Le Journal

Germany's Censorship Frontier And The Rise Of Digital Control Submitted by Thomas Kolbe Schleswig‑Holstein’s Minister‑President Daniel Günther has, in what felt like a genteel salon, pulled back the curtain on the true censorship ambitions of politics. In the safe biotope of public broadcasting, he simply babbled and hit the spotlight on the repressive tendencies within the party system. We now find ourselves in a critical defensive struggle against the enemies of liberty. Some achieve notoriety and fame by chance. Fortune may fall into one person’s lap, another may experience his ten minutes of public shine through a fluke rhetorical spark. In the case of the Minister‑President of Schleswig‑Holstein in Germany, however, this is a dubious honor. In his appearance on Markus Lanz’s show on Germany’s state TV "ZDF", CDU politician Daniel Günther slid into that revealing tone of small talk to which people are prone precisely when they believe themselves in a supposedly safe social environment – a place where no criticism is expected, no matter what leaves their lips. What emerged during his guest spot on Lanz was a condemnable attitude toward the principle of free speech and toward critical media: the threat of censorship up to and including the blocking of individual platforms, including the portal Nius, reveals a profound ethical collapse. A growing, subtly operating apparatus of repression is now reaching us – a warning we should take seriously. It was almost comical how Lanz, styled by public‑broadcasting elites as a star moderator, in tandem with the state‑aligned media sector repeatedly sought in the aftermath to rhetorically downplay Günther’s clearly articulated desire for censorship. Decontextualize, diffuse, and smother the real scandal with new waves of outrage like the Greenland debate – that’s how the media repair operation works. Imposing Order in the Digital Sphere What is forming before our eyes is unmistakable. A surveillance apparatus coordinated by the EU Commission in Brussels is emerging, built on the Digital Services Act and extending like a kraken over national intelligence agencies such as the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). In an echo chamber, Daniel Günther now operates in the mode of a censor‑in‑waiting, confident that he is secured by the party apparatus. As early as June of last year, the CDU of Schleswig‑Holstein unveiled a policy paper titled “Protecting Democracy – Effectively Combating Disinformation as Well as Hate and Incitement Online.” In fifteen pages, its authors sketched a concrete strategy to regulate content on platforms such as Telegram, Meta, and X. Totalitarian thinking and the prospect of fulfilling a secretly cherished control fetish seem to exert a peculiar fascination even on the second tier of party functionaries. Followed over the past months — culminating in a real dispute with the U.S. government — one thing becomes clear: Europe’s political leadership seems to fear nothing more than losing its dominance over the public discourse. Yet that is the very nature of social media: it allows individual opinions to float freely, to form clusters and to be cast loudly into the public sphere. That is their explosive power — and apparently the genuine problem from the perspective of those who would rather order, canalize, and control discourse. Günther is not alone in his crusade against a defiant opposition that raises its voice now against COVID lockdowns, now against overheated climate apocalypticism, and otherwise positions itself as broadly skeptical of the state. German Roots Strategically, the politics of initially gentle censorship followed a seemingly intelligent, media‑political path. Two strands define the rhetorical front: On the one hand, so‑called youth protection is invoked whenever politicians attempt to justify instruments of surveillance into private communication. On the other, the fuzzy concept of combating “hate and incitement” online is used as a vector against…

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UBS: Will There Be Chinese EVs In America? UBS analyst Joseph Spak asked clients on Sunday: Will there be Chinese cars in the US? Spak pointed to comments from President Trump last week at the Detroit Economic Club, in which he said, "If they want to come in and build a plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that's great. I love that. Let China come in, let Japan come in. They are. And they'll be building plants, but they're using our labor." Trump's comments come after Chinese automaker Geely stated at CES in Las Vegas that it could make a major announcement about a U.S. expansion within the next 24 to 36 months. "The big question for us is when and where we will go to the U.S.A.," Ash Sutcliffe, Geely's global communications chief, said in an interview last week at the Autoline Network at CES. This also follows Canada's decision last week to allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs per year at a low tariff rate. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the decision is "problematic for Canada." "There's a reason why we don't sell a lot of Chinese cars in the ‌United States. It's because we have tariffs ‌to protect American auto workers and Americans from those vehicles," Greer told CNBC on Friday. But Trump's comments suggest that if Geely or BYD Motors were to announce new manufacturing plants in the US, their products would avoid tariffs and be competitively priced with domestic car brands. UBS analyst Spak offered his team's thoughts on Chinese EVs in the US market: Currently, there is a 100% tariff on Chinese EV imports. But of course, this wouldn't be an issue if vehicles are built here. The bigger issue, in our view, is that the US bans Chinese software in vehicles starting in 2027, and then hardware in 2029. We believe that even for Chinese vehicles built in the US, they would want to leverage their software and hardware development. Investors point to the recent rapid rise of Chinese vehicles in Europe, with their December share hitting 18% in the UK and 12% in Spain. For the year, Chinese share in the UK was up to 9.7% (aided by China owned MG brand which has UK heritage) from 4.8% in 2024, Italy 8.1% from 4.7%, Germany remains lower at 2.5%. But of course, this large inflection was aided by imports. And China exports grew meaningfully in 2025, to >1mm units, as they looked for global growth especially as domestic demand slowed and amid high domestic competition. In the US, the Chinese don't have the ability to test the waters or see early gains given exports to the US are tougher. Building factories, supplier parks, dealerships, distribution networks, and service would take some time (though many dealers we have spoken to have indicated they would welcome selling them). Rental/fleet seems like a way the Chinese OEMs could first start to get a foothold in the US and test out the market. So, as has been our belief for a while (we wrote this in 2023), it is likely only a matter of time before the Chinese automakers are in the US, a sentiment others such as Ford CEO Jim Farley have echoed. From Ford's 2Q25 earnings call: "We really see not the global OEMs as a competitive set for our next generation of EVs. We see the Chinese, companies like Geely and BYD." However, because of policy, the US OEMs likely still have a protected window for a number of years. Moreover, in our view, if/when the Chinese come, they are less likely to compete with the D3 bread and butter (and major profit driver) of large pickup trucks and SUVs. These segments have very brand loyal customers and also, for now, are less likely to be electric. Thus, smaller cars and small/midsize CUVs are more likely at risk. These are already competitive segments but also areas where Japanese/Korean brands tend to be more successful as F/GM have pulled out of many of these areas. Chinese autos in the US would also be a headwind for TSLA, RIVN. Further, China seems to be a topic US voters are more aligned on than not, so we wouldn't expect the…

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