My China Friendship Visit - 我的中国友谊之行

I hadn't been to China since 2011 when I was a Fulbright Scholar, and I knew a lot had changed. In 2024, I decided it was due time for a visit to my favorite home-away-from-home country and I planned a trip to visit Beijing and Chengdu. 

The impetus for my trip to China was my personal  mission to build friendship ties between the people of the US and China, amidst declining bilateral relations between the two nations.  I speak Mandarin and have a passion for people-to-people friendship ties between countries.  Quite apt as we watch and enjoy the Paris Olympics - a great example of athletic diplomacy.  In China, the pandas and I are joined in building friendship between the US and China, and my fear was that we were the only beings with this goal. 

Beneath dual saber-toothing over territoriality, chip wars, and disease attribution, are two nations, one with 333.3 million people (USA)  and one with 1.4 billion (China). My thesis on globalization and humanity is that 99.9% of the shared population between our two nations could care less about the controversial items listed above and instead have a ton to gain by sharing experiences around sports, science & technology, art, conservation, food, and other shared passions.   My trip only strengthened my thesis, and was a lot of fun too. 

I had an amazing trip and here are a few highlights and reflections.  

Where did the foreigners go? 

International business people, students, tourists, sports exchanges - there were next to no international people visiting Beijing during June of 2024. My friend confirmed there are a total of 30 American university exchange students in Beijing in 2024, down from thousands in 2011.   A lack of international visitors translates into fewer interpersonal and cultural exchanges between families, business, and people and even fewer tools to use to dispel conflict and fear mongering between the two nations.  

We did see a 30 strong African delegation attending an MBA bootcamp in Beijing and we were joined by 5 Americans and 1 French tourist for a Great Wall hiking adventure. Friends and guides reported that post COVID, international visits have been slow to pick up.  Areas such as Sanlitun, Forbidden City, and the Chengdu Panda Zoo, that once teamed with foreigners were now 100% full of locals. 

Days of bilateral scientific collaboration are behind us, for now

The bilateral conflicts over bio-tech, chip technology, and investing have led to a severe drop off in scientific collaboration for climate tech.   My lens is through climate tech and the criticality of developing, scaling, and sharing technology for decarbonization, air pollution mitigation, and water saving technology.  

One contributing factor to the downturn of climate tech development is the halt in VC investing in China in 2022-23 due to restrictions on currency exiting the country.  In 2024 the Chinese government took measures to level the playing field and encourage Foreign Direct Investment, but both FDI and VC funding are both negligible compared to ten years ago. 

The funding gap is exacerbated by a halt in multilateral scientific relations. For example the Fulbright in China was canceled in 2020.  Collaboration between the US EPA and China’s Ministry of Economy and Environment has all but ended since COVID. Global NGOs such as EDF and NRDC have ceased China operations and, on balance, international collaboration over climate technologies have all but stopped in China. 

My good friend in Beijing leads an air pollution startup accelerator and reports that the lack of private investor capital (home grown and international VCs) is hampering innovation and this combined with a soft exit environment is leading to a dearth of emerging climate tech startups.  Although the Chinese government is investing heavily in green hydrogen and decarbonization, private sector activity and commercialization of technology has slowed to a halt. 

Seeds of Change

Of course the origins of COVID and the global impacts of COVID deeply impacted China as a country and how the world works with China.  Post-COVID however, it's time to get people and relationships back on track -given all that is at stake - which are both important scientific advancements in climate tech and all to be gained through closer mutual understanding of our cultures. I recently saw that the World Economic Forum held an air pollution summit in Dalian, China - indicating there are seeds of innovation, they will need water and sun (i.e. investment and collaboration) to grow and bloom. I am also supportive of the Restoring Fulbright Exchanges with China and Hong Kong Act, now working its way through the U.S. Congress, led by Reps. Rick Larsen (WA-02), Don Beyer (VA-08) and Judy Chu (CA-28).