The organisers cancelled on Tuesday the book launch at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Leibniz University of Hanover under the pressure of Chinese Consulate.

A launch of the book "Xi Jinping - the most powerful man in the world" combined with the public reading was planned on Wednesday (October 27) at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Leibniz University of Hanover. The organizers were the Confucius Institutes at both universities.

In Duisburg, according to the publisher, the Consul General of China in Düsseldorf intervened personally to prevent the event. "You can no longer talk about Xi Jinping as a normal person, he should now be inviolable and unspeakable, an employee of the Confucius Institute summarized the diplomat's argument. However, he added that it was not the position of the German Confucius Institutes.

The Universities chancellors stated that they were neither involved in the planning nor the cancellation - and invited the authors to catch up on the reading.
The chancellors added they were concerned about the pressure of the Chinese official who disrupted the event. We will now seek a discussion with the management of the Confucius Institute, announced University of Duisburg's chancellor Mr. Ulrich Radtke.

For the first time, a dictatorship is in the process of overtaking the West economically, and is now also trying to enforce its values ​​that are directed against our freedom internationally, commented the book's author Mr. Stefan Aust.

The publisher's representative, Ms. Felicitas von Lovenberg, called the cancellation a disturbing signal.