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DURING President Hu Jintao’s state visit to theU.S. in January, China and the U.S. signed theMemorandum of Understanding on EstablishingChina-U.S.Governors Forum to Promote Sub-nationaI Cooperation. The memorandum supports the establishment of a China-U.S. Governors Forum by the ChinesePeople’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries(CPAFFC) and the National Governors Association (NGA)of the U.S. This forum aims to provide an important platform of communication between U.S state governors andprovincial governors in China, and advance practical cooperation in trade, investment, energy, environment, cultureand other fields.
Direct Dialogue Between Sub-national Leaders
The China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue is a forumfor national governments, while the China-U.S. GovernorsForum is a coinmunication platform for local governments.Li Xiaolin, vice president of the CPAFFC, remarked, "As anon-governmental organization, the CPAFFC has conductedmany exchanges with U.S. organizations such as the SouthernGovernors Association and the Midwestern Governors Association and established some long-term partnersbips. ThisChina-U.S. Governors Forum covers a wide range of fields forcooperation at quite a high level. Given direct communication,the two sides can discuss emerging problems, which is a winwin situation for both countries. There are lots of differencesbetween the two in history, culture and politicalsystems. With the development of its economy,China has got much closer to the world, whichprompts us to look for common ground withother countries. How to go about this? Peopleto-people exchange provides a way. This gubernatorial contact mechanism is an innovation,providing a platform for U.S. governors to conlmunicate with their counterparts in China in amore direct and effective way."
On February 26, Zhon Qiang, secretary ofthe CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, and LiXiaolin attended the signing ceremony to launchthe forum in Washington.
Hunan Province has established sister province/state or sister city ties with 11 Americancities and states. In recent years, five U.S.based corporations listed in the world’s top 5oocompanies have invested in Hunan. "As far asHunan is concerned, in cooperation with U.S.states and cities, our top priority is to bring Hunan’s industrial advantages into full play, andmeanwhile advance the development of our hitech industry by learning from U.S experienceand success in this field. Specifically, we hope industries likemanufacturing, auto making and wind power generation expand their cooperation with states in the U.S. We also wish topush forward the development of such industries as electronicinformation, energy and new materials by learning from American experience with pushing the development of their hi-techindustry, and in developing electronic information, smart gridand new energies," said Zhou Qiang. During his stay in the U.S., Zhou attended the NGA Winter Meeting, and held bilateral talks with six state governors.Zhou confirmed, "We signed a memorandum of cooperationwith Nevada, and reached agreement on advancing cooperation in such fields as education, economy, trade, science andtechnology, culture and tourism with five other states, achieving concrete results. Hunan will send business delegations tothose states, by invitation of their governors. The governorsalso indicated their intention to visit Hunan to promote business-to-business communication and strengthen cooperationin the field of education."
According to Reta Jo Lewis, special representative for globalintergovernmental affairs at the State Department, prior to thesetting up of the China-U.S. Governors Forum, communicationbetween local governments of both sides had been ongoing for10 years. In 2010 alone, there were more than 11o exchangevisits between various levels of local governments. To date,twinning arrangements have been made between 36 stateprovince pairs and 161 city pairs.
Despite the frequency of local government exchanges, thecommunications were often one-off, irregular and lacking afixed platform and mechanism. The China-U.S. Governors Forum will provide that, so that regular communications betweenlocal governments of our two countries can be realized.
Li Xiaolin said, "We hope to promote cooperation and enhance mutual understanding between local governments viathis platform. For the first session of the China-U.S. GovernorsForum, taking place in Utah in July, we will invite five provincial Party secretaries and governors representing differentparts of China. Many governors, from eastern coastal areas towestern inland regions alike, have expressed an interest in being there."
"We’d Iike to highlight several topics from among the manyhot issues of common concern, like employment, education,medical care, economic cooperation and complenlentarity.We’ll discuss details with the NGA so as to make the forum asuccess. Next year we hope to welcome a visit by U.S. governorsorganized by the NGA and make the forum an annual event.This platform will allow both sides to communicate effectivelyabout common concerns, which will benefit both China’s development and U.S. economic recovery," she added.
Victims of Trade Friction Lobby U.S. Congress
President Obama declared on September 11, 2009 that theU.S. would take special protection measures against tires imported from China. The original tariff of 4 percent would besubject to additional tariffs over the next three years: 35 percentin the first year, 30 percent in the second and 25 percent in thethird. This would spell the disappearance of Chinese tires fromthe U.S market.
According to preliminary statistics gathered by the ChinaRubber Industry Association, withdrawal of Chinese tires fromthe U.S. market would affect the jobs of about 100,000 Chinese workers.
But Chinese enterprises would not be the only ones to suffer.There are more than 200 commission agents and over 43,000retailers in the U.S. engaged in the business of importing tiresfrown China, with about 100,000 jobs generated. Once the U.S.shut the door on Chinese-made tires, the result would be American lay-offs.
Since the introduction of the measure Guangzhou SouthChina Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. has had to cut from four shifts perday to three, the equivalent of reducing its workforee by onefourth. Last May, Nie 3i, a technician with the company, was partof the "truth-telling" delegation, a CPAFFC organized group ofrepresentatives that went on a lobbying mission to the U.S. Hetold congressmen that China had become the biggest producerand exporter of tires, that the tire industry is a traditional laborand technology-intensive industry, and a major job provider. Hepresented the case that China-made tires target the low and middle sections of the market whilst U.S-made tires target the highend. Furthermore, there are no similar production facilities in theU.S.so China-made tires have nothing to do with dumping.
The U.S. Tire Industry Association indicated that severalyears ago U.S. tire producers had decided to transfer productionof low-end products overseas, and that a three-year temporarytariff would not cause them to change their business plans. So,Obama’s decision would not create jobs, but would pose a heavyburden on U.S.tire dealers and consumers instead. Tire importers and dealers would have to cut jobs due to the increasing loss,and consumers would face higher prices and less choice.
Congressman Dave Reichert from Washington State andDean Heller, a republican congressman from Nevada, agreedwith much of this and stressed the importance to the U.S. of freetrade and free eoinpetition.
"Trouble always comes in sets," as the saying goes. On December 31, 2009, the United Steelworkers, together with theAmerican Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), plus four companies in Texas, filed a petition to the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. InternationalTrade Commission (ITC), demanding an anti-dumping and antisubsidy investigation against imported drill pipes from China.On April 9, 2010, the U.S.Commerce Department proposed theimposition of a 25-99 percent tariff on China’s steel pipe producers. Shanxi Huanjie Petroleum Drilling Tools Co., Ltd. was oneof the blacklisted companies; its president Gong Jinwen alsojoined the "truth-telling" delegation in April 2010.
Huanjie is a share-holding company established by GongJinwen with seven of his former schoolmates. It was the fourthChinese enterprise, and also the first Chinese private enterprise,to win certification from the American Petroleum Institute (API).It had start-up capital of just US $2,000, but now has assetsworth US $30 million and 2,000 employees. Huanjie exports 40 percent of its drill pipes to the U.S. and supplies nearly all of theworld’s oil companies. Huanjie is one of a host of Chinese privateenterprises since China’s accession to the WTO to grow rapidlyby learning Western market rules.
"Twelfth Washington Street-I remember it clearly. For ninewhole days we made no progress and I was desperately anxious,"said Gong. "On day 10, I got to meet with the API President.Hearing my views, he told me I was the first Chinese entrepreneur to come there to lodge a complaint on his own initiative."The next day, the AFI gave a hearing especially for Gong ,linwen.One month later, Gong’s company regained AIP certification.
"In Washington D.C., lobbying is known as’Washington’s topindustry,’ and the lobbying system is very mature. If you use thesystem right it can be amazingly effective," said Li Xiaolin.
When the delegation returned to China, Gong Jinwen remained behind and, together with his company’s Americanlawyers, continued to communicate and negotiate with suchinstitutions as the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)and the U.S.-China Business Council. Gong’s company has sincewon the chance to challenge for special case treatment on thetariff, which will mitigate the losses it incurred due to the tradedispute. This example fully manifests the importance of face-toface communication between the industries of our two countries.
According to Li, of the six congressmen the Chinese "trnthtelling" delegation met in April 2010, only one had ever visitedChina, and that was back in 1985; the rest had never been andknew little about China’s development. However, all six attached high importance to U.S.-China relations and indicatedtheir intention to intensify trade cooperation. Unfortunately,they were ignorant of the true nature of Chinese enterprises,and just stuck obstinately to the line that Chinese exports wereinjurious to U.S. employment and its economy. At the sametime, those congressmen openly admitted the U.S.-China tradedispute served the needs of U.S. politicians as mid-term elections approached; trade issues were inevitably caught up indomestic politics,
Li and members of the delegation repeatedly argued, "It isChina’s private enterprises that are bearing the brunt of U.S.trade sanctions, and these private enterprises are China’s emerging economic units-beneficiaries of free competition and thelaws of the market economy. In other words, the U.S. government is adopting methods that violate the principle of free competition to harm the beneficiaries of the free market principle."
"We hold the opinion that trade issues should not be politicized," said Li. "But trade friction will harm the essential contentof bilateral relations and both sides will end up getting hurt. TheChinese market is very important for the U.S. I quoted PresidentBush senior spealdng at a seminar on U.S,-China relations to theeffect that what can truly hurt the bilateral relations are trade disputes, which fundamentally damage the interests of bothpeoples. The U.S. representatives agreed with this point."
"There is wide recognition that China-U.S. bilateral relations are important," Li continued. Congressman Geoff Davisexpressed his opinion that in the next 100 years, the U.S. andChina would be the world’s superpowers. Although he had notbeen to China, he had worked in Africa and was impressedby the parliament buildings and hospitals China constructedthere. Congressman John Yarmuth remarked that the bilateralrelations should advance in a mutually beneficial direction.He had been told by the president of the fast food giant KFC inhis constituency that KFC’s brisk development owed much tothe burgeoning Chinese market. Congressman Dave Reiehertsaid Washington State is the only American state to have atrade surplus with China. It is home to many big corporationssuch as Microsoft and Boeing that have dose ties with China,so healthy U.S.-China economic and trade relations will be ofgreat significance for that northwestern state.
Giving Americans the Facts
In recent years, the CPAFFC has helped many U.S.-basedcorporations start operations in China. For example, it helpedMetLife, Inc. and Chubb Insurance Company Ltd. to obtainbusiness licenses, and arranged 17 meetings with Chineseleaders for Citibank. When certain U.S. eolnpanies hit troublespots, the CPAFFC, in a non-governmental capacity, helpedthem to resolve the problems. As a result, those U.8. enterprises so helped make profits on the Chinese market attachgreat importance to U.S.-China relations, and plow back someof their profits into Chinese society, to help poverty reductionefforts, train laid-off women workers, and so on.
Board members of United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) havetwice been to Zunhua and Xibaipo in Hebei Province, wherethey have funded two computer labs in primatT schools. SomeU.S. congressmen came along too and the direct contact between the U,S entrepreneurs and congressmen and ordinaryChinese inspired the CPAFFC to build a bridge for ordinaryChinese to go to the U.S Congress, bringing more U.S. congressmen into direct communication with the Chinese populace and hearing their true voices.
Then the Chinese "truth-telling" delegation caine into being in 2002. The CPAFFC has organized these delegationsfive times, and the lobbying delegation was the fifth. Most ofthe previous groups were comprised of farmers, workers, andregular and quake-impacted students; they explained their ownexperience of China’s reform and opening-up, the actual developing situations of local areas and people’s living conditions.The congressmen were deeply impressed and some of their attitudes toward China were significantly changed.
For the latter half of 9011, the CPAFFC is organizing a faceto-face dialogue between private Chinese entrepreneurs andU.8. congressmen. The businessmen-some of whom were former farmers, and others people who started with nothing-willdescribe how they founded and developed their businesses.
Direct Dialogue Between Sub-national Leaders
The China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue is a forumfor national governments, while the China-U.S. GovernorsForum is a coinmunication platform for local governments.Li Xiaolin, vice president of the CPAFFC, remarked, "As anon-governmental organization, the CPAFFC has conductedmany exchanges with U.S. organizations such as the SouthernGovernors Association and the Midwestern Governors Association and established some long-term partnersbips. ThisChina-U.S. Governors Forum covers a wide range of fields forcooperation at quite a high level. Given direct communication,the two sides can discuss emerging problems, which is a winwin situation for both countries. There are lots of differencesbetween the two in history, culture and politicalsystems. With the development of its economy,China has got much closer to the world, whichprompts us to look for common ground withother countries. How to go about this? Peopleto-people exchange provides a way. This gubernatorial contact mechanism is an innovation,providing a platform for U.S. governors to conlmunicate with their counterparts in China in amore direct and effective way."
On February 26, Zhon Qiang, secretary ofthe CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, and LiXiaolin attended the signing ceremony to launchthe forum in Washington.
Hunan Province has established sister province/state or sister city ties with 11 Americancities and states. In recent years, five U.S.based corporations listed in the world’s top 5oocompanies have invested in Hunan. "As far asHunan is concerned, in cooperation with U.S.states and cities, our top priority is to bring Hunan’s industrial advantages into full play, andmeanwhile advance the development of our hitech industry by learning from U.S experienceand success in this field. Specifically, we hope industries likemanufacturing, auto making and wind power generation expand their cooperation with states in the U.S. We also wish topush forward the development of such industries as electronicinformation, energy and new materials by learning from American experience with pushing the development of their hi-techindustry, and in developing electronic information, smart gridand new energies," said Zhou Qiang. During his stay in the U.S., Zhou attended the NGA Winter Meeting, and held bilateral talks with six state governors.Zhou confirmed, "We signed a memorandum of cooperationwith Nevada, and reached agreement on advancing cooperation in such fields as education, economy, trade, science andtechnology, culture and tourism with five other states, achieving concrete results. Hunan will send business delegations tothose states, by invitation of their governors. The governorsalso indicated their intention to visit Hunan to promote business-to-business communication and strengthen cooperationin the field of education."
According to Reta Jo Lewis, special representative for globalintergovernmental affairs at the State Department, prior to thesetting up of the China-U.S. Governors Forum, communicationbetween local governments of both sides had been ongoing for10 years. In 2010 alone, there were more than 11o exchangevisits between various levels of local governments. To date,twinning arrangements have been made between 36 stateprovince pairs and 161 city pairs.
Despite the frequency of local government exchanges, thecommunications were often one-off, irregular and lacking afixed platform and mechanism. The China-U.S. Governors Forum will provide that, so that regular communications betweenlocal governments of our two countries can be realized.
Li Xiaolin said, "We hope to promote cooperation and enhance mutual understanding between local governments viathis platform. For the first session of the China-U.S. GovernorsForum, taking place in Utah in July, we will invite five provincial Party secretaries and governors representing differentparts of China. Many governors, from eastern coastal areas towestern inland regions alike, have expressed an interest in being there."
"We’d Iike to highlight several topics from among the manyhot issues of common concern, like employment, education,medical care, economic cooperation and complenlentarity.We’ll discuss details with the NGA so as to make the forum asuccess. Next year we hope to welcome a visit by U.S. governorsorganized by the NGA and make the forum an annual event.This platform will allow both sides to communicate effectivelyabout common concerns, which will benefit both China’s development and U.S. economic recovery," she added.
Victims of Trade Friction Lobby U.S. Congress
President Obama declared on September 11, 2009 that theU.S. would take special protection measures against tires imported from China. The original tariff of 4 percent would besubject to additional tariffs over the next three years: 35 percentin the first year, 30 percent in the second and 25 percent in thethird. This would spell the disappearance of Chinese tires fromthe U.S market.
According to preliminary statistics gathered by the ChinaRubber Industry Association, withdrawal of Chinese tires fromthe U.S. market would affect the jobs of about 100,000 Chinese workers.
But Chinese enterprises would not be the only ones to suffer.There are more than 200 commission agents and over 43,000retailers in the U.S. engaged in the business of importing tiresfrown China, with about 100,000 jobs generated. Once the U.S.shut the door on Chinese-made tires, the result would be American lay-offs.
Since the introduction of the measure Guangzhou SouthChina Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. has had to cut from four shifts perday to three, the equivalent of reducing its workforee by onefourth. Last May, Nie 3i, a technician with the company, was partof the "truth-telling" delegation, a CPAFFC organized group ofrepresentatives that went on a lobbying mission to the U.S. Hetold congressmen that China had become the biggest producerand exporter of tires, that the tire industry is a traditional laborand technology-intensive industry, and a major job provider. Hepresented the case that China-made tires target the low and middle sections of the market whilst U.S-made tires target the highend. Furthermore, there are no similar production facilities in theU.S.so China-made tires have nothing to do with dumping.
The U.S. Tire Industry Association indicated that severalyears ago U.S. tire producers had decided to transfer productionof low-end products overseas, and that a three-year temporarytariff would not cause them to change their business plans. So,Obama’s decision would not create jobs, but would pose a heavyburden on U.S.tire dealers and consumers instead. Tire importers and dealers would have to cut jobs due to the increasing loss,and consumers would face higher prices and less choice.
Congressman Dave Reichert from Washington State andDean Heller, a republican congressman from Nevada, agreedwith much of this and stressed the importance to the U.S. of freetrade and free eoinpetition.
"Trouble always comes in sets," as the saying goes. On December 31, 2009, the United Steelworkers, together with theAmerican Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), plus four companies in Texas, filed a petition to the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. InternationalTrade Commission (ITC), demanding an anti-dumping and antisubsidy investigation against imported drill pipes from China.On April 9, 2010, the U.S.Commerce Department proposed theimposition of a 25-99 percent tariff on China’s steel pipe producers. Shanxi Huanjie Petroleum Drilling Tools Co., Ltd. was oneof the blacklisted companies; its president Gong Jinwen alsojoined the "truth-telling" delegation in April 2010.
Huanjie is a share-holding company established by GongJinwen with seven of his former schoolmates. It was the fourthChinese enterprise, and also the first Chinese private enterprise,to win certification from the American Petroleum Institute (API).It had start-up capital of just US $2,000, but now has assetsworth US $30 million and 2,000 employees. Huanjie exports 40 percent of its drill pipes to the U.S. and supplies nearly all of theworld’s oil companies. Huanjie is one of a host of Chinese privateenterprises since China’s accession to the WTO to grow rapidlyby learning Western market rules.
"Twelfth Washington Street-I remember it clearly. For ninewhole days we made no progress and I was desperately anxious,"said Gong. "On day 10, I got to meet with the API President.Hearing my views, he told me I was the first Chinese entrepreneur to come there to lodge a complaint on his own initiative."The next day, the AFI gave a hearing especially for Gong ,linwen.One month later, Gong’s company regained AIP certification.
"In Washington D.C., lobbying is known as’Washington’s topindustry,’ and the lobbying system is very mature. If you use thesystem right it can be amazingly effective," said Li Xiaolin.
When the delegation returned to China, Gong Jinwen remained behind and, together with his company’s Americanlawyers, continued to communicate and negotiate with suchinstitutions as the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)and the U.S.-China Business Council. Gong’s company has sincewon the chance to challenge for special case treatment on thetariff, which will mitigate the losses it incurred due to the tradedispute. This example fully manifests the importance of face-toface communication between the industries of our two countries.
According to Li, of the six congressmen the Chinese "trnthtelling" delegation met in April 2010, only one had ever visitedChina, and that was back in 1985; the rest had never been andknew little about China’s development. However, all six attached high importance to U.S.-China relations and indicatedtheir intention to intensify trade cooperation. Unfortunately,they were ignorant of the true nature of Chinese enterprises,and just stuck obstinately to the line that Chinese exports wereinjurious to U.S. employment and its economy. At the sametime, those congressmen openly admitted the U.S.-China tradedispute served the needs of U.S. politicians as mid-term elections approached; trade issues were inevitably caught up indomestic politics,
Li and members of the delegation repeatedly argued, "It isChina’s private enterprises that are bearing the brunt of U.S.trade sanctions, and these private enterprises are China’s emerging economic units-beneficiaries of free competition and thelaws of the market economy. In other words, the U.S. government is adopting methods that violate the principle of free competition to harm the beneficiaries of the free market principle."
"We hold the opinion that trade issues should not be politicized," said Li. "But trade friction will harm the essential contentof bilateral relations and both sides will end up getting hurt. TheChinese market is very important for the U.S. I quoted PresidentBush senior spealdng at a seminar on U.S,-China relations to theeffect that what can truly hurt the bilateral relations are trade disputes, which fundamentally damage the interests of bothpeoples. The U.S. representatives agreed with this point."
"There is wide recognition that China-U.S. bilateral relations are important," Li continued. Congressman Geoff Davisexpressed his opinion that in the next 100 years, the U.S. andChina would be the world’s superpowers. Although he had notbeen to China, he had worked in Africa and was impressedby the parliament buildings and hospitals China constructedthere. Congressman John Yarmuth remarked that the bilateralrelations should advance in a mutually beneficial direction.He had been told by the president of the fast food giant KFC inhis constituency that KFC’s brisk development owed much tothe burgeoning Chinese market. Congressman Dave Reiehertsaid Washington State is the only American state to have atrade surplus with China. It is home to many big corporationssuch as Microsoft and Boeing that have dose ties with China,so healthy U.S.-China economic and trade relations will be ofgreat significance for that northwestern state.
Giving Americans the Facts
In recent years, the CPAFFC has helped many U.S.-basedcorporations start operations in China. For example, it helpedMetLife, Inc. and Chubb Insurance Company Ltd. to obtainbusiness licenses, and arranged 17 meetings with Chineseleaders for Citibank. When certain U.S. eolnpanies hit troublespots, the CPAFFC, in a non-governmental capacity, helpedthem to resolve the problems. As a result, those U.8. enterprises so helped make profits on the Chinese market attachgreat importance to U.S.-China relations, and plow back someof their profits into Chinese society, to help poverty reductionefforts, train laid-off women workers, and so on.
Board members of United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) havetwice been to Zunhua and Xibaipo in Hebei Province, wherethey have funded two computer labs in primatT schools. SomeU.S. congressmen came along too and the direct contact between the U,S entrepreneurs and congressmen and ordinaryChinese inspired the CPAFFC to build a bridge for ordinaryChinese to go to the U.S Congress, bringing more U.S. congressmen into direct communication with the Chinese populace and hearing their true voices.
Then the Chinese "truth-telling" delegation caine into being in 2002. The CPAFFC has organized these delegationsfive times, and the lobbying delegation was the fifth. Most ofthe previous groups were comprised of farmers, workers, andregular and quake-impacted students; they explained their ownexperience of China’s reform and opening-up, the actual developing situations of local areas and people’s living conditions.The congressmen were deeply impressed and some of their attitudes toward China were significantly changed.
For the latter half of 9011, the CPAFFC is organizing a faceto-face dialogue between private Chinese entrepreneurs andU.8. congressmen. The businessmen-some of whom were former farmers, and others people who started with nothing-willdescribe how they founded and developed their businesses.