerce Bureau, planned the “Once seen 30 years, stand and start again” – Taicang’s high-quality development of all-media news action for cooperation with Germany. Through the vivid “one” of a street, a factory, a map, etc., we can feel and touch the characteristics and highlights of the high-quality development of Taicang’s cooperation with Germany from an all-round and multi-angle, and explore a better road for the development of cooperation with Germany in the future.

In Taicang, the mention of Schaeffler

Many of you are familiar with this

On the morning of June 20, local time in Germany, the 11th China-Germany Economic and Technological Cooperation Forum was held in Berlin. Schaeffler Group, as the largest German investment company in Suzhou, was invited to participate in the seminar held by Premier Li Qiang and German business representatives, and had a face-to-face exchange with Premier Li Qiang.

In the new era of global integration, Schaeffler can become a guest in diplomatic discussions and exchanges between major countries, which shows the strong strength and international influence of the company’s own development, and is also inseparable from Taicang, the “hometown of German enterprises in China”.

On September 28, 1995, Schaeffler (China) Co., Ltd. received its first production business license in China. Thus, Schaeffler, the global bearing giant from Germany, officially opened the prelude to enter the Chinese market. After 28 years of intensive cultivation, Taicang Base has become Schaeffler’s largest and most important production base in China with the help of this investment hot land.

Schaeffler is not only a witness, but also a participant and promoter in the strategic layout of continuously deepening and expanding China-Germany relations. It makes the grand blueprint of great power diplomacy have a vivid footnote in the small town of Jiangnan.

In March this year, the new Schaeffler Taicang base with a total investment of US $300 million was officially inaugurated on East Beijing Road. With the completion of the new Schaeffler Taicang base, the work location of Zhu Hao, technical director of Schaeffler Taicang Plant, has also moved from Chaoyang East Road, where the plant is located, to Beijing East Road.

As one of Schaeffler’s first employees in Taicang, Zhu Hao clearly remembers the day he joined the company: It was July 2, 1997, when he reported to the company as a settler on the assembly line of Schaeffler’s automotive engine hydraulic tappets. “At that time, the whole factory had more than 30 employees, and there were fewer processes involved.” “Zhu Hao recalled.

Inadvertently, Zhu Hao’s youth and the growth of Schaeffler “the same frequency resonance” has been more than 20 years, he personally experienced and witnessed the rise and growth of Schaeffler in Taicang.

“Thanks to Taicang’s favorable location advantages and business environment, Schaeffler has continued to grow in Taicang, creating one miracle after another.” Dr. Zhang Yilin, Chief Executive Officer of Schaeffler Greater China, said that Taicang has been playing an important role in Schaeffler’s development strategy based on the good development environment of Taicang, the perfect industrial chain layout, good talent and supporting factors brought by the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.