What is China doing right? - Jeremy Goldkorn

Jeremy Goldkoen

The indispensable Chinafile asked some of its authors to list what is going right in China, after many obvious stories about what is going wrong. Danwei-founder Jeremy Goldkorn submitted a pretty long list, and this is how it starts.

Jeremy Goldkorn:

I’ll answer this question with an off-the-cuff and very personal list. Some may say these points are not actually good things, or that China isn’t actually doing these things well, or that the outcomes will not be copacetic. One of the very negative things about China is that if you look deep enough into any feel-good story, you’ll find something wrong or rotten, but this is a list of positives, so I won’t qualify my point with an acknowledgement of the counter arguments. Here goes: 

- Continuing to lift millions and millions of people out of poverty (that’s the big one). 

- A culture of hard work, thrift, and diligence that emphasizes the importance of education. 

- The fapiao, a state-issued invoice system that is a work of genius which allows a massive more-or-less unregulated informal economy to thrive and still contribute taxes to the state. 

- Investing in Africa, seeing developing countries as potential markets rather than basket cases. 

- Dreaming big. 

- Infrastructure. 

- Increasingly professional emergency response systems for bird flu scares, earthquakes etc.

More in Chinafile.

Jeremy Goldkorn is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Every upside has its downsides, and especially in China those downsides can be massive. The successful economic development has led to a massive shortage of sustainable energy. In September 2012 the China Weekly Hangout discussed energy security  with +Merritt Cooke from the Wilson Center and +Richard Brubaker  of CEIBS. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the +China Speakers Bureau 

This Thursday the China Weekly Hangout will discuss the changes in China's labor force, especially the blue collar workers with +Dee Lee (Inno) , running since 2007 a workers' hotline at Inno in Guangzhou. Expected is also economist Heleen Mees from New York. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau. Our first announcement is here,and you can register for the hangout here.

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Nuclear power in China (reprise) - China Weekly Hangout

A German demo against nuclear power last year (Photo credit: quapan)

The China Weekly Hangout of coming Thursday 22 November will focus on nuclear power in China, and the likelihood increasing NIMBY protests might derail that ambitious energy program. The hangout was delayed from  November 8 (see here the initial announcement) as we unfortunately forgot to take into account the change in daylight saving time in the US and missed our panelists.
This time, we are sure we can welcome Chris Brown and Richard Brubaker, and perhaps a few other guests for another session on China's energy security.
We plan to hold two session of 15 minutes each, one about the current state of nuclear power in China, a second on the effect of NIMBY protest against nuclear plants.
A good overview is available here.
The China Weekly Hangout will be held at 10pm Beijing Time, 3pm CET (Europe) and 9pm EST (US/Canada).
You can join our China Weekly Hangout by visiting our event page and register. You can watch the YouTube link here at this post and at our event page, ten minutes before the start of the hangout. A full overview of earlier editions, you can get here.

Chris Brown

Chris Brown is general manager for Asia Cleantech Gateway North America. A former US government China-Central Asia policy analyst, intelligence officer, Taiwan radio personality. Habs and Arsenal Fan. Working to develop China-US clean energy business ties, mostly solar but hoping to expand to wind. Live in Brooklyn but originally from Spokane, WA.

Richard Brubaker is adjunct professor of Management, Sustainability and Responsible Leadership at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and editor of AllWaysLeadtoChina. He is based in Shanghai.
With almost 20 years of Asia experience (the last 10 based in mainland China), Rich assists his clients (both Fortune 500 companies and SMEs) in understanding the China market, determining their own China platform and implementing effective strategies.
Rich has a Masters in International Management from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Finance and Economics, from the University of Missouri.
Rich is the Vice Chairman of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, sits on the Asia Pacific Council of the Thunderbird Alumni Association, and is an active member of RotaryAct.
Moderator is Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau.

China Weekly Hangout on nuclear power

Will the growing NIMBY movement in China stop the nuclear ambitions?

Last month we organized a first China Weekly Hangout, focusing on solar and wind energy, with Terry Cooke, Richard Brubaker and Fons Tuinstra.

China Weekly Hangout: the innovation debate

CEIBS China Europe International Business School (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Is China a copy-and-paste culture, stealing innovation from others, or the upcoming paradise for global innovation, replacing Silicon Valley? Two schools of thought are heavily divided on the innovation issue and the China Weekly Hangout on Thursday 11 October is going to try to drill a bit deeper than the daily one-liners about this subject. You can register here on our dedicated event page.

For this hangout we have invited eminent experts on innovation on China:

• Bill Fischer, professor of innovation at IMD and former CEIBS dean. He recently co-published The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen
• Greg Anderson, consultant and author of Designated Drivers: How China Plans to Dominate the Global Auto Industry (confirmed)
• China-guru at-large Janet Carmosky, Ceo of the China Business Network (confirmed). 
• Richard Brubaker of CEIBS is currently traveling, but will join if possible.

Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau will moderate. 

Together with a few other subjects like sustainability, international relations and political and economic developments, innovation is likely an issue that will make regular appearances in our China Weekly Hangout. In this first innovation hangout we will draw some first sketches and dive into China's possibilities in the auto market. In the official hangout only a few additional seats are available, do drop us a line if you want to join.
Others can follow the event on YouTube and give comments or ask questions a our dedicated event page.

Every two, three months we will address additional issues regarding innovation like: education, intellectual property, creativity, government policies, Confucianism and other elements of the innovation debate. If you want to get regular updates, do register at our China Weekly Hangout page or you can register for this event only at our event page. Changes will be announced here, and at our event page.

The China Week is in principle held every Thursday from 10pm Beijing Time, 4pm CEST (Europe) and 10am EST (US). During and after the hangout a YouTube screen and link will be available on this page.

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How is China securing its energy supply? - China Weekly Hangout

Jin Hua Gong Mine, Datong, Shanxi, China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Economic growth might be slowing down in China, securing enough energy for the future is still one of its major headaches. In the next China Weekly Hangout we will focus on energy security, the first of a range of hangouts on sustainability.

How successful is China is securing its energy supply, and what are the consequences for the environment, international relations? How is the country promoting green energy, does it work, and how does it deal with international complaints it is subsidizing its energy industry. And is that bad? 

The pros and cons of coal, nuclear power, wind energy, solar power, building dams in rivers and the efforts to save energy: enough subjects to cover with our panel, which will include (but it not limited to):

Terry Cooke

Terry Cooke is the founder of the China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia, a non-profit platform to accelerate public-private collaboration between Greater Philadelphia and China in clean energy and energy-efficient buildings. He is also a Senior Fellow at the T.C. Chan Center for Building Simulation and Energy Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (and Tsinghua University, Beijing). He most recently was elected to the Global Oversight Committee of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Terry Cooke was a 2010 Public Policy Scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., researching the U.S.-China clean energy relationship, particularly the interface of technology, policy and investment. His book Sustaining U.S.-China Cooperation in Clean Energy has been published earlier this week.

Terry has been a frequent speaker at corporate and investor events such as The BusinessWeek Global Green Business Summit China and the New York Cleantech Investors Forum 2010. He authored the Introduction to the 2009 Private Equity in China (“Tianjin Report”) and publishes frequently for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Brookings Institution, China Brief and other publications.

Terry is the founding and managing partner of GC3 Strategy Inc, a specialty firm providing advisory& training services for U.S.-based tech firms looking to build cross-border energy and environmental partnerships in Asia. An on-line portal -- www.terrycooke.com – is dedicated to the U.S.-China cleantech opportunity.

Richard Brubaker is adjunct Professor of Management, Sustainability and Responsible Leadership at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and author of the website AllRoadsLeadToChina. With almost 20 years of Asia experience (the last 10 based in mainland China), Rich assists his clients (both Fortune 500 companies and SMEs) in understanding the China market, determining their own China platform and implementing effective strategies.

Rich has a Masters in International Management from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Finance and Economics, from the University of Missouri.

Rich is the Vice Chairman of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, sits on the Asia Pacific Council of the Thunderbird Alumni Association, and is an active member of RotaryAct.

The China Weekly Hangout will be broadcast on YouTube on 10pm Beijing time, 4pm CEST and 10am EST, in this space and a link will be available on our Google+ events page - available here. On the event page you can register for the event and also leave comments or ask questions. (Note our slightly changed broadcasting time).

If you want to attend, please register at our event page. If you want to participate, do leave us a comment here or drop us a line. Please note that the number of seats in the official hangout is very limited.

A recorded edition of our hangout will be available shortly after the event. Moderation by Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

For next week we plan a debate between Heleen Mees and Maria Korolov on Heleen's PhD putting the blame for the financial crisis on China, rather than on banking products developed in the US. Timing, subject and participants are still under discussion.

Do sign up for our China Weekly Page at Googe+ if you want to be updated about future sessions.

Update: Terry Cooke's book has been published by now. You can get it in pdf here. Below the book presentation at the Wilson Center.