Patty's Travel Blog - China

Statement

Day Three - January 13, 2010

Part 1

We woke up early here in Beijing. The clock says 4 AM but I am not sure what time my body is on. Regardless, I am glad to have some quiet time to think about the days meetings that lie ahead.

Our meetings with our counterparts today will shine a light on many of the opportunities and challenges that the U.S. and China are confronted with.

Mr. Lu Yongxiang who leads the Chinese delegation will chair the morning meeting. I will chair the afternoon session. We will address many issues including our concerns regarding China's trade policies, enforcement of intellectual party rights, and economic policy.

I anticipate that the Chinese will express their frustrations and unhappiness over the U.S. decision to approve the sale of weapons to Taiwan, and some of our trade and economic policies.

There's no doubt we share many common goals. I'm eager to discuss how we can partner to create new energy solutions, lessen our dependence on imported oil and establish new, clean energy economies.

As I get ready this morning to Chair this Inter-Parliamentary meeting I remind myself that words matter. Today's meetings will not resolve our conflicts but hopefully they will allow us to better understand one another. Today I will begin my remarks with a famous Chinese Proverb that says "a journey of a thousand "li" begins with a single step". I hope these meetings will represent an important step forward in the improvement of the U.S. - China relationship.

Part 2

Today our delegation traveled to the Great Hall of the People to kick off the official Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG) session with our counterparts of the National People's Congress (NPC). The morning session was hosted by the China delegates and focused largely on foreign policy.

As the head of the U.S. delegation, I chaired the afternoon's session which largely focused on a wide range of economic and trade issues. This is the second IPG session I have attended in China, in addition to attending IPG meetings in Washington, DC. One thing that I have noticed is that the tone is much different than in the past. Previously discussions were more relaxed. Today we had intense and much more passionate exchanges. A key issue for the Chinese was weapons sales to Taiwan.

We raised the need for continued engagement with North Korea and Iran as well as protection of intellectual property. We also raised issues relating to the development of new, clean energy technology, climate change and trade policies including how the Chinese indigenous innovation policies are hurting American companies and ultimately hurting innovation. Passions ran high on both sides.

On some issues there was clear disagreement and we agreed to disagree. One area where we all agreed was on the importance of placing greater emphasis on cultural and student exchanges between our two countries. We discussed how to use the IPG forum to make progress on that issue.

We left the sessions in agreement that at the end of the day the continued cooperation and partnership between our countries is more important than ever and that dialogue and open discussions are the only way we could make progress toward narrowing our differences.
Next we will go to the Great Hall of the People to meet with the Chairman of the NPC, Wu Bangguo.

I am struck that as open as our conversations between legislators were today, there is a long path forward on some of the difficult issues we face. And in the end I believe that our conversations were productive and serve as a positive step forward between our countries.

Part 3

After a short break we went back to the Great Hall of the People where we met with Chairman Wu Bangguo. He expressed his strong feeling that it was very important that even though we have disagreements that we continue to meet and talk and work to narrow our differences.

We then had an opportunity to meet with a senior official from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, China's equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to have an in depth discussion around our aerospace interests and how we can improve coordination and partnership.

We then were hosted by the Chinese for our official state dinner. I was seated between Mr. Lu Yongxiang, my counterpart who serves as the Chinese Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group, and Mr. Cao Weizhou, Deputy Secretary General of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. We talked about establishing strong ties between our two delegations and he asked me many questions about how I work to serve Washington State in Washington, DC. He was amazed that I commuted between Washington state and Washington, DC every week to do my job. He had difficulty grasping the concept of being responsible for communicating with and representing 6.5 million people.

As Chair of the delegation I joined my counterpart in toasting our two countries.

Looking back on today's discussion, I believe the dialogue was productive and helps build on a foundation of partnership that is important as we confront challenges in the future between the US and China.

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