Seeing China as an Opportunity for Bremen Companies

Bremen-based Jiang & Son advises companies on China-related technologies, commercial partnerships and implementation projects. Its work ranges from technology and partner assessment to solution planning, supplier coordination and implementation support. At its core, the company aims to connect technological and industrial capabilities in China with local market knowledge and the requirements of German companies.

Born in China, educated in the United States, founder of his own company in China and now based in Bremen – Yurong Jiang’s life and career have taken him across several continents. Today, he is pursuing a clear goal: to bring German and Chinese expertise together. .

He has observed that China’s technological progress is often viewed with concern in the West, and especially in Germany. For a long time, China was seen as an extended workbench and a welcome sales market for German high-tech products. Today, Chinese companies are increasingly entering traditional German sales markets – whether in the automotive industry, toolmaking or medical technology.

“China is often discussed mainly as a competitor, but that is only part of the picture,” says Jiang. “German companies can benefit from Chinese technology and industrial capability, provided this is approached with discipline. The challenge is to assess what is useful, adapt it locally and turn it into a path forward.”

Examples of work in Bremen

One example is Jiang & Son’s work with Samawat GmbH, a Bremen-based export company specialising in business with Libya. The work developed along two lines: a commercial assessment of a China-based logistics partner, and an advisory project on process automation and AI.

The first project was a preliminary commercial assessment. Jiang & Son looked beyond the public-facing profile of the Chinese company to examine the entities, operating structures and credentials behind the commercial name.

“For German companies, the question is not whether a Chinese counterparty has an impressive profile,” says Jiang. “The real question is what that profile means for the specific business decision: which entity would deliver, where the operating substance sits, and what risks may need further review.”

This work does not replace legal, financial or regulatory due diligence. It can, says Jiang, provide companies with an initial professional orientation before they invest significant time and resources in a cooperation.

For Samawat, this preliminary assessment was useful when deciding how to proceed: “The report helped the company identify issues that needed clarification and points that required attention during the further course of the cooperation”, says founder Tamim Fannoush.

A practical AI project for the logistics sector

The second project concerned process automation and AI. Samawat wanted to know whether AI could improve its document-heavy workflow in a way that was sensible for its operations.

Together with his team, Jiang developed an artificial intelligence solution for Samawat GmbH, beginning with workflow analysis and solution planning and continuing through technical coordination and implementation support. The system simplifies processes in the freight forwarding business. “It consists of three modules: the first analyses incoming email enquiries for completeness and flags missing information. The second checks freight documents for completeness. The third supports the organisation of dangerous goods transports,” Jiang explains.

To develop the solution, Jiang & Son first analysed Samawat’s workflows and requirements, assessed technical options and drew on experience from China’s open-source AI environment.

One of the central design decisions in the solution developed for Samawat was to keep the system local. The artificial intelligence system runs on Samawat GmbH’s own servers and requires only limited computing power. This helps reduce costs and allows operational data to remain on site rather than being sent to the cloud services of major providers, supporting Samawat’s data protection requirements.

“Their guidance helped us avoid further costly false starts, proved important when the project moved towards implementation, and the system now works well in practice”, says Fannoush.

China technology with judgement

Jiang emphasises that technology cannot be considered in isolation from legal, cultural and operational questions. Different business cultures, regulatory expectations and long-term interests have to be taken into account. For him, the point is therefore not to present Chinese technology as a universal solution, but to examine its possible use in each individual case.

The project is a good example of how Jiang & Son combines technology assessment, China-side expertise and implementation support. In Bremen, the company consists of two employees and can draw on a team of around 40 people through its close cooperation with a partner company in China.

A fresh perspective on East-West relations

For Jiang, Chinese technology and industrial capability can be valuable for German companies when handled with discipline. China is effective at scaling technologies, building supplier ecosystems and moving quickly from concept to application. Germany brings industrial knowledge, quality standards, legal and regulatory discipline, and a culture of reliability. These strengths can complement each other, although they do not automatically fit together.

“Cooperation has to take account of different business cultures, legal systems, regulatory expectations and long-term interests,” says Jiang. “The question is whether a Chinese technology is appropriate for the client’s situation, whether the partner structure is clear, whether responsibilities are understood, and whether the project can be sustained over time.”

This is especially important in sectors such as ports, logistics and infrastructure, where technology decisions involve reliability, procurement responsibility, operational control and long-term resilience.

“I find Bremen’s Smartport initiative interesting,” Jiang says. “China has much to offer in some areas of ports and maritime infrastructure. The real work is to assess where a technology is suitable, how it could be integrated, where responsibility would sit, and how operational and strategic risks can be managed before implementation.”

Settling well into life in Bremen

In the Hanseatic city, Jiang has already begun to bring both worlds together. He has given two guest lectures on artificial intelligence at Bremen City University of Applied Sciences and has begun exchanges with Bremen’s applied AI and robotics research community. He is also involved in the Foreign Business Club, a network of international executives in Bremen organised by WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH. “That is also where I met Samawat GmbH,” he says.

What he values about Germany is its working culture, with its appreciative mindset, and the importance of personal contacts. “Here, not everything is purely driven by numbers. It is not just about delivering the cheapest product as quickly as possible. There is more behind business relationships – and that is exactly what I value.”

“Bremen has many companies and institutions with operational knowledge and international connections,” says Jiang. “Our contribution is to make China-related opportunities more understandable, more concrete and responsibly actionable for those who can benefit from them.”