Chen says healthcare cheaper

US-China-US-Garden

BOSTON - China is heading in the right direction since it reformed its healthcare system two years ago, said China's Health Minister Chen Zhu during a keynote speech delivered at the Harvard America-China Health Summit in Boston on Wednesday.

The so-called "Deepening Health System Reform Plan" passed in April 2009 to lower medical expenses for Chinese patients has made healthcare more accessible, affordable and equitable, Chen claimed. As part of the plan, the government spent at least 850 billion yuan ($133.2 billion) to improve the healthcare system between 2009 and 2011.

In his bid to trump up the benefits of the plan, Chen said medical costs have gone down by at least 30 percent at the end of June.

He also claimed that the wide gap between health services in rural and urban areas is slowly closing and that government subsidies for subscribers to the new rural medical plan has increased by tenfold per person this year compared to subsidies in 2003.

China's reform of its healthcare system, dubbed "Healthy China 2020", aims to provide universal national health service and began three years ago.

"Healthy China 2020 is a crucial period of time for China's healthcare reform, a transition of many aspects of China's economy and society," Chen said.

From 2000 to 2010, he said government spending on healthcare has increased from 16 percent to 29 percent.

"This indicates the continuing government investment into health. As a result, the burden on people's medical expenses has lessened. I'm confident that over time, health equity will be met in China," Chen said.

The inaugural summit, organized by the China Initiative of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), seeks to examine health reforms in China and the United States through an open dialogue between Chinese and American health policymakers, experts and leaders. About 600 people participated in the two-day event.

Like China, the US recently embarked on healthcare reform. Named the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the legislation aims to provide medical coverage for close to 32 million Americans by 2014.

The US may be the world's biggest healthcare spender but it wants to learn from the Chinese experience, said Sherry Glied with the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The US and China have much to learn from one another's experience and challenges, she said. The US government needs to identify the different strategies that work in each state. What works for Boston may not work in rural Kansas, Glied said.

The summit occurred at a timely moment in global health, said Julio Frenk, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health and head of the HSPH China Initiative.

"Both China and the US are embarking on major health reform. China's health reform is one of the most observed in the world. We are at this historical moment where the world is searching for ways to finance healthcare and to combat diseases and malnutrition," Frenk said in a speech.

"China is a nation of complex problems but it also has great energy for innovation. This is probably the health reform that will not only benefit China but the rest of the world."

Jorge Dominguez, vice provost for International Affairs at Harvard University, said the summit is important to sustain ties between Harvard University and China. Over the last 10 years, the number of Chinese students studying at Harvard has grown. Last year, there were 541 Chinese students enrolled in degree programs across the university, Dominguez said.

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China condemns arms deal

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WASHINGTON / NEW YORK - China condemned the United States' Wednesday announcement that it will upgrade Taiwan's aging F-16 fighter jets, saying the potential deal will harm its "core interests" in Taiwan and damage China-US military ties.

In Beijing, Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun summoned US Ambassador Gary Locke to lodge a strong protest against the deal, according to China's Foreign Ministry. In Washington, Chinese Ambassador to the US Zhang Yesui made his case against the potential deal.

Zhang Zhijun told Locke that the question over Taiwan is a matter of China's sovereignty and is always "the most important and most sensitive core issue" in China-US relations.

The $5.8 billion package includes retrofitting 145 of Taiwan's F-16A/B fighter jets with advanced radars and weaponry. If the deal goes through, and it likely will, it amounts to more than $12 billion in weaponry to Taiwan from the US in only two years.

According to Reuters, Taiwan's "defense ministry" said in a statement that it would continue to press for 66 newer F-16s to replace its old fighter jets that are more than 30 years old.

China sees Taiwan as a renegade province and calls any US arms sales to the self-ruled island a major hindrance to Sino-US ties.

In his protest against the deal, Zhang said the new arms sale violates three historic Sino-US joint communiques, specifically the August 17 Communique.

China has interpreted the August 17 Communique as a promise from the US that it will not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan.

"The wrongdoing by the US side will inevitably undermine bilateral relations as well as exchanges and cooperation in military and security areas," Zhang said.

He urged the US side to stop arms sales to Taiwan, halt military relations with Taiwan and work with China to stabilize Sino-US relations. US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, in a briefing with reporters about the arms deal in New York, said that "Over the decades the US has made unwavering commitment to the peace and stability across the Straits and we will continue that. That's strong and resolute".

Daniel Russell, special assistant to US President Barack Obama and senior director on Asia at the White House, said at the briefing that it is a "critical strategic principle" for the US to support Taiwan's defense.

"Preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits is fundamentally and profoundly in the interest of the United States and our allies and partners," he said. "That progress in dialogues and diplomacy across the Straits has been a major contributor to that stability. And the US strongly supports efforts on both sides."

US arms sales to Taiwan have long been a source of tension for both cross-Straits ties and China-US relations.

Beijing broke off military ties last January over the US' plans to sell Taiwan more than $6 billion worth of arms. "The US has been supporting the improved relationship cross the Taiwan Straits, but we should be sensitive (to the arms sales to Taiwan)," said J. Stapleton Roy, the former US ambassador to China.

But John Feffer at the Institute for Policy Studies said he expected that the upgrade will not seriously damage bilateral relations.

"The Obama administration made a decision to push for an upgrade rather than the sale of the actual planes in order to minimize friction with Beijing. This is not an easy decision for the administration to make, given the huge profit associated with arms sales and the jobs connected to the production of F-16s," he said.

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is currently in New York attending the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly. He is also expected to have a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings, though a Thursday meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was cancelled. No reason was given for the cancellation.

Zhang Yuwei in New York contributed to this story.

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Biz groups fire back at yuan bill

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NEW YORK - A group of 51 United States business and farm groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable of corporate chief executives, said a bill aimed at pressuring China to appreciate its currency would have major adverse effects.

The bill has been gaining momentum in the US Senate due to fears that the US is losing too many manufacturing jobs only a year after the Senate had killed a similar bill.

In a letter that the group of powerful business executives wrote to Senate majority leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), they said, "Legislation that would increase tariffs on imports from China is unlikely to create any incentive for China to move expeditiously to modify its exchange policies. Rather, it would likely have the opposite effect and result in retaliation against US exports into China."

Reuters reported that Reid said Tuesday: "The first major jobs bill we're going to have is (to) send a message to the Chinese, where we've lost 2.8 million jobs during the last eight years, and that is we're going to do something about Chinese currency. And we're going to do that quickly".

Pressure for action on a currency bill has been building for months for another reason: The White House has begun to push to win approval of free-trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, Reuters reported. US lawmakers believe the trade pacts could lead to further job losses.

US lawmakers from both parties have complained for years about China's undervalued currency. They have said that the yuan's exchange rate makes it hard for many US companies to compete.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonpartisan think tank in Washington DC, on Sept 19 released an updated study claiming the growing US trade deficit with China cost 2.8 million jobs between 2001 and 2010.

Erin Ennis, vice-president of US-China Business Council (USCBC), which represents American companies that do business with China, said the report is based on "the faulty assumption that every product imported from China would have been made in the US otherwise".

"Much of what we import from China replaces imports from other countries, not products we make in the US today," Ennis said. "Rather than having a single-minded focus on China's currency, we should focus our efforts on addressing Chinese policies that keep US companies out of its market."

Exports to China outpaced US exports to the rest of the world, a trend that began in 2000 and has continued through 2010, according to a recent USCBC report.

"The nearly $76 billion increase in exports to China during 2000-2010 exceeded growth in every other market for US goods and farm products," Ennis said.

The group, in its letter urged the US Senate to: "oppose currency legislation and instead work with and vigorously call on the administration to develop a robust bilateral and multilateral approach to achieve tangible results, not only on China's exchange rate policies, but also on other Chinese policies that are harming American economic interests".

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Blaming job losses on China a 'distraction'

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NEW YORK - China said on Wednesday that it has behaved reasonably in imposing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on imports of chicken products from the United States.

On Tuesday, the US filed a case with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the tariffs.

However, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that duties on imports of US poultry are in line with WTO rules.

China will thoroughly study any request from the US on trade consultation and deal with the issue properly, according to a statement on the ministry's website.

Up to US 300,000 jobs are under threat after China imposed the duties on imports of US chicken boiler products, comprising various cuts of chicken, US Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk claimed on Tuesday.

Huo Jianguo, director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said it is "unconvincing" for US officials to link potential job losses with the poultry issue.

"For a long time, the prices of US chicken broiler products sold in China were lower than the cost of production, according to our findings," Huo said. "It has damaged the profit margins of domestic producers."

An earlier statement from the ministry said that its investigation indicated that the US has subsidized soybeans and corn for its poultry industry, thus harming Chinese producers.

The US-China Business Council (USCBC) said on Tuesday that blaming widespread US job losses on China is a distraction from the real challenges facing the US economy and its trade relationship with China.

Referring to an updated study released on Monday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) - "Growing US Trade Deficit with China Cost 2.8 Million Jobs Between 2001 and 2010" - USCBC Vice-President Erin Ennis said that the report "is still based on the faulty assumption that every product imported from China would have otherwise been made in the US. As USCBC has said in response to previous versions of the EPI report, this assumption is decades out of date."

"The key is to make sure our companies and workers stay competitive and remain global leaders in manufacturing - and that means sensible innovation, education, tax, healthcare, and energy policies," Ennis said. "The answer is not to build walls around the US to isolate ourselves from our growing export opportunities with China - especially given the continued difficulties facing the US economy," she said in a statement.

In 2009, China initiated anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on US imports of chicken broiler products. It imposed duties a year later.

WTO rules permit member countries to impose duties on imports of merchandise that are found to be dumped or subsidized, if those imports cause injury to the domestic industry.

US officials have claimed that before the imposition of duties, the US was China's largest supplier of chicken broiler products with more than 600,000 tons exported in 2009. US exports of these products to China are down 90 percent since the duties came into effect.

They cited industrial sources as saying that the US poultry industry will have lost some $1 billion in sales to China by the end of the year.

US exports to China in 2010 were valued at a approximately $90 billion, up 32 percent from the previous year. China remains the third-largest export market for US goods, after Canada and Mexico, and has been the fastest-growing market for US goods over the past decade.

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China calls for further Sino-US sci-tech co-op

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BEIJING - State councilor Liu Yandong met US Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Wednesday, calling for further Sino-US science and technology cooperation.

"Under current rapid growth of science and technology and ever-deepening globalization, strengthening science and technology cooperation between China and the US accords with the development momentum of the two countries' bilateral relations, " Liu said.

Sino-US cooperation in clean energy, cultural and educational exchanges, and science and technology have achieved remarkable progress in recent years, she added.

Liu noted that the China-US joint clean energy research center has become the highlight of the two countries' cooperation in science and technology and provided a new model and path for further cooperation.

Liu said he hoped the two sides would promote pragmatic cooperation in science and technology innovation, clean energy, environment and healths so to further the bilateral relationship.

US-China-US-Garden

US calms concerns over Chinese investments

US Under Secretary of State Robert Hormats talks about Chinese investment at the Foreign Press Center in New York on Monday.

NEW YORK - The United States welcomes Chinese direct investment but is worried over the role of State-owned enterprises, according to a top State Department official.

While addressing concerns that the US discriminates against Chinese direct investment, Robert Hormats, the under secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs at the State Department, said on Monday that only a very small portion of Chinese investments in the US has raised national security issues and is forwarded to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

"We are very welcoming of Chinese investment. (But) we have to figure out the right way of doing it and creating the right environment," Hormats said.

He said what the US needs to do is to find a way of working together with the Chinese in a more effective fashion, such as designing and establishing dialogues to create a welcome attitude toward Chinese investments in the US.

Apart from the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Hormats believes a much richer dialogue is needed between American state governors and Chinese provincial leaders.

"The hope is that governors and provincial leaders can sit down and talk about improving our political environment, so there is a more receptive environment toward Chinese investment in this country," said Hormats, who will lead a US governors' delegation to Beijing next month.

"American governors are very good at promoting trade and attracting foreign investment and having such sub-level dialogue is very helpful," he said.

He also noted the importance for Chinese investors to understand the American investment environment.

Over the next few months, the US government will stress in a more direct way the opportunities for foreign countries and foreign companies to invest in the US, Hormats said.

A report released a few months back by the New York-based Asia Society expressed concern that politicizing Chinese direct investment in the US will deny many potential benefits for Americans.

Refuting the argument that the US should turn inward because of its current economic doldrums, Hormats cited what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier that in the current environment, the very worst thing Americans could do is to turn inward and to turn away from the global economy.

"Our view is exactly the opposite. We need to work more with other countries around the world to strengthen cooperation. We want to enable American companies to take advantage of the global economy," he said.

Hormats said the US is every pleased that US exports to China are increasing.

A recent US-China Business Council report said that US exports to China grew four times faster in the past decade than its exports to the rest of the world. The overall growth of US exports to China hit 468 percent from 2000 to 2010, averaging 19 percent a year.

Hormats said what the Chinese government is trying to do in its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) in reducing dependence on exports, increasing imports and domestic consumption is consistent with what the US wants to do - to have a better balance in trade between the US and China.

Hormats acknowledges the US must improve its savings and investment balances, including increasing domestic savings, borrowing less andconsuming less or at least in a more sustainable pace.

"The Chinese government has correctly underscored this is something that will be constructive for the United States to do," said Hormats, whose experiences in dealing with China goes back to the Nixon administration.

Hormats, however, expressed deep concern over the emerging model of state capitalism in the world that he said "has the potential to dramatically change the global economic system that has facilitated the prosperity of the US and countless other countries around the world".

"How we respond to this changing landscape will have enormous implications for our prosperity and security here at home and our influence around the world as well as the way the global economy functions," he said.

While pointing out that the US' goal is not to question whether countries can and should establish state enterprises, Hormats said the basic point is to make sure that there is a level playing field between private companies and state enterprises.

"The decision as to whether the support for state enterprises distorts trade or gives those state enterprises artificial advantage over private enterprises in the US or elsewhere is, however, a concern for the US," he said.

Hormats emphasized that the goal is not to do this in a confrontational way but to emphasize common interests between the US and other countries.

"We see a multipolar world with a lot of economic powers around the world. It's also a multi-partner world. We see more and more opportunities for partners with other countries on a variety of things," he said, citing examples of US-China cooperation on new sources of energy and electric cars.

"Our two largest economies have a lot to gain by working together. We are always going to have big issues because we are big economies. But there is a huge amount of effort on both sides trying to work through these issues in a constructive way," he said.

Health summit focuses on China

NEW YORK - Harvard University, with help from the Chinese Ministry of Health and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, will hold its first annual Harvard America-China Health Summit on Wednesday and Thursday.

The summit is expected to gather more than 500 health policymakers, experts and leaders from NGOs and the health industry from both China and the US, said Liu Yuanli, founding director of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) China Initiative that is responsible for organizing the summit.

This year marks the third year since China reformed its healthcare system to provide universal health insurance by 2020. For the US, this is the second year since the country passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to expand access to coverage to close to 32 million Americans by 2014.

Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu and Julio Frenk, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, will be two of the keynote speakers at the event.

The summit aims to establish an understanding of major health industry challenges and opportunities in China, the US and around the world. The conference will cover four major topics: healthcare system reform, public health (addressing chronic diseases), human resources in the industry and new technologies.

The HSPH China Initiative is a collaboration between the Chinese Ministry of Health and Tsinghua University. It has been carrying out research on China's healthcare reforms since 2005.

"We want to bring Harvard's strengths to bear on helping meet some of China's urgent needs in health sector reforms and development," said Liu, who worked on Healthy Beijing 2020 to develop China's first 10-year plan for combating diseases and improving public health.

The HSPH China Initiative was created in the aftermath of the SARS crisis, which served as a wakeup call to deficiencies in China's healthcare system, Liu said.

Today, an aging population and diseases pose some of the biggest challenges in China's healthcare system.

He said that China can learn from the US' healthcare challenges by not letting private insurance play a dominant role.

"America is the world's highest health are spender (more than 17 percent GDP). Yet, its health status and insurance coverage is poor relative to its income. This inefficiency and inequity problem stems largely from the fragmented nature of its healthcare system - healthcare is mainly financed by profit-seeking private insurance schemes," he said.

"On the other hand, America is the most innovative country in the world. China can learn and adopt some of the useful American inventions."

Liu said there is no doubt that China will effectively carry out its reform of its healthcare system.

But who is in the driver's seat?

BEIJING - China is stuck in a policy vacuum. While consumer price index (CPI) growth moderated to 6.2 percent in August from 6.5 percent in July, the current level remains stubbornly high and well above the annual target of 4 percent, meaning policy loosening is unlikely. Declining CPI simply means that further tightening can be put on hold, for now.

However, the decision on what to do next is not the People's Bank of China's to make. At a time when inflation is beginning to moderate and vigilance is still needed, the central bank is no longer in the driver's seat of China's economy. What may be even more worrying for Chinese authorities is who is. It's not the usual suspects of the State Council, China's Cabinet, or even the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top leadership. Right now, it is the US Federal Reserve.

The big day for China, just like the rest of the world, is Sept 21, when the Federal Reserve next meets to discuss whether it will implement new policies to support growth in the world's largest economy. Over the past year foreign currency inflows have been the biggest variable affecting China's monetary policy decisions, and any sign of a new round of quantitative easing could mean that China will have to continue to tighten policy, rather than loosen it.

However, the idea of further tightening is a frightening one for the government because the growth in M2, the main indicator for money supply, fell to 13.5 percent year-on-year in August, the lowest it has been since May 2005 and the fifth straight month it has been below the government's full-year target of 16 percent. With the growth in the money supply continuing to decline and long-term bank lending remaining anaemic due to concerns over the health of local government balance sheets, China's monetary conditions are no longer accommodating to growth.

While all of this is certainly a headache for Chinese policymakers, the real predicament can be found elsewhere. It is too easy to forget that the real story of inflation is not 6.2 percent versus 6.5 percent. It is not what the Federal Reserve or People's Bank of China will do. The real story of inflation is what is happening to the cost of food for ordinary people. While the headline numbers show that food prices rose 13.4 percent year-on-year in August, this does not paint the full picture.

Food prices on the street are rising fast. In Beijing, the price of the egg pancake I eat every morning for breakfast has risen from 2 yuan (0.23 euro) last year to 2.5 yuan. The cost of every item in the State-owned enterprises canteen where I eat lunch has risen by somewhere between 20 percent and 50 percent.

Outside Beijing the situation is worse. I recently spent a weekend in Shangqiu in Henan province, one of the main agricultural provinces in central China. There, price rises are even more severe. Apples are now 3 yuan a jin (a standard measurement in China equal to 500 grams), and eggs have risen to 4.2 yuan a jin, both about 50 percent higher than a year ago. Even the price of rice, a staple of every meal, has risen by more than 60 percent.

To make matters worse, many companies, including State-owned enterprises, have made promises of wage increases that they have yet to fulfill, meaning wage growth has not kept pace with the increase in food prices. So while the government and its many commentators can discuss monetary policy until the cows come home, what China really needs is higher wages.

The author is a financial analyst at the London brokerage house North Square Blue Oak.

US to announce new China trade enforcement action

WASHINGTON - US trade officials will announce a major trade enforcement action against China on Tuesday, according to a US Trade Representative's office advisory obtained from a business group.

The advisory, which was distributed to media on a not-for-publication basis, said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk "will hold a press conference to announce a major trade enforcement action against China."

The release did not provide any additional details.  

Mandarin becomes popular for US students

TAMPA, the United States -- Mandarin Chinese is becoming a more popular foreign language course being taught in the US public school system, as students have started a new school year in September.
The Labor Day holiday weekend is traditionally the last major summer holiday for US public school students before starting a new school year. For the 2011-2012 school session, a number of these students began to take, for the first time in their educational careers, courses in Mandarin Chinese.
Moreover, the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in public schools is not only happening in states with large population such as Florida, but also in some unexpected places.
States with large rural areas -- such as Georgia, Nebraska, and North Carolina -- are also including Mandarin Chinese courses in their public school systems curriculums.
Some places in the US have offered Mandarin Chinese courses to their public school students before others. One such example is Washington State in the Pacific Northwest.
"Washington State business and policy leaders in 2006 actually proposed a goal of ten percent of students in Washington State learning Chinese by 2015," said Dr. Michele Aoki, program supervisor for the World Languages Program for the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Although there is much popularity of Mandarin Chinese among US public school students, this does not mean that learning the language immediately comes easily for all of them.
"From my involvement with teachers in the Chinese Language Teachers Association-Washington (bureau), and general conversations with Chinese teachers, I think that most people would agree that for Americans, the most difficult aspects of learning Chinese are the tones and the number of characters," admitted Aoki.
"What's most exciting about Chinese language learning is the way which the structure of the language -- it's characters and tones especially -- utilizes cognitive and academic skills not addressed in the study of most other popular languages," proclaimed Christopher Livaccari, Director of the Education and Chinese Language Initiatives for the Asia Society.
When the state of Georgia is mentioned, one often thinks of such long-time stables of the state such as peaches, the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company and the state's rural regions lumpy and sticky red clay.
Jon Valentine, program specialist for Languages and International Education for the Georgia Department of Education, believes that the increase in the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in Georgia and other states' public schools is happening now because of "increased parent, student, and corporate interest in economic opportunities for speakers of Mandarin."
"We now have over 2,474 public school student enrolled in Chinese, and my guess would be that there are another 500 in private schools as well," said Valentine.
He went on to note that "comparisons between the alphabetic system of English and the logographic system of Chinese further develops cognitive functions and supports both literacy in the first language, as well as math and science skills."
Also in the American South, 4,539 students are enrolled in the World Languages for Florida public schools program, according to Debroah Higgins, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education.
Higgins stated that "the (students) attitude and dedication are probably 80 percent of the battle in learning Mandarin, along with not being surrounded by native Mandarin speakers, preferably ones who don't speak much English. Being able to study a semester abroad or live overseas in some capacity for at least six months would be helpful."
Even though the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in Florida public schools began to increase three years ago, the Asian language is still not the primary foreign language taught in the state's public school education system. That particular language would be Spanish, which is being taught to over 420,000 Florida public school students.
Well known to international educators is the fact that North Carolina has some of the most demanding educational standards out of any of the 50 American states. Less well known is the fact that the "Tar Heel State," as North Carolina is known, has numerous programs which allows for public schools throughout the state to start to offer Mandarin Chinese courses to their students.
Almost 3,400 students in North Carolina public schools study Mandarin Chinese.
Federal initiatives, such as the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) and STARTTALK initiatives, along with similar state and regional initiatives that focus on critical needs languages, have supported the increase in Mandarin (Chinese) programs," said Helga Fasciano, Section Chief for the Kindergarden-12 (grade) Program Areas for the North Carolina State Board of Education.
"North Carolina has had standards for (the public schools teaching of) world languages since 1985. Challenges (to including Mandarin Chinese to the states public school systems curriculums) include funding and finding qualified teachers," Fasciano explained.
In the Middle West state of Nebraska, "the Department of Education started receiving requests for implementing Mandarin Chinese in 2008. Parents and school administrators were interested in Mandarin Chinese and saw the importance of students learning Chinese,"affirmed Vicki Scow, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE).
Scow told Xinhua that rural towns such as Beatrice, North Platte, O'Neill, and Scottsbluff, as well as urban areas such as Omaha and Linclon (the seat for the University of Nebraska), all have Mandarin Chinese courses in their public school systems.
The NDE received a three year Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant which "funding for NDE, in partnership with UNL (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), to offer professional development programs for Chinese teachers," asserted Scow. "Our goal is to provide highly-qualified Chinese language educators in order to meet the demands of a growing interest in the Chinese language."
To be able to study and then completely understand Mandarin Chinese is one thing; to be able to be fully fluent in the language is much harder, revealed Livaccari.
"According to the most commonly cited estimates from the US State Department, compared to languages like Spanish and French, Chinese takes an adult three to four times longer to achieve a similar level of proficiency," he said. "For this reason, starting (Mandarin Chinese language courses) early is very important."

Alcoa set to take major stake in JV

The headquarters of Alcoa in Pennsylvania. The company will take the majority of the equity in a joint venture with the State-owned China Power Investment Corp, to cash in on China's growing demand in the high-end fabricated aluminum market.

Aluminum producer hopes to cash in on increasing demand in China
DALIAN, Liaoning - Alcoa Inc, the world's largest aluminum producer, will take a majority equity share in a joint venture with the State-owned China Power Investment Corp, to cash in on the nation's growing demand in the high-end fabricated aluminum market, Alcoa's Asia-Pacific President Chen Jinya said on Thursday.
The joint venture, as yet unnamed, intends to produce high-end fabricated aluminum products in the areas of commercial transportation, consumer electronics, packaging, areospaces and automotive, according to Chen.
The companies signed a letter of intent on Wednesday to form the joint venture that will focus on producing high-end fabricated aluminum products.
The two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January, pledging close collaboration in the fields of mining, refining, smelting, fabrication and engineering in the global arena.
Chen said Alcoa would have the majority equity in the joint venture, without disclosing details of the investment terms.
China is building large aircraft, of which 80 percent is made from aluminum products, significantly driving the country's aluminum demand.
Aleris International Inc, the world's third-largest aluminum supplier, earlier predicted that consumption of aluminum plate by global aircraft makers may rise 15 percent a year, propelled by China's first large passenger plane - the C919 - built by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China.
Demand for aluminum in China, the world's largest consumer of the metal, has grown by 12 percent this year, and will more than double over the next decade, Chen said.
In July, Alcoa reported that second-quarter profit more than doubled, driven by continued growth in prices and sales volume.
Meanwhile, aluminum prices jumped 24 percent in the second quarter, according to the London Metals Exchange.
"We see global aluminum demand rising, mainly because of the pull from the emerging markets. China is a driving force of that demand," said Alcoa's Chairman and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld in an earlier interview with China Daily.
"We have seen many opportunities in China's aerospace, automotive, home appliance, consumer electronics, commercial transportation and power generation industries," he said.
China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) will stimulate demand for aluminum from the railway infrastructure and see it rise by up to 55 percent, according to the aluminum consultancy Cnal.com.
"If aluminum is extensively used in rail carriages as a replacement for steel, almost 20 percent of the weight would be reduced, which means more goods can be shipped without an increase in the number of locomotives or speed," said Kleinfeld.
He also said Alcoa plans to further increase its use of clean energy, especially from hydropower plants. More than 30 percent of Alcoa's energy is powered by clean-energy sources.
Global demand for aluminum from the auto industry will increase by 25 percent by 2015, according to Phil Martens, CEO of the Canadian aluminum producer Novelis Inc, in quotes published by Reuters on August 18. Martens predicted that

Banking on change

At Yale University, Stephen Roach often tries to clear up misperceptions that Americans have of China.

Leading economist says china must transform its growth model soon
Stephen Roach, one of the most prominent economists on Asia, is used to swimming against the tides of conventional wisdom.
He was among the earliest voices on Wall Street to predict, in early 2001, that the United States economy was facing a long stretch of weak growth. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when most critics expected China to be one of many Asian countries to fall hard, Roach, who was then Morgan Stanley's chief economist, said China was not going to fall. He was right.
Now, however, Roach is singing the praises of China's economy to a more common tune: The economy must change its growth model - now.
At his Yale University office in New Haven, Conn, Roach says China must move increasingly away from its exports- and fixed-investment-driven economy of the past 30 years toward growth that is propelled mainly by Chinese consumers. He points out that he has repeatedly made this point in the last few years, after Premier Wen Jiabao gave a speech in early 2007 in which he said China's economy, although on the surface appears to be strong, is unsustainable.
"Wen Jiabao was the first to raise the alarm. He was saying that China was growing at a spectacular rate but it can't stay this course if we don't deal with our imbalances. He lays out a whole framework that has enabled us to understand where China is going next," Roach says. "Now the financial crisis gives (China) a reason to change the model. I think they (the Chinese leaders) get it," Roach says.

Roach's fascination and expertise with China (the current senior executive for Morgan Stanley says he also loves Chinese food) started more than a decade ago.
He wrote a piece called This China is Different in the Financial Times in the 1990s that opened the door for him in China. He was later introduced to prominent senior Chinese leaders, including former Premier Zhu Rongji.
About a decade later, Roach gave up his position as head of a highly regarded team of economists to become chairman of Morgan Stanley's Asia operations in Hong Kong, becoming the first economist to land such a senior position with the bank.
Roach's decision to become chairman of the bank's Asia operations did not come easily, he recently said. When John Mack, then chairman of the board at Morgan Stanley, offered him the position, Roach was reluctant to take it because he wanted to stay in his position as chief economist for the rest of his career. But after realizing that the Asia operations might be an exciting way for him to broaden his perspective on a region that was fast becoming very important to him, he took the job. During his three years in Asia, he wrote a collection of essays about China's growing stature in the world economy that was published in his book The Next Asia.
Last fall, Roach returned to the US to take up a teaching position at Yale University while juggling his time as a non-executive chairman of Asia for Morgan Stanley in New York City. He will be teaching four courses this fall: "The Next China", "Lessons on Japan", "Wall Street and Washington", and "Macro Debate", in which he will debate macro issues with a leading macro theorist at Yale for 25 lectures.
Roach is widely recognized as one of Wall Street's most influential economists, but anyone meeting him for the first time would be surprised by his down-to-earth manner. For someone who possesses more than 30 years of experience as an economist in the US and Asia, he certainly does not try to appear larger than life.

As the non-executive Asia chairman (which means he is no longer based full-time in Asia), Roach flies regularly to Asia for meetings with clients and government officials in the region.
Roach says his teaching position gives him the opportunity to clear up "a lot of misperceptions" that Americans have about China.
"I truly feel that Americans lack a basic understanding of what's been going on in Asia, whether it's problems in Japan or the development miracle in China. And what worries me a lot over the past five to six years is an outbreak of protectionist sentiment directed at China," Roach says.
A prolific speaker, Roach has given numerous testimonies before the US Congress over the years about US-China trade tension.
"I think one of the biggest misperceptions is that Washington and American workers don't understand the context of our trade balances with China. It is driven by a shortfall of American savings," Roach says.
After studying China's economy for more than a decade, Roach says he is most impressed by what the Chinese have accomplished in 32 years. Calling it the "China Miracle", he credits the Chinese economic success to four factors: strategy, commitment, strong tools to implement strategy and a focus on stability.
"During the Asian crisis, China was building currency reserves and current accounts surplus. They did not go to the IMF. They did not devalue their currency. And they were very, very focused on building the greatest export machine the world has ever seen," Roach says.
The US economy, on the other hand, is a completely different picture. Recovery will be slow and weak in the next three years and there's no ruling out the possibility of a double dip recession, he says.
"In a scenario where we go back to recession, we don't have good policies to deal with it. If you have a zero interest rate, you don't have a lot of tools," he says.
Roach is much more optimistic about China's future, especially if more consumer spending occurs.
If China transforms to a more consumer-oriented economy, it will likely spark the greatest consumption story in modern history and that will have profound implications for China, Asia and the growth-constrained economies of the European Union and the US.
But in shifting to a more consumption-led model, Roach says, China will reduce its savings and have less left over to fund ongoing deficits of countries like the US. The possibility of such an asymmetrical global rebalancing - with China taking the lead and the developed world dragging its feet - would be the key unintended consequence of China's new model, Roach says.
"So if the world's biggest surplus saver is going to adjust, but the world's biggest spender is not, then it is perfectly reasonable to ask the question: Who's going to fund America's savings or current account deficits?"

Hot on the recruitment trail

Tan Lingshi believes that cultivating scientific talent is critical to maintaining Pfizer's position as a leading R&D-based pharmaceutical company.

Pfizer scientist opening doors for Chinese talent in scientific research
In 2000, China accounted for only 7.1 percent of the world's total GDP. In 2005, it was the world's fifth-largest economy. But what Tan Lingshi saw at that time was an immense opportunity to invest in research and development of Western drugs in China.
As Pfizer's head of biometrics for Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, he made a compelling case for Pfizer to set up its first China R&D center in Shanghai. In 2006, Tan, who had lived in the United States since 1985, decided to go back to China to head Pfizer's R&D operation there.
Five years later, under Tan's leadership, the Shanghai R&D center has more than 400 local scientists and has become an integral part of Pfizer's global R&D network.
Tan, who was born and raised in Hubei province, left China when he was 25 years old to pursue his graduate studies in the US. He received his PhD in biostatistics and his master's in applied mathematics, both from the University of Pittsburgh.
The China that Tan sees today is not the same China he knew back then.
"China has 1.3 billion people and is a big part of the world. We really need to take China seriously. We want to go beyond providing products to China, to develop products there with local talents. This is our commitment to Chinese patients," Tan says.
The extremely rapid economic growth in China has given rise to a new level of prosperity which in turn leads to a demand for high quality drugs. At the same time, there is a "very strong unmet medical need in China" owing to an aging population, high rate of urbanization and an increase in cardiovascular diseases and strokes caused by "Western lifestyle and diet", Tan says.
He says he believes that cultivating scientific talent is critical in maintaining Pfizer's position as a leading R&D-based pharmaceutical company. China offers a great potential in that regard, he says.
"There are a lot of young, energetic people in China. Being a good scientist continues to be an honorable dream for them. For Pfizer to maintain its comparative advantage, we cannot afford to be behind in reaching out to this generation of scientists," Tan says.
In 2009, Tan was responsible for spearheading a graduate program at Shanghai's Fudan University, a joint graduate program between Pfizer and the university. This program, called Clinical Data Management and Statistical Programming, is tailored to cultivate local talent in meeting the needs of clinical research. Pfizer works closely with Fudan to design the curriculums and experienced Pfizer scientists teach most of the courses.
"There are a lot of trainable talents and workforce in R&D in China for pharmaceutical companies. We brought a global R&D platform to China so that local talents can be developed," Tan says.
Last year, as the Shanghai center celebrated its fifth-year anniversary, Tan and his team opened a second China R&D center in Wuhan.
Tan says setting up the Wuhan center is "an ideal way to engage the scientific community there", as the city boasts numerous scientific talent.
Moreover, the Wuhan investment is in line with the Chinese government's strategy to encourage investment in central China. Tan says the company received strong support from the local government to establish their center there.
China now presents numerous opportunities for Chinese scientists who are trained overseas, according to Tan. Since China opened its door for its first group of students to study abroad in 1978, almost 2 million students who studied in the West have returned to China as of last year. The rate of return for "sea turtles" (a term for Chinese returnees) is on the rise. Last year alone, about 135,000 Chinese returned to China, which represents an increase of 25 percent compared to 2009.
Unlike some of the wealthy students who are sent abroad to study by their parents, Tan had a tough life overseas. He remembers having less than $100 in his pocket when he arrived in the US more than 20 years ago. His family could not afford to send him money from China each month. He had to work in the university's cafeteria and a Chinese restaurant to make ends meet. He survived on the most inexpensive pieces of "meats" he could find - chicken feet - which is a popular side dish in China.
When the 25-year-old sent home his picture that Christmas, his parents got a shock. He had lost 45 pounds in just a few months.
Putting aside the initial hardship, Tan had the most wonderful eight years of his life in Pittsburgh. Two of his most significant life events took place during that period of time. He met his future wife, a fellow graduate student at Pittsburgh, and they got married in 1986. Their daughter was also born in Pittsburgh.
At a young age, Tan already had an entrepreneurial streak in him. While pursuing his PhD in biostatistics, Tan founded a performing arts company to promote Chinese kungfu together with a few friends. They hired eight marketing staff members and brought Chinese acrobats to the US to perform in major cities such as Chicago. Although the business was forced to close, Tan says he learned a lot of lessons from it. He says he also had the misfortune of losting all his money day-trading and the money he borrowed from friends on a 30 percent interest rate.
Luckily enough, when he received his doctorate, he was soon approached and recruited by Schering-Plough Research Institute in New Jersey. He worked there as a research statistician for three years, and then at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh before joining Pfizer in 1996.
Tan says his early hardships prepared him for all the ventures later in his life. He was a first-grader at an elementary school when the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) broke out. When it ended, he had just graduated from high school and was assigned to work in a tea farm by the government. The physical and mental toil was unbearable, but he quickly found a way out. When the government restarted the national college entrance examinations, he took part in it and was lucky enough to pass.
"Many others stayed in the tea farm for a long time and even had a family there. But I was there for a brief period of time. Looking back, the hardship was good. It made me strong and prepared me for life afterwards," Tan recalls.
After getting out of the tea farm, he went on to college and taught three years there before leaving for the US for his graduate studies. He has never looked back since.
Now, Tan is filled with optimism for China's future, especially in the field of medical science research and development.
"For China to be an R&D powerhouse, what you need is scientific talents. You need support and funding in R&D. It's probably helpful to have a strong demand for the products as well. All these put China in a promising situation," Tan explains.
"We talked about the growing number of homegrown scientists and top scientists who returned from world-class universities to China. The quality of scientists as measured by the number of scientific papers is also increasing."
A major new study by the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national science academy, concludes that China is on track to overtake the US in scientific output possibly as soon as 2013. By 2008, the number of scientific papers published by China had surged more than seven-fold.

Conoco has not plugged all leaks

BEIJING - Small slicks of oil are still emerging near one of the two drilling platforms in Bohai Bay that were leaking.
The North China Sea branch of the State Oceanic Administration said on its website on Thursday that intermittent oil sheens were seen appearing near Platform C in the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, the largest offshore oilfield in China, over the last week.
Between Sept 7 and Tuesday, an average of 3.6 liters of oil were seen each day. On Wednesday, it was down to 1.66 liters.

Small belts of oil, covering an area of 0.06 square kilometers on average, were also found near the platform every morning during the past week. They were all taken care of on the same day they appeared.
The monitoring results are expected to be updated on a daily basis from now on.

The oilfield operator ConocoPhillips China said in a statement on Thursday that the intermittent sheens occasionally rising to the surface at platform C are "a result of the residual oil droplets displaced during seabed clean-up activities around Platform C".
Divers have cleaned 5.84 cubic meters of oily mud from the seabed under Platform C in the eight days since Sept 7.
But Wang Yamin, an associate professor at the Marine College of Shandong University, said that sealing the sources of the leaks was a difficult task and the seepage could indicate that not all the leaks have been sealed.
"Unlike the oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico (in the summer of 2010), in which engineers knew where the oil leak was but had a hard time sealing it, the difficulty here lies in finding the sources of the leaks in waters with poor visibility," he explained.
How to depressurize the oil reservoir while ensuring safety and environmental protection is another problem, he added.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which holds 51 percent of the leaking Penglai 19-3 oilfield, said that it has approved plans submitted by ConocoPhillips China to depressurize the reservoir.
One plan proposes discharging fluids from various locations throughout the reservoir. Another outlines measures, which include drilling wells, designed to provide additional protection against any reservoir fluids polluting the seabed.
ConocoPhillips China said it has reported the plans to the State Oceanic Administration, which has yet to comment on them.
Since June 4, when the first oil spill was detected, the leaks at the two oil platforms in the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in Bohai Bay have polluted at least 5,500 sq km of sea.
The State Council has called for a thorough investigation into the oil spills and imposed restrictions on new petrochemicals projects and reclamation projects in the bay.
As for a fund that ConocoPhillips China said it would establish to cover the cost of the clean up, the company said the details are still being discussed.

Biden arrives on goodwill mission

BEIJING - United States Vice-President Joe Biden arrived in Beijing late on Wednesday, along with his Chinese-learning granddaughter in a bid to enhance mutual understanding between people in the two countries.

Stepping off his aircraft at Beijing Capital International Airport, the 68-year-old vice-president was greeted by Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Instead of going to his hotel as scheduled, Biden and his delegation headed to the National Olympic Sports Center for a basketball game between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Shanxi Brave Dragons.

US Vice-President Joe Biden (L), waves with his granddaughter Naomi Biden, as they walk out from Air Force Two upon arrival at the airport in Beijing August 17, 2011.

During the first China trip in his current position, Biden is scheduled to hold formal meetings with Vice-President Xi Jinping on Thursday and attend a meeting of China-US business leaders on Friday.

He will also meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao before being accompanied by Xi to Chengdu on Saturday, the capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, where the two will visit sites jolted by the deadly May 12, 2008, earthquake. Biden is also expected to deliver a speech at Sichuan University.

Ahead of his arrival in Beijing, Biden was trying to strike a positive tone for his visit, saying Chinese firms are encouraged to invest in the United States.

"We welcome and encourage Chinese companies investing abroad to look first at the US," Biden said in an interview with the People's Daily. "Foreign investors benefit from our open, transparent and non-discriminatory investment environment."

Biden said he and President Barack Obama are working on export restriction reforms to increase US competitiveness and stimulate US exports, Biden said in the interview published on Wednesday.

"We are determined to put US-China relations on a steady and sustainable track for the coming decades," Biden said.

Biden brought his Chinese-learning granddaughter with him for the visit, stressing in the interview the importance of enhancing mutual understanding between the people in the two countries.

Biden didn't touch on specific issues that are described as sensitive, including the proposed arms sale to Taiwan or the US debt crisis. But he said that the two countries have "made major progress" in establishing mechanisms to manage and settle disputes.

As an example, he pointed to a May economic and security dialogue that brought together military officials from both sides, as military ties remain the most vulnerable part in the bilateral relationship.

The Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday that it expected Biden to "assure Chinese leaders of Washington's capacity, will and commitment to tackle its fiscal and economic challenges".

It said in a commentary that the Aug 2 debt deal was an insufficient way to resolve what it called a "runaway debt problem" in the world's largest economy, saying it had left a "ticking time bomb".

Chinese officials have repeatedly urged the US to ease restrictions on exports to China of high-technology products. They say the restrictions contribute to China's trade surplus with the US by reducing its imports. The US has said such exports raise national-security concerns.

Agence France-Presse described Biden's five-day China tour as "an unusually long trip", underlining the importance that the second-highest US official attaches to the visit.

Trust still seen as issue in China-US relations

BEIJING - More than a third of the people surveyed in a fresh China Daily poll said relations between China and the United States are very volatile while more than half of them believe the biggest hurdle is a lack of mutual trust.

The survey polled about 3,230 Internet users, with only 35 percent of those polled calling the bilateral relationship stable and 25 percent undecided about Sino-US ties.

The survey was taken between Aug 12 and 16, ahead of US Vice-President Joe Biden's visit to China at the invitation of Vice-President Xi Jinping.

The findings come after six months of political and economic disputes with the US over China's currency rate, the potential of US arms sales to Taiwan and disputes over territorial rights to the South China Sea.

Survey-takers were asked to choose among three major issues that they believe are creating friction between China and the US: trade, arms sales to Taiwan and a lack of mutual trust. More than half blamed the lack of mutual trust and about one-third pointed the finger at the looming question over Taiwan.

Analysts say both sides want to make good use of high-level exchanges and meetings to maintain close communication and find ways to narrow differences.

Sun Zhe, director at the Center for China-US Relations at Tsinghua University, said Biden's visit will stabilize bilateral relations, which were hurt by US President Barack Obama's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama and the recent news that the US will likely sell arms to Taiwan.

"The two sides will likely exchange views on issues such as the South China Sea, arms sales to Taiwan, China's military growth, US debt and the situations in Northeast Asia and the Middle East," Sun said. "But what remains more important is whether the US will take concrete measures when Biden gets back to the US."

Sun also pointed to US strategic mistrust of China as the biggest stumbling block in their relations.

"The two nations do not lack channels for military exchanges - what is absent is mutual trust and respect," Sun said. "China and the US have established several mechanisms for military communications, but the misunderstandings of two such powers make it hard to maintain peaceful military ties."

Jin Canrong, an international relations scholar with Renmin University of China, said Biden's visit to China will be "an important marker" in strengthening high-level contacts and increasing strategic mutual trust.

"The relationship between China and the US is mostly on-again, off-again. It is complicated, but it's probably the most important bilateral relationship for the global economies," Jin said. "Biden comes at a sensitive moment as recent events in the economic sphere have undoubtedly put the US economy and US currency on the agenda. He will probably express hope to gain support for the economy of the US and the world at large."

Governors from US to reciprocate with visit

BEIJING - A delegation of United States governors will visit China in October to attend a dialogue with their Chinese counterparts as part of the two nations' efforts to promote ties at the local government level.

Xie Yuan, director of the Department of American and Oceanian Affairs at the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, said US governors are eager to talk with more Chinese provincial heads and try to bring Chinese business contracts and investment projects back to their individual states.

The visit comes after the first China-US Governors Forum in July in Salt Lake City. Four Chinese provinces, Zhejiang, Anhui, Yunnan and Qinghai, signed at least $3.2 billion worth of agreements on trade, clean energy, education, environmental protection and scientific cooperation with 24 US states during the forum.

"At least 10 US governors will come to China to talk with their Chinese counterparts from a number of provinces in October," Xie said. "Even though the US federal government has been keen to cut down the high domestic unemployment rates and boost its flagging economy, the overall result isn't very encouraging. Gaining Chinese trade orders and investment could help these US governors to win concrete political support and acknowledgement in their states," he said.

China is the largest export market for US goods outside North America. In 2010, US exports to China reached $118 billion, and many states are now more reliant on China to help support their economies, according to the latest report from the US-China Business Council.

The two nations have been cooperating at the sub-national level for more than 10 years. In 2010 alone, there were eight governors and numerous other officials from US cities and towns that led trade delegations to China, the US State Department reported.

"Many Chinese provinces are also thirsty for US resources, technical support, energy efficiency technology and high-tech and agricultural products," said Du Yingfen, a senior researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. "This could be a good opportunity for Chinese and US companies to link up."

Xie said his organization is working with the US National Governors Association on the details of the dialogue.

Chinese local governments and US states have established numerous cooperative relationships, from 36 pairs of sister provinces and states, and 165 pairs of sister cities, to university exchanges, to partnerships on trade, energy and environmental protection.

"Chinese provinces and US states are economically complementary, and they are expected to enjoy high potential returns from sub-national exchanges," Xie said.

China market growing for US companies

Medical devices imported from US-based General Electric Co at a hospital in Heilongjiang province. Total US exports to China rose from $16.2 billion to $91.9 billion during the last decade.

WASHINGTON - US trade ties with the world's second-largest economy have made vital contributions to the US economy, a new report states.

According to the US-China Business Council's (USCBC) annual US Congressional District Exports to China report released on Wednesday, out of 435 congressional districts, 333 districts had higher growth in exports to China in 2010 than to any other part of the world.

The USCBC is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of 240 US-based companies that do business with China.

Between 2000 and 2010, 408 congressional districts, or 94 percent, witnessed triple-digit growth in exports to China, the report says.

"Exports to China are a vital part of the US economy," said USCBC Vice-President Erin Ennis in a statement.

"China is our third-largest export market and is growing faster than many of our other major destinations for American manufactured goods and agricultural products."

As a buyer of US goods, China ranks behind Canada and Mexico, which have a free trade agreement with the US.

The top US exports to China are electronics, agricultural products, chemicals, transportation equipment and machinery.

Total US exports to China from 2000 to 2010 rose from $16.2 billion to $91.9 billion, up 468 percent, while US exports to the rest of the world increased only 55 percent.

To spur the US economic recovery after the 2008 financial crisis, the Obama administration announced a National Export Initiative in January 2010. It aims to double total US exports by 2014 and targets a 15 percent annual growth rate over five years.

In 2010, exports to China rose 32 percent, faster than any of the US' top five export destinations.

"Exports to China contributed to growth and jobs in almost all congressional districts," Ennis said. "Even in states that have had a mixed export story over the previous eight years - such as Maine, Wisconsin and Tennessee - exports from congressional districts to China generally rose faster than those to the rest of the world."

But the organization also found that despite the substantial increase in US exports to China, the US share of imports into China has fallen to 7 percent from 10 percent in 2000.

The US is now the fifth-largest source of shipments into the Chinese mainland, behind Japan, the European Union, South Korea and Taiwan.

"A worthy sub-goal of President (Barack) Obama's National Export Initiative should be to reclaim a 10 percent share of China's imports by 2014," the report says.

It suggests that the US Foreign Commercial Service should help small and medium-sized companies find more export opportunities, the US Export-Import Bank should make support of US exports to China its top priority and the Office of the US Trade Representative should "understand and remove" market access barriers that restrict US exports to China.

It also calls for US local governments to further engage with their counterparts in China.

Hundreds of Chinese businessmen and officials traveled to Utah last month, when more than 22 deals worth $3.2 billion were signed.