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“Cooperation and development”

China – Switzerland’s third largest trading partner

Interview with Consul General Chen Yun*

(6 December 2024) (CH-S) “Swiss Standpoint” had the opportunity to ask the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China, Ms Chen Yun, about relations between Switzerland and China. The occasion was an invitation to the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in September.

Switzerland was one of the first countries to recognise the People’s Republic of China after its founding and has sought to maintain good relations ever since. The free trade agreement between the two countries, which has been in force since 2014, is a milestone in this regard. Especially in geopolitically challenging times, it is important to maintain a broad network of positive relationships.
International Health Regulations

Amendment or rejection

WHO regulations are designed to protect us – but do we want them?

by Dr. med. Sabine Vuilleumier-Koch

(29 November 2024) (CH-S) In May 2022, the WHO’s “World Health Assembly” (WHA) decided to adapt – or “strengthen” – the WHOs “International Health Regulations” (IHR). The reasoning attracted attention: The “corona pandemic” had revealed weaknesses in international “cooperation”, gaps that now had to be closed. Immediately, broad resistance formed. While the Federal Council and the “Federal Office of Public Health” (FOPH) see no problem in the amendments to the IHR adopted by the WHA on 1 June 2024, a strong opposition is calling for an “opting out”, a rejection of the amendments. The decision must be taken by 19 July 2025 at the latest.

Apartheid and its consequences

International legal assessments of Israel’s actions in the Gaza war

by Prof. Norman Paech*

(29 November 2024) (CH-S) Israel is currently under strong suspicion of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. This is an outrageous suspicion – but one that seems to be growing stronger with each piece of evidence. The Hamburg-based international law expert Professor Norman Paech is pursuing this line of enquiry, drawing on Israeli scholars of the Holocaust and genocide such as Raz Segal.

Unfortunately, the reporting of the major media houses in the West on the dramatic conditions in the Israeli-occupied territories is scant, relativising or even trivialising. As a result, the West runs the risk of becoming complicit in a humanitarian crime.
Lebanon

Reflections during the flight

by Karin Leukefeld,* Germany, Beirut

(29 November 2024) (Edit.) Middle East correspondent Karin Leukefeld is back in Lebanon. In her latest article, “reflections during the flight”, she deals with the impact of the Middle East conflict on Lebanon. Through the perspective of a traveller, the destruction, the suffering of the people and the background to decades of conflict are described. This creates room for reflections on the responsibility of international politics and the consequences of colonial power structures.

News from Qinghai and Xizang (Tibet)

by Guy Mettan,* Geneva

(22 November 2024) Next time you travel to Lhasa, be sure to visit the Museum of Modern Art. Climb the often narrow and steep stairs of the White and Red Potala Palace, light a candle made from yak butter in front of one of the thousands of painted Buddhas of the Jokhang. They are to Lhasa what Versailles and Notre Dame are to Paris.

Shrink UBS to size! Critical comments on the Swis

Critical comments on the Swiss mega-bank

by René Zeyer*

(22 November 2024) There is a lot that speaks for it, but one thing speaks against it: The greed of the Kelleher-Ermotti duo. Or are the two of them making a cucumber salad out of the state? UBS has become a monster bank after the incorporation of Credit Suisse at a bargain price. It is not only “much too big to fail”. With total assets twice the size of Switzerland’s GDP, it poses the greatest threat to the existence of the Swiss Confederation since the Second World War. Evidently, there is no awareness of this problem at the top management level – or it is being ignored deliberately.