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By Tom Watkins Michigan Plays Peking
Duck — ducking opportunities to build bridges with China.
U.S. leaders, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, Com- merce Secretary Gary Locke and Treasury Secretary Timo- thy Geithner were in China for the May 24-25, U.S./China Annual Strategic and Econom- ic Dialogue.
Concerns over North Korea
and trade policies surely dom- inated the discussions.
Geithner called the meeting
“the best avenue for advancing U.S. interest at this time.”
Let’s hope so! Getting our
national China policy right is essential.
Closer to Home What is Michigan’s China/
global economic strategy? My lifelong interest
in
China and my more than 20 years of travel there leads me to conclude that if we want to thrive economically in the 21st century, we need a global plan that exceeds the Chinese in terms of hunger for suc- cess, willingness to adapt to new ideas and change — and not on a dime, but on a Chi- nese Yuan!
Michigan lacks an aggres-
sive plan to make China’s rise and globalization work for us. China can and must be part of the ingredients necessary to reinvent and revitalize Mich- igan’s economy. Sadly, there is no such plan in Michigan today or the will at the highest levels to begin crafting one. This is unacceptable.
It is clear that when it
comes to China, Michigan is like the proverbial nine blind men holding an elephant. Each individual describes the animal quite differently, depending on the part he is holding. There is no shared vision, no overall direction, no common agenda.
Division and Subtraction It’s time Michigan’s lead-
ers stopped using China for division and subtraction and started developing a plan to assure that China’s rapid rise results in addition and multi- plication of jobs in Michigan.
The Asian behemoth is underwriting U.S. debt to the
Tom Watkins
tune of $1 trillion and grow- ing, has the fastest-growing large economy in the world, is producing more autos than America, and is intent on win- ning the race for clean, alter- native energy technology.
Since the opening of China
to the world by Deng Xiaoping, China has been a rising eco- nomic superpower. The Chi- nese economy has grown by double digits for the past 20 years.
It all adds up to countless
business opportunities in China for Michigan companies willing to be creative and in- novative. Further, the Chinese will continue to seek places to invest throughout the world. We should be bending over backwards to make Michigan a hospitable place for such in- vestment.
State government has an
important role to play, once it stops looking at China through a rearview mirror and recognizes the reality of the situation and the enormity of the opportunities.
The Chinese market, with
1.3 billion people and a rising middle class, is the mother lode of 21st century global commerce. More than 300 mil- lion Chinese people have risen out of poverty in the last quar- ter century.
Leadership at Local Level The county executives
from Wayne and Oakland, Robert Ficano and L. Brooks Patterson, along with Paul Gieleghem, chairman of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners, together with Commissioner Ed Bruley, Ken Lampar and State Representa- tive Fred Miller are doing their
THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE Think global, act local
part to build bridges. The have organized multiple trade mis- sions, set up offices in China and encouraged their local community schools to begin to offer Mandarin Chinese to their students.
What is missing is a com-
prehensive statewide initia- tive to tap this rich vein of potential investment in ways to create jobs for our citizens and assure China’s rise does not come at our demise.
Action Steps Here are some steps that
could be taken to enable Michigan to tap the rich China vein:
1. First, drop the China
rhetoric that is not conducive to building positive relation- ships (what the Chinese call “guanxi”), conclude China is not going away and ask how to make its rise work for our state.
2. Seek advice from knowl-
edgeable individuals inside and outside Michigan on what other states and nations are doing that we should emulate and what is uniquely Michi- gan that the Chinese want or need.
3. Convene a cross section
of Chinese American commu- nity leaders from such groups as the Chinese Association of Greater Detroit, Chinese American Association, Asian and Pacific Islanders Cham- ber of Commerce, and Detroit Chinese Business Association and ask how the state can le- verage their existing China re- lationships.
4. Brainstorm with all the
various China experts and pull together an action plan that can position Michigan to take full advantage of the con- tinuing rise of China, with em- phasis on economic, cultural, agricultural, tourism and edu- cation initiatives.
The China wave will contin-
ue to come, we can do nothing and be swamped. or learn to surf and ride the wave.
Remember the ancient Chi-
nese saying about beginning with a single step? It is time Michigan broke into a run.
Tom Watkins is a business
and education consultant in the U.S. and China. He can be reached at tdwatkins@aol. com.
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