USCBC Bulletin

Event Wrapup
WASHINGTON February Reception to Welcome New USCBC Chair Mike Eskew, Chair and CEO of UPS Attended by members of Congress and the PRC embassy, a delegation from Shijiazhuang, Hebei, and USCBC members and staff March The Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement: What It Is and What It Means for US Companies Seminar featured Eden Woon, director of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce; Clement Leung, deputy director general of Trade and Industry, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Jeffrey Bader, senior vice president of Stonebridge International LLC; and Robert A. Kapp, USCBC president March Issues Luncheon Featured Dan Bloom, director, DOC Advocacy Center DOC-US Trade Representative Meeting with USCBC Members on the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) Featured Deputy Assistant US Trade Representative for China Charles Freeman and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia and the Pacific Henry Levine	April April Issues Luncheon Featured Lauren Moriarty, US senior official for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, coordinator for economic issues in the US Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Meeting with China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Delegation Featured CCPIT delegation members, USCBC's senior staff, and USCBC members Dinner for PRC Vice Premier Wu Yi and the Chinese Delegation to the JCCT Featured senior Chinese delegation members; co-hosted by the USCBC, National Committee on United States-China Relations, and United States Chamber of Commerce February February Issues Luncheon Featured Richard C. Bush, senior fellow and director at the Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies SHANGHAI February Shanghai World Expo 2010: Opportunities for US Companies Luncheon featured Zhou Hanmin, deputy director, Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau	BEIJING, HONG KONG, AND SUZHOU, JIANGSU March The View from Washington: New Developments in US-China Relations Series Featured USCBC President Robert A. Kapp on the current state of US-China relations, US Congress and the Bush Administration's sentiment on China, the political climate inside the Beltway in the run-up to the presidential election, and what this means for US business Upcoming Events Issues Luncheons, Washington, DC May 20, 2004 June 17, 2004 US-China Logistics Conference Beijing, May 12 and 13, 2004 Cosponsored by the US-China Business Council (USCBC), the Coalition of Service Industries, the US Department of Commerce (DOC), and the PRC National Development and Reform Commission Biennial Gala and Annual Membership Meeting Washington, DC, June 3 and 4, 2004 For more information, see Information and Registration pages

USCBC President Kapp Tours China

US-China Business Council (USCBC) President Robert A. Kapp traveled throughout China March 15-23. He met with USCBC members and PRC leaders, and visited numerous development zones and foreign-invested facilities.

USCBC President Robert Kapp with Chongqing Mayor Wang Hongju.

Kapp first traveled to Hong Kong, where he and USCBC Director of China Operations Patrick Powers met with Council members for a March 15 lunch program at the Island Shangri-La Hotel. Powers and Kapp then headed for Chongqing, where they were joined by USCBC Beijing Government Affairs Manager Dennis Chen. Chongqing is in the midst of a colossal building boom, both in the rocky downtown promontory and in the outlying areas. The USCBC team met with members of Chongqing's top leadership, including Mayor Wang Hongju, and spent time in Chongqing's Economic and Technological Development Zone, before visiting Ford Motor Co.'s auto assembly plant on the outskirts of the city.

From Chongqing, the Council team traveled to Shanghai and then upriver to Suzhou, Jiangsu. Suzhou continues to expand its new district (the Suzhou New and High-tech District Export Processing Zone), already one of the PRC's production powerhouses, and is now developing an export processing zone within the district. Blessed with flat land and relatively good logistical links to major port facilities in Shanghai, Suzhou's strengths as a production and exporting center were obvious. So, however, were transportation bottlenecks, in the form of severely overloaded roads, chaotic traffic patterns, and resultant lengthy travel delays--all reminders of the inevitable unevenness of China's headlong plunge into the modern industrial era.

Kapp, Powers, and Chen also met with Shanghai- and Suzhou-based Council members at the classically elegant Suzhou Sheraton--the first time the Council has convened its members in Suzhou. Billed "The View from Washington," the luncheon discussion focused on trade and political issues in the US presidential election year, companies' hopes and concerns in the Chinese business environment, and the newly announced petition by American organized labor groups for the imposition of heavy tariffs on Chinese imports to the United States as punishment for iniquities in China's labor rights and labor standards. The unending saga of US visa processing delays and obstructions, as well as the Council's continuing efforts to reduce the damage caused to US businesses by the "visa mess," also rose quickly to the surface.

Kapp and Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai in Beijing.

The anchor of Kapp's China visit was the three-day China Development Forum in Beijing, held by the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC). The Council has cooperated with the DRC on the forum since the program's inception five years ago. Forum participants included CEOs and top management from a range of US, European, and Asian multinationals, as well as a multitude of top PRC officials. The meticulously executed forum, held at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, featured addresses and discussions with key Chinese leaders including Ma Kai, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission; Liu Mingkang, chair of the China Banking Regulatory Commission; and Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China. International speakers at the conference included Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, AIG Chair and CEO Maurice Greenberg, and Harvard and Stanford China economists Dwight Perkins and Lawrence Lau, respectively. A phalanx of China's best and brightest, from the country's top think tanks and universities, took an active part in the discussions and stimulated some of the liveliest dialogue. Liu Mingkang's discussion of China's plans for banking sector reform stood out among a long list of thoughtful and open-minded addresses.

The conference theme, reflecting recent decisions by China's Communist Party leadership and the National People's Congress, was "Balanced and Sustainable Development," the goal of the effort now beginning in China to address the serious and deepening imbalances of development, income, and wealth within Chinese society. As befitted the top positions in central government of the program's speakers, discussions tended to focus on government policy, rather than on detailing the enormous practical difficulties presented by the far-reaching changes of emphasis in government economic policy now getting under way. But the grasp and seriousness of those at the top made a deep impression on the attending dignitaries.

The conference concluded with a session in the Great Hall of the People where Premier Wen Jiabao expressed his receptivity to foreign visitors' ideas and his detailed grasp of extremely complex policy matters.

After the China Development Forum, Kapp and the Council's Beijing team spent several busy days in meetings with Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan and his top trade and foreign affairs advisors; the new Minister of Commerce (MOFCOM) Bo Xilai, who had been Kapp's very first USCBC guest in 1994 and with whom the Council has been in contact in the intervening years; Ma Xiuhong, MOFCOM's dynamic vice minister; and others. The upcoming meetings of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), during which the USCBC co-hosted a major business gathering for Vice Premier Wu Yi and the Chinese JCCT delegation, were a major topic of sometimes spirited discussion, as were recent developments in commercial and noncommercial US-China relations.

During the discussion with Vice Minister Ma, Kapp reaffirmed his intention to lead a delegation of Council-member company representatives to Xiamen, Fujian, in early September, at the time of the China International Fair for Investment and Trade, and the two sides discussed plans for a structured meeting agenda involving senior PRC trade and investment figures participating in the Xiamen program.

Kapp's breakfast with Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and a large group of Wisconsin businesspeople, on a perfectly clear Beijing morning on the rooftop terrace of the Grand Hotel adjoining the Forbidden City, was an especially enjoyable part of the trip. Kapp and Powers congratulated Doyle, who leads a state in the eye of the storm over current conditions in the US manufacturing sector, for leading his energetic business delegation to China in search of opportunities for expanded trade. Wisconsin exports to China have risen significantly in recent years, topping $508 million in 2003.

The Council's staff in Beijing and Shanghai worked hard to arrange Kapp's successful meetings with PRC officials of great interest to USCBC member companies. The USCBC is delighted that it can speak candidly, in off-the-record sessions, with such officials and will continue to do so.

USCBC's Kapp (center), Patrick Powers (third from left), and Dennis Chen (second from left) met with Chongqing Mayor Wang Hongju (fourth from left) and members of Chongqing's top leadership.