China Law Blog Makes The News -- Can We Stop With This Already?
I just wish President Hu would visit Seattle every day.
Because of his visit, a local paper did a story on my law firm's China practice today, I appeared on BBC World to discuss China, and, now, China Venture News just ran a post on my firm's China practice and its financial company work, entitled, "Seattle Law Firm Opens China's Door For Small Companies."
Everyone (including the media above) have been asking Steve and me about our views on the impact President Hu's visit will have on our China practice and on our clients. Our response has been basically "little to none." Now that President Hu is here in town, however, I feel we should revise our prediction, as his visit has had the following effects:
1. It has given us great publicity.
2. It made the sushi restaurant across the street from our office, Red Fin, (to which I go just about every day) more crowded. Today it seemed everyone there was a reporter staying at the hotel next door.
3. It has made our office quite noisy as helicopters have been flying overhead nearly all day.
4. And, if I ever get out of the office, I am guessing traffic will be an even bigger nightmare than usual.
Well, maybe every day would be too often.
Comments (4)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endJames Borton - April 18, 2006 6:45 PM
News organizations and intrepid reporters are pack animals. Sure, the high profile visit of President Hu Jintao is going to make traffic difficult in Seattle and restaurant reservations impossible.
But think what it might do to US-China relations if there is an impasse on the valuation of the Yuan and the trade deficit balloons even more before mid-summer.
Reporters/bloggers need to get more information out every day about this pressing China question.
Christopher Cassidy - April 18, 2006 10:15 PM
Though it is definitely a worry du jour in an election year, the deadlock on yuan valuation is not likely to disappear. Moreover, the US current account deficit will persist in any case. China should not be held responsible for the policy failures that have generated the American current accounts deficit. A results-oriented approach would include seeking answers domestically before casting stones abroad.
Steven - April 21, 2006 2:28 AM
China's market is open to everyone. China's customer tariffs are very low, only 7 or 8% percent. Generally, China's trade is balanced. In 2005, China had the biggest trade surplus in its history, that's only $100 billion. Comparing with 1.4 trillion international trade China did in the same year, that surplus is not big. Japan has a much higher surplus.
Blaming the US deficit with China on China's closure of the market is unfair. The US should take the bigger responsibilty. Americans spend too much money. More demands means more imports. Chinese never force Americans to buy Chinese products.
The US gov has too many restrictions on exports to China. China needs a lot of goods, but US companies cannot sell them to China simply due to political reasons. Some reasons are very ridiculous.
For example, China needs nuclear power generators. But US companies cannot export them to China. In fact, China can still access the same products from Canada, France, and Russia. China bought several generators from France, Canada, Russia in the past years.
Under the presure, China is developing our own world-grade companies and technologies to make similar or better things. For example, China recently decide to commercialize the first VHTR nuclear power generator in the world, which is safer and more efficient than existing models. China is also building 1000 MW level nuclear power generators for 4 power plants.
Another example is commercial planes. Many Chinese believe Boeing technologically lags behind Airbus, but China still buy planes from the US because we cannot buy other things from the US otherwise. Even so, recently, the US government is complaining that Boeing has one component on its planes that has potentiality for dual usage. Boeing got a big fine from US gov. China has now decided to invest in the big commercial jets (China made Boeing 707 level jet in 1980s).
US politcians still have strong cold-war sentiment. But western countries are not a block. Each country has its own interests. American allies in the cold-war era are more independent today. In the short term, The US policy hurts both China and the US and benefits other countries. In the long run, it hurts the US but benefits our own companies. US's embargo encourages and stimulates China's own technology development.
China Law Blog - April 21, 2006 8:28 AM
Steven/Christopher --
The United States' problem is its trade deficit worldwide, not China. China is a symptom of the big problem, which problem I do not view as all that big in any event. The U.S. economy is doing fine overall and I believe it will continue to thrive.
China is going to develop its own products and technology no matter what the U.S. does. Selling high tech products to China may slow this down with respect to some products, but it may actually speed it up with respect to others.
China's market is more open today than even a year ago, but it still needs to be opened more. By the same token, American companies are getting better at selling products overseas, but there is definitely room for improvement there as well.