CHINA / National |
US urged to embrace China trade(Bloomberg)Updated: 2007-06-13 14:14 Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, facing growing pressure in Washington over his country's trade surplus, urged business executives in New Jersey to embrace China as a market, not fear it as a threat. The current system in which China sells manufactured goods to Americans and uses the proceeds to buy U.S. debt is helping the world economy by holding down interest rates and allowing American consumers to buy more, he said. "This is not such a bad deal," Zhou said on a trip to northern New Jersey this week. The U.S. itself stifles sales of its products in China through controls on technology exports and strict visa rules, he said. Zhou's case isn't an easy sell, he acknowledged. While Zhou was in New Jersey, several lawmakers in Congress put the finishing touches on a measure aimed at prodding China into raising the value of its currency. Four U.S. senators, led by Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, are scheduled to unveil later Wednesday their measure aimed at getting China to raise the value of the yuan, a move that Zhou said could "hurt opportunities for healthy business activities." Dodd and Shelby Tuesday, the two top senators of the Banking Committee, Democrat Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, said they would introduce a measure to tighten the definition of countries that manipulate their currencies in an effort to push the administration to put more pressure on China to boost the yuan. Zhou, 61, said he wants to travel to all 50 states to try to head off those measures. "It's always important to tell the other side of the story," Zhou said in an interview. "Ours is really a mutually complimentary relationship." Zhou has allies, too. His trip was bankrolled by Las Vegas Sands Corp. with the aid of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest business lobbying group. Zhou's Travels His travels have taken him to a dozen industrial cities last year and this year, where he speaks at public events like one Tuesday at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. He spoke at a dinner June 11 for executives from Johnson & Johnson, Wal- Mart Stores Inc. and Bank of America Corp. "This is a long-term strategy," said Leslie Schweitzer, who leads the U.S. Chamber's outreach program on trade. "There is a lot of fear out there." It's not just the Chamber advocating on behalf of China. The New York-based National Committee on United States-China Relations organized a 30-city discussion about China two weeks ago. And the Washington-based U.S.-China Business Council is compiling reports on the scope of exports to China from each of the 435 congressional districts. Together, U.S. companies brought back more than $50 billion in profits from China last year, more than double that of 2002, according to data presented at the Kean University conference. China held $420.2 billion in U.S. Treasuries at the end of March. Las Vegas Sands Las Vegas Sands is trying to get Chinese government approval to build a hotel and conference center on the coastal area of the Chinese mainland. As much as 90 percent of the company's profits will come from China "in a short period of time," William Weidner, the company's president, said. The company has already opened a casino in Macau and is building more hotels, conference centers and casinos there. In his presentation to the conference, Weidner labeled as "crybabies" those complaining about the Chinese currency, the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs and other problems in doing business with China. "We are not going to be able to compete in the manufacturing industries," Weidner said. "We are not going to be able to pay somebody $45 an hour to put a nut on a wheel. We simply have to change how we do business." That message went over well with the management consultants, lawyers, accountants and marketing professionals who gathered Tuesday in the converted farm house that serves as the administrative building for Kean University. The opportunities to export to China were hammered home by an official of the Department of Commerce. Other executives, who didn't attend, had a different view. "I do believe the sky is falling," said John Bello, chief executive officer of Textile Trans-print Corp. in Paterson, New Jersey. "Outside of Wall Street, people are starting to realize what is happening to our country. Our manufacturing base is so eroded that we might not be able to defend ourselves." |
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