Frank Sieren

Fields of expertise: Beijing / Journalism, Economy, History

Languages: German, English, Chinese

Frank Sieren, 42, best-selling author, documentary film maker and China Bureau Chief for the German weekly Die Zeit has been living in China for 15 years. The London Times calls him one of the “decisive China authorities“ in Germany. Frank Sieren, who studied political science with a focus on economics in Berlin, is one of the few German journalists to have reported on China’s rise first hand, as well as bearing witness to this remarkable process over this significant period in China’s history.

With his best-seller The China Code – How the Booming Middle Kingdom is Changing Germany Frank Sieren initiated a trend for a series of books and discussions on this topic. “Sieren has started a missing debate”, commented the German news magazine Stern. The book topped the economic best-seller lists for several months in 2005. Editor-in-Chief of the news magazine Focus, Helmut Markwort, recommends the China Code as follows: “A must read.” Historian Arnulf Baring writes excitedly in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “Sieren derives from economic considerations that China’s ascent will determine in the long run one’s own personal room to move; rather than many perspectives that are currently fuelling the debate.” The book has been translated into five different languages including Chinese; and then was banned by Chinese censorship officials.

Frank Sieren has also convinced Germany’s elder statesman Helmut Schmidt of this concept. In early 2005 the 88-year old Schmidt decided to allow the young author insight into unpublished minutes of his numerous talks with Chinese leaders. Schmidt is the last living German to have met Mao. These extraordinary experiences, unfolding over a long discussion with Frank Sieren resulted in the book Neighbour China - Helmut Schmidt in Conversation with Frank Sieren that immediately took a leading position on the best-seller list since publication in 2007. Sieren’s latest bestseller was published in February 2008: The China Shock – The End of a Westernized World. The Süddeutsche Zeitung judges it “A brilliant book.” The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is equally enthusiastic: “Everybody holding responsibility in the West should take note of this book. It is to be hoped that the China Shock will contribute to a more cosmopolitan world addressing its own self-created contradictions.”

Sieren’s 45-minute documentary film titled The Attraction of Oil - China’s Reach for Africa which was broadcast on the occasion of the G-8 Summit in 2007, had a viewership of over 10 per cent on German TV and was also successfully broadcast in English language. A few weeks ago his 45-minute documentary film Beijing Opera on a Persian Rug regarding Iran and China was broadcast successfully on German TV. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Soon it will be shown at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

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