Welcome to The Senate Site

By Curtis S. Bramble
Senate Majority Leader, blogging from Liaoning, China.

My apologies in advance for the length of this post. (The podcast is shorter.) For those who love China, fear China, or are just trying to anticipate significant economic trends – I believe you will find this very interesting.

Day 2. Adding on the foundation built at Monday's meetings with members of provincial departments and the Provincial People's Congress, we began Tuesday by meeting with the Governor of the Liaoning Province. Governor Wenyue Zhang discussed the interlocking relationship between the US and China and expressed the desire to further those interests by partnering to meet the mutual needs of Utah and Liaoning.

Our days are long, the climate is very hot and humid, and there is little or no air-conditioning . The Chinese people don't seem to mind. Accustomed to the dry desert heat of Utah, our delegation seems to be melting :-)

When Deng Xiaopeng began reforming China's economy in the mid-1980s, the efforts focused primarily on the Pearl River and Yangtze River Deltas in the country's more southeastern regions. The areas surrounding Guangzhou and Shanghai made great strides in short order on the heels of those efforts. However, much of the country was left behind, including Liaoning.

As the industrial heart of China since the 1950s, Liaoning represents a backbone of China's economy even while it has not, until recently, seen the more modern developments of the southeastern coastal regions. This is changing.

One of the striking aspects of Liaoning is the enormous scale. From the size of the population to the size of its factories, China (Liaoning) is almost beyond comprehension. We had the opportunity of touring the Shenyang Machine Tool Factory after meeting with Governor Wenyue Zhang. The factory is amazingly clean and is spread throughout 42 buildings, each of which is several hundred thousand square feet in size. The Shenyang Machine Tool Factory produces tooling machines of various sizes. The largest appeared to be well over 100 feet in length, capable of turning steel rods several feet in diameter.

Since Liaoning began reforming its economy in earnest in 2003, it has seen an average of over 12% annual GDP growth. Government revenues have skyrocketed. Unemployment has dipped below 5%, free public education is increasingly offered in rural areas, and foreign investment has raced forward. Companies like Goodyear, GM, GE, Intel and Wal-Mart, yes Wal-Mart, now have a presence in the province.

Governor Zhang expressed his desire to partner with Utah to further expand foreign investment. Natural resources, including mining technology and the utilization of methane gas were discussed as one prominent area of potential cooperation. We also talked more about educational exchanges, which China views as increasingly important to educate a workforce in transition from low-skilled manual labor to more higher skilled technical jobs. There are multiple medical schools in the city, including one of China's finest.

China's workforce tends to be a bit younger than in America; because of the availability of workers, the retirement age here is 60 for males and 55 for females. These younger Chinese workers are being educated in universities and technical institutions and could benefit from studying in Utah with our advanced technological programs.

We met with city leaders from Shenyang, Liaoning's largest city (some 7 million people). Shenyang city itself has seen roughly $2.6 billion in foreign investment in recent years and has used much of its increased government revenue to reform in a number of areas, including providing heating to more residents and planting an urban forest (trees grow all along the roadside, even in the middle of the city). Like the province as a whole, Shenyang is modernizing and doing so through education and foreign investment.

In the Deseret Morning News editorial (The Key to Success in China), it was noted that the best way to build productive, real relationships is one-on-one, person to person. We’ve endeavored to follow that advice. We have been honored by the formal meetings with government officials where were we listen to welcoming speeches (which provide a wealth of information about various aspects of the Chinese business, social, cultural, and educational setting). And then they listen graciously to our response. These are formal exchanges, but they are generally followed by an informal setting where we can discuss issues on a personal level. It is amazing how much we have in common, given the differences between our two culture and history.

Our common enterprises: natural resources, education, high tech endeavors, defense industries, etc. provide a fertile field of opportunity for both Liaoning and Utah. I would encourage critics to take the long view. Time will tell how these opportunities will bear fruit. I respect the men and women of this delegation and believe this is the beginning of something good.

2 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

When is everyone going to the Opera? When do you get to see the Great Wall of China? Be sure to take some pictures? How's the food?

7/12/2007 10:17 PM  

 The Senate Site said...

Here's the itinerary.

7/12/2007 10:30 PM  

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