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September 22, 2015

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Xi set to start US tour with visits to Boeing, Microsoft

Source: AP | September 22, 2015, Tuesday | Print Edition

WHEN Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Seattle on his way to Washington, D.C. this week, he’ll be visiting the American state that exports more to his country than any other.

Washington state last year sent more than US$20 billion in airplanes, wheat, apples and other products to China. Redmond-based Microsoft, Seattle-based Amazon.com and Boeing, with deep roots in the state, are among the companies lining up to capitalize on the Chinese president’s visit, focusing on China’s long-term potential at a time when its economy is slowing down.

Xi’s three-day stay begins today. He plans visits to Boeing’s Paine Field in Everett, Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, and a high school in Tacoma, sister city to Fuzhou, capital of southeast China’s Fujian Province.

Xi signed the sister-city agreement in 1994, when he was a leader in Fuzhou, according to the Tacoma-based News Tribune.

A big driver of Washington state’s top ranking in terms of China exports is Boeing, which last year sold a record 155 planes to Chinese customers.

This year about a quarter of the aircraft Boeing has built have gone to China, and over the next 20 years, China is expected to be Boeing’s biggest commercial market, with a projected need for 6,330 new planes, worth an estimated US$950 billion, the company has said.

Washington state’s ties to China go beyond business, however.

With backing from Microsoft, the University of Washington and Beijing’s Tsinghua University are opening a new technology graduate school in Bellevue called the Global Innovation Exchange. It will be the first Chinese research institution in the United States, with students and faculty from both universities set to tackle complex global problems.

Former Washington Governor Gary Locke, who recently served as US ambassador to China, said the visit goes beyond raising the profile of Washington state among the Chinese people and businesses “looking for expansion or looking to buy American products or services.”

Locke said it will give US companies a chance to press some of their concerns.

“For many foreign companies in China, there are concerns about a level playing field; about a strong, transparent legal system that will enforce intellectual property rights; about just being allowed to operate in China,” said Locke, who is Chinese-American.

Sustainable growth

Among the items on Xi’s agenda is a round-table discussion scheduled for tomorrow and set to be moderated by former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose Chicago-based Paulson Institute promotes sustainable economic growth in the US and China.

On the US side, chief executives Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Satya Nadella of Microsoft and investor Warren Buffett are set to attend. Those reportedly attending from China include Jack Ma of e-commerce giant Alibaba and Robin Li of web-services firm Baidu.

The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the US-China business relationship, China’s economy, and the future of Chinese reforms, Paulson said.

“This US-China relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, and it’s under real tension and stress right now,” he said.

“There are differences that have got to be dealt with, but we can’t let those preclude us from working in the areas where we have a common interest.”

Nation


 

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