I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, but didn’t want to do so before I met Bart’s two brothers, Wim and Tom, in Turnhout last week. But it is something that I really need to share.
After I gave a book presentation for a bundle of articles I had written in December 2013, a friendly Belgian man approached me. He introduced himself as Bart Horsten of Horsten International, a small company that helps Belgian brands do business in China.
It was quite remarkable that we had not met before, since at the time Bart had an office with his Chinese staff just a 5-minute walk from the Xi’an NGO where I worked. I even had hotpot in the same building where his office was a few times. Bart would also often stay in the Citadines serviced apartments right across the street from where I worked.
We could have met many times when he was visiting Xi’an to meet his local staff, but never did. We shared some acquaintances, but never ended up at the same watering hole or restaurant at the same time.
So, despite our occasional proximity in 2011 and 2012, it wasn’t until December 2013 that Bart and I met at the book launch in Utrecht. Bart had somehow gotten wind of my writing about Chinese internet companies and came to shake hands and have a chat.
In the email contact that followed our first meeting, we quickly found a way to work together.
“After your short speech last Thursday, I immediately thought you might be the person I’m looking for. The topic of social media and e-commerce in China isn’t discussed enough, and most companies or individuals doing business with China have absolutely no idea what’s going on.”
“I don’t know anyone in Flanders who is truly well-placed to do so, so I’d like to ask you if you’d be willing to be a guest speaker at our seminar. Your special connection to Xian is, of course, an added bonus. I already feel a bit like a “Xianese” myself; I’ve been travelling to China for 15 years and spend a week in Xi’an five or six times a year.”
This is how, in May 2014, I ended up on stage at an event of the Belgian Chinese Chamber of Commerce (BCCEC), presenting about e-commerce in China and joining Bart and others for a panel discussion.
This was the first of many times Bart and I would share the same stage. Bart frequently organised seminars on China, and we ended up combining his practical knowledge of doing business with Chinese companies with my insights into e-commerce and social media in the country. Together, we could offer a compelling program for businesspeople and entrepreneurs who wanted to learn more about China.
In 2014, we would cooperate on a training for VOKA (the Flemish version of the Chamber of Commerce), where Bart was leading a training program, and at a seminar of eTrade (now Becom), where we would talk about Alibaba and arrange a screening of the film Crocodile in the Yangtze with its director, former Alibaba staff member Porter Erisman.
In 2015, I found myself and Bart cooperating on another VOKA training. And when I was invited to give a talk at the University of Leuven in March 2016, Bart was right there at the front, in the audience.
Unfortunately, I had to cancel our next collaboration with the BCECC when I returned from a vacation in Sri Lanka with dengue. I’m sure Bart did very well without me because he had significantly expanded his knowledge of online China. Horsten International would even start a consultancy service, My China Web, for companies that wanted to create an online presence in China.
We met again in Brugge in May 2016, where I gave a talk about Chinese tourists for Howest. The influx of tourists from China to Belgium and the Netherlands was booming, and it soon became a topic that Bart and I would regularly present about.
Later that year, Bart and I returned to an eTrade event in Antwerp to give a duo-presentation about cross-border e-commerce exports to China.
One day after our presentation at eTrade, Jessica and I attended the 20th-anniversary party of Horsten International, where Bart formally introduced and thanked his Chinese team from Xi’an.
In 2017, Bart and I teamed up with Thijs van der Toom of NextportChina and started a series of half-day training sessions in Belgium and the Netherlands. For Bart and Thijs, this was a form of lead-generation for their businesses. But since I did not have any additional services to promote and my presentation and knowledge sharing were basically my end product, my two partners were more than happy to let me have any net income from these trainings.
That same year, Bart, Thijs, and I attended a WeChat training session led by Matthew Brennan in Belgium. Not that we didn’t know enough about WeChat; some other attendees were even surprised to find us there. But it was a chance to meet Matthew, and to be honest, there was another reason too. The location was close to the brewery of Kasteel Brewery Vanhonsebrouck, one of my favourite Belgian breweries. So, we grabbed the opportunity to book a guided tour at the brewery and sample some of their products. That day, I returned home with a trunk full of strong Belgian beers.
Every year, I published a new bundle of articles in booklets that I typically handed out as souvenirs or prizes for the best questions during my presentations. Bart always ordered a box to distribute among his business contacts. I was delighted that he was willing to write the introduction to the fourth bundle in 2017.
In 2019, Bart and I supported a study tour organised by a Belgian innovation network, during which we provided content for the program and general guidance. It was a strange experience because, at the time, I had started self-organised study tours, and both Bart and I had our doubts about how the tour was handled. Still, I think we were able to provide the participants with some valuable insights.
During the COVID years that followed, there were fewer opportunities to work together. As a matter of fact, we both had challenges keeping our businesses afloat. And when the lockdowns were lifted and events were allowed again, the sentiment toward China had somehow changed. Interest in training on doing business with the country had diminished.
While Bart and I had fewer opportunities for such projects in recent years, we still kept in touch, and I would occasionally visit Bart and his brothers at their new Horsten International office in Turnhout. And while we might not have met during the days I was living in Xi’an, whenever we were in any city at the same time, whether it was Xi’an or Shanghai, we would meet up and go for some nice Sichuan food and a beer.
I still have the imprinted memory of one night in which I was waiting in front of a Xi’an hostel I was staying in and seeing Bart’s silhouette appear at the end of the alley, eyes fixed on the screen of his telephone, trying to use WeChat’s location sharing to navigate to where I was standing. ‘Hey Bart, over here!’ He looked up, and his face lit up with his characteristic warm smile.
But there was also often a hint of sadness in his eyes. Bart was softspoken and never someone who would roar with laughter. In recent years, he would open up more about his personal life, and we would share stories that went beyond business and the Chinese internet over dinner at a tiny local restaurant in Shanghai, one street north of East Nanjing Road. Bart would always let me pick the dishes and restaurants because he was convinced he’d get a good selection. Or maybe that was just his way of showing trust.
The most recent thing Bart and I worked on together was an online BCCEC panel discussion between the two of us and Vincent Nys about the rise of Temu and the alleged security issues.
In our last e-mail exchange, Bart and I compared schedules to see if we could meet in China. He wrote:
“Now that everyone is practically back from vacation and the schedules for the coming months are being finalized, I should know pretty quickly where I stand. I’ll be in China at least in the second half of November, but possibly in September or October as well.”
It was not meant to be.
On Monday September 14th, 2025. I was on my way to Berlin to give a keynote the next day when I got an email from Bart’s brother, Wim.
“It is with deep disbelief and deep sorrow that we must share the sad news that our beloved brother Bart passed away unexpectedly last Friday as a result of a car accident in Germany.”
“This loss comes as a great shock to us all and leaves a deep void, both within our family and in our business operations. Bart was not only the driving force behind Horsten International, but also a warm and committed family man. His dedication, vision, and camaraderie will be missed by many.”
I couldn’t believe what I was reading, all the more because this was the second time in one week that I had received news that someone in their 50s I worked with on China projects was being taken from us. That numbness that you can feel when you receive bad news, and the doubt if you might be dreaming, came over me. I couldn’t concentrate on the work I was trying to do anymore and stared out of the window of the train for most of the rest of the journey.
When I arrived in Berlin and walked to the hotel past the Brandenburger Tor, I realised I had been invited for dinner by the company I’d be presenting to tomorrow. I was not in the right mood to mingle and socialise that day, so I cancelled my attendance, stayed in my hotel room, and went to bed early to stop pondering the awful news.
I had to leave for China a few days later and regretted not being able to attend Bart’s funeral. Thijs would later tell me about Bart’s farewell.
“We just drove back from Bart’s funeral. It was incredibly moving and a beautiful service. The church was packed. It was special to get to know Bart as a family man, in addition to how we know him, as an honest and pleasant business partner you could always count on. What a sweet, kind, and good man he was.”
Thijs was absolutely right. I had come to know Bart as a very warm-hearted man, passionate in his work but also highly committed to his family, about which he often shared touching stories. The number of people attending the service shows how well Bart was liked and loved. He has also been incredibly important for building bridges between Belgian and Chinese businesses. And I personally owe a lot to him for building my own profile in Belgium, as he would always refer people to me if they needed someone to deliver a keynote that went beyond his own broad knowledge.
Bart was the type of person you could count on to do the right thing and do things right. And when we worked together, his calmness balanced out my occasional irritability. As I was starting to write this, his loss still hadn’t really sunk in, probably because I could not attend the funeral, and it all seemed so unreal.
I therefore decided to visit his brothers, Wim and Tom, in Turnhout after returning from 1.5 months in China. We had planned to have lunch, and ended up sitting in the small restaurant of their office building, talking for approximately 3 hours. About how the shocking news arrived, the impact on the family, and also about how Wim and Tom were highly motivated to continue the business of Horsten International. So were their team in Xi’an.
Wim and Tom had joined their brother’s company in the past 10 years and had built up significant knowledge and experience. Bart’s shoes are big ones to fill, but I am convinced they will succeed and keep Bart’s legacy alive. Not just because there weren’t many companies like theirs in Belgium, but also because that’s what Bart would have wanted them to do.
Rest in peace, Bart. Thank you for a wonderful partnership and companionship. I will miss you dearly as a trusted business partner and friend.
Maybe someday we meet again for a beer and some heavenly Sichuan food.
