Documentation Brochure - Hamburg Summit

Awards
Zhang Yue, Broad Air Conditioning, presented the “China-Europe Sustainability Award” to Alfred Th. Ritter, Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG
Volker Stanzel, German Ambassador to China, handed the “China-Europe Friendship Award“ to Mei Zhaorong, Institute of World Development
The gala dinner at the Hotel Atlantic
Kempinski on the Alster was another
highlight of the Hamburg Summit.
Festively decorated and illuminated for
its visitors from all over the world, the
hotel in its exclusive lakeside location
was a worthy venue for the presentation
of the China-Europe Sustainability
Award and the China-Europe Friendship
Award.
After an artistic prelude, with Chinese
music played by three young female
Chinese musicians in traditional dress,
the awards were presented. Zhang Yue,
Chairman of Chinese power engineering
firm Broad Air Conditioning and the
2004 prize-winner, presented the China-
Europe Sustainability Award to someone
“whose name most of you surely have
sweet memories of” – Alfred Th. Ritter,
CEO of German chocolate manufacturer
Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG.
Ritter has campaigned for years for
ecology and alternative energy. In a
joint venture he manufactures solar
power systems in China. Zhang praised
Ritter’s commitment because “solar
energy does not earn him a lot of profit
in the short term but he is committed to
it in the long term.” Asked what the
connection between chocolate and
environmental protection was, Ritter
said, “I just like to produce things that
are really useful for people.” And in the
long term solar power, he said, had a
great future.
In keeping with the Hamburg
Chamber of Commerce’s intention of
choosing a German and a Chinese
award-winner, the second prize of the
evening went to a personality from
Beijing: Mei Zhaorong, advisor on
foreign affairs to the Chinese government
and former Chinese Ambassador
in Berlin, received the China-Europe
Friendship Award. The first award-winner
in 2004 was former German
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
Mei, director of the Chinese Institute
of World Development, was honoured
in recognition of his remarhable contributions
to European-Chinese relations.
In his speech in honour of the awardwinner,
Volker Stanzel, the German
Ambassador in Beijing, not only praised
Mei’s “long service to the Chinese
people” but also noted that “with the
long list of his publications he has
indeed helped to pave the way for Sino-
German relations.”
Deeply moved, Mei Zharong qualified
this praise a little. “My contribution
toward Sino-European friendship has
been modest,” he said. “That is why I am
also accepting the prize for the Chinese
people who have championed the cause
of friendship.” Politician Mei, born in
1934, said that while he had deep roots
in his own people he was well aware
how important friendship with
Germany and Europe was. “I have
repeatedly found,” he said, “that mentality
and culture are very different and
that it is necessary as a result to build
bridges.”