Global Business Forum, BA 545

Thank you for your comments today Mr. Borich. You mentioned in your talk that your work with the Washington State China Relations Council sometimes feels like an extension of your career in foreign service. I was curious if you think Washington state’s approach to relations with China is or should be different from that of the federal government? Why do you think that is?

Hello Joe,

Thank you very much for the fascinating talk today on China’s clean energy policies and Seattle’s leading role in the process with the US-China Clean Energy Forum. I was shocked to hear that although 42 separate agreements have been signed since 1979, very little is substantive.

I enjoyed hearing about the proposed Special Energy Zones. However, I’m curious to learn what sort of controls (regulatory, physical barriers, military, etc.) would be in these SEZ’s to keep technology that has dual applications with military aspects from leaking out of an SEZ?

Thank you again!

First of all I would like to thank Joe Borich for an interesting speech today.

As an Executive Director of Washington State China Relations Council (WSCRC) and with former work experience in both China and Taiwan, Joe Borich was able to give good insight on the relationship between China and Washington and views of Chinese officials about Chinas energy policy.

WSCRC was founded in 1979 by a group of business people who recognized that there would be an advantage of working on the relationship between China and Washington. The Council has grown rapidly during the last 30 years and is now counting members as Boeing, Amazon, Starbucks, Paccar and Microsoft. Since Washington is one of Chinas most important trade partners, issues arise, which WSCRC has helped solve. Among other, WSCRC helps member with match-making, arranging delegations in both China and WA and they do reporting and analysis. If anyone is interested they do a monthly China update, which they post on their website: http://www.wscrb.org

One of the main topics Joe Borich covered was Clean Energy and how this is developing in China. 2 years ago a group of businesses with the backing of the government got together and created Clean Energy Forum (CEF), trying to reconcile on the common goals China and US would have within this area. Since China and the US consumes half of the world’s energy and release half of the green house gasses, clean energy for these two countries is important.

CEF recognized three important barriers to the development of more clean energy:
1. Trade – Chinas import barriers and the export barriers in the US.
2. Intellectual property – how to avoid illegal copying.
3. Finance – Product that will raise efficiency is expensive.

Some of the possible solutions to these problems which CEF is working on, is creating Clean Energy Zones, educating more energy managers and auditors and creating joint deals on starting energy projects.

What I think was very interesting hearing from Joe Borich was the will within China to become more energy efficient and changing towards clean energy. Chinese officials is aware of the problem and know that something must be done to change the energy consumption in China, so they are pushing towards alternative energy and more ambitious goals. China already has some ambitious goals, e.g. 10% of consumed energy should come from clean energy in 2010. The problem is now how to implement these goals.

In addition I have some questions to Joe Borich or anyone else who has an opinion on this subject:

Joe Borich mentioned Finance as one of the three large barriers. Will the current financial crisis create a big setback for clean energy in China or is the Chinese companies and government determined enough to be ambitious even in these times?

What technologies have the greatest potential in China, e.g. solar, wind, clean coal etc.?

I’ve heard that China forces oil companies to keep gas prices below market price. That does not sound very energy efficient. Is that a temporary thing?

Thank you!

Hi Joe:

Thanks for your speach today, I was really impressed. My normal understanding about the clear engergy is only water, wind, or sun energy. Are there any other types of clear energies? Among all of these clear energy, which one do you think that Chinese government will heavily invest in the future?

Thanks for you thoughtful presentation of important issues, and your response to the questions, both emailed and vocal.

I wish more people were aware of the scale of the issue in China, with the rapid transition from walking and bicycles to more private cars than the population of the US. Too many just see polution without recognizing the context, and why the balance of development with environmental concerns is so problematic.

Hi Joe,
Thank you so much for the impressed speech. It was a pity that the time shortage cutted your speech. I am so curious that how you think about Taiwan and China relationships in the future in terms of economic and politic situation after Ma’s in power.

Thanks again!

hi, Joe

Thanks for your speech. The “clean energy forum” in which WSCRS has got involved is really promising. I wish more and more enterprises in China, especially those of small-medium scale and private-owned enterprises are movitated to corporate social responsiblity to their company’s value instead of only focusing on the short-term profit since it is really something critical about the future sustainablity.

Hello Joe,
thanks for a very interesting speech with a lot of thoughtful insights in Chinese energy and environmental issues.
In my opinion, the approach to create energy zones in China and in the U.S. sounds particularly promising since it is an actual implementation of appointed goals and not only hot air.
Especially the idea to operate electric hybrid plug-in cars in these zones is great, concerning the growing car market in China with it’s huge potential during the next decade. Nevertheless, I think there has to be done a lot of research to implement the electric plug-in technology first since the technology is not yet good enough, but establishing those energy zones could assist improving the technology. Thus these energy zones wouldn’t only have impact on certain areas in China and the U.S. but on a whole technology that is important for the whole world.

Thank you for your interesting talk. My question regards the issue of low tech copies of US products being sold in China, which leads to US companies’ hesitancy to license in China. Is this issue confined to foreign products in China or is there frequent copying of Chinese domestic products as well? In other words, are there government regulations in China which come down hard on copying domestic products, but leniency regarding foreign products? If there are dissimilarities, one would think improvements could be made.