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Book tells of Xi’s
fun days in Iowa
by

Zhao Huanxin

You may recall vividly, the
time when we met.
No matter how time
flies, never fades our sweet
memory.
A Muscatine High School
choral group sang the above
lyrics from Lasting Memory
in Chinese at the launch on
May 3 of a memoir about Xi
Jinping’s visits to the Iowa
town.
To Sarah Lande, author
of the bilingual book, Old
Friends: The Xi Jinping-Iowa
Story, the song is an ode
to her friendship with the
current Chinese president
and the first lady Peng
Liyuan.
Lande coordinated Xi’s
visit to her hometown in
1985 and met him again
during his 2012 return trip.
Lande herself traveled to
Beijing in June 2012, several
months after Xi’s visit to
Iowa when he was vicepresident.
The former executive
director of the Iowa Sister
States organization said
Iowa established a sisterstate agreement with
Hebei province in 1983. The
upcoming 30th anniversary
in 2013 of the sistership was
a topic that she discussed
with Peng.
“She (Peng) said: ‘You
know, I think we should
commemorate the
30th anniversary of the
relationship between Hebei
province and the state of
Iowa, and maybe we should
do it with a friendship song,’”
Lande told China Daily.
“So she selected three
composers to develop
the songs, the lyrics and
the music, and then a
person that we work with
a lot, Madam Li (Xiaolin),
president of the Chinese
People’s Association for
Friendship with Foreign

Countries, helped make her
vision come true.”
Lasting Memory is such
a beautiful song that Lande
said she had hoped that
Peng, a renowned singer,
would perform it herself. It
is unclear if the invitation
got through, but Lande said
she had fond memories of
her time with Peng.
“When we were there
(in Beijing), they had a
lovely banquet for us, and
I ended up sitting between
President Xi and his wife,
and she said: ‘I just had
to come and meet these
people from Iowa and see
what is it that he finds so
special about them.’”
Lande would later recall
that Xi, as an official of
Zhengding county in Hebei
province, led an agricultural
delegation to Iowa in 1985
to visit farms, a grain
processing plant and other
facilities and had stayed at a
home in Muscatine for three
days and two nights.
“We treated him just as
a regular guy, and you’d be
surprised at all the loving
pictures we have,” Lande
said. “He had a big smile
on his face and was fun and
funny.”
It turned out that Xi had
sent some of the pictures
that he had when he heard
about Lande’s book project.
“When we got pictures
from him, we were amazed,”
Lande said.
Lande said Xi took a boat
ride on the Mississippi River,
and he told her that he had
always read Mark Twain
and wanted to be on the
Mississippi.
In his 2012 visit to
Muscatine, Xi told Lande
and her neighbors: “You
know, you were the first
people I met in the United
States. You’re among the
first people, to me; you are
America.”

Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai meets with Kenneth
Quinn, president and CEO of the World Food Prize Foundation,
with a book written by President Xi Jinping, and Sarah Lande,
author of Old Friends: The Xi Jinping-Iowa Story in Des Moines,
Iowa on May 3. PHOTO COURTESY OF WORLD FOOD PRIZE HALL OF LAUREATES

Technicians work on an assembly line in a General Motors factory in Wuhan, Hubei province. GM sold more than 4 million
vehicles in China last year. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

DUEL UNDERMINES
BENEFITS OF TRADE
Trade row forces Chinese importers to look to South America.
Chen Weihua reports

T

he Peak Pegasus,
a bulk cargo ship
carrying 70,000
m e t r i c to n s of
U.S.-grown soybeans, was
closely watched by millions
of people on Sina Weibo on
July 6 as it raced to the
Chinese port of Dalian
before China’s 25 percent
retaliatory tariffs took
effect that day.
It failed to meet the
deadline. The ship then
remained at sea for a
month, at a cost of $12,500
a day, before finally docking
at the port in Liaoning
province on Aug. 11 and
unloading its cargo the
next morning. Bringing in
the shipment of soybeans
worth more than $20
million incurred additional
tariffs of about $6 million.
On July 6, China placed
extra tariffs on $34 billion
worth of U.S. exports,
including soybeans, in
response to U.S. President
Donald Trump’s decision
to slap 25 percent punitive
tariffs on $34 billion worth
of Chinese exports to the
U.S. the same day.
U.S. tariffs on another
$16 billion worth of Chinese
exports took effect on
Aug. 23, and China has
responded in kind.
The U.S. announced on
Sept. 17 a 10 percent tariff
on an additional $200
billion worth Chinese goods

starting from Sept. 24 and
will also adopt other tariff
measures.
China is the world’s
largest soybean importer
and about 60 percent of
U.S. soybean exports go
to the country. Last year,
China bought $12.7 billion
worth of U.S. soybeans,
mainly to produce cooking
oil and animal feed.
The trade dispute has
forced more Chinese
importers to increasingly
turn to exporters in South
America, including Brazil,
Argentina and Uruguay.
“As the largest importer
of U.S. soybeans, China is a
vital and robust market we
cannot afford to lose,” Davie
Stephens, vice-president
of the American Soybean
Association and a Kentucky
soybean grower, said in a
statement in response to
Trump’s tariffs.
S te p h e n s sa i d soy
growers and the rural
community will see the
effects of the trade dispute
for years to come.
Statistics from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
show that China is the
largest export market for

U.S. agricultural products.
Total U.S. agricultural
shipments to the country
reached $23.8 billion last
year, accounting for 17
percent of the U.S. total.
With exports increasing
by 700 percent from 2000
to 2017, the fast-rising living
standards in China and the
switch to a consumptionbased economy were an
attractive proposition for
U.S. farmers and ranchers.
On Aug. 9, Han Jun, viceminister of agriculture and
rural affairs, described
China and the U.S. as
“strongly complementary
in agricultural trade,” but he
warned that Trump’s trade
war may force China to look
for alternative partners,
and once that is done, U.S.
farmers may find it hard to
regain their market share
in China.
China-U.S. economic
interdependence stretches
far beyond agriculture to
almost every sector of the
economy.
China is Boeing’s largest
commercial market, with
one in four planes delivered
to Chinese customers.
Last year, Boeing forecast

As the largest importer of U.S.
soybeans, China is a vital and robust
market we cannot afford to lose.”
DAVIE STEPHENS
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN SOYBEAN ASSOCIATION

that Chinese airlines would
buy 7,240 commercial jets
worth $1.1 trillion in the
next two decades.
China has announced
retaliatory tariffs on
small planes, not on large
Boeing jets. But as the
trade war escalates, such
immunity may not last.
A deteriorating trade
relationship between the
two countries could spell
opportunities for Airbus,
Boeing’s major rival in the
Chinese market.
China and the U.S. have
seen their economies
become increasingly
interdependent since the
late 1970s when China
began its reform and
opening-up drive. A rapidly
growing export-oriented
economy, fueled partly by
foreign direct investment,
h a s p rov i d e d c h e a p
Chinese exports to U.S.
consumers.
General Motors sold
m o re t h a n 4 m i l l i o n
vehicles in China last year,
more than the 3 million it
sold in the U.S.
China’s accession to the
World Trade Organization
in 2001 accelerated its
integration with the world
economy, making the
country a vital part of global
supply chains, including for
many U.S. companies.
SEE “DISPUTE” ON P3

Solid iron and hard labor
by Lia Zhu

When the “golden spike”
was driven to join the tracks
of the First Transcontinental
Railroad across the United
States in 1869, Chinese
workers, who did much of
the most dangerous and
backbreaking work, were
kept away from the widely
publicized event.
Almost 150 years later,
efforts are being made
to give faces to those
nameless workers who
played such a key role in the
completion of the railroad.
“The history of Chinese
rail workers remains largely
unknown to both Americans

and Chinese,” said Li Ju, a
photographer from Beijing.
“ Pe o p l e s h o u l d b e
reminded of the Chinese
workers’ contribution to the
U.S. economy.”
Inspired by the 19th
century American
photographer Alfred Hart,
who took images of the
railroad’s construction, Li
has traveled the route at
least once a year since 2012
to shoot the same sites as
Hart.
Wi t h t h e h e l p of a
geographical location
system, Li managed to
identify all the sites captured
in more than 360 photos that
Hart took in the 1860s.

“Some of the sites were
very difficult to locate
because there were no
landmarks in the photos,”
said Li, who is also a
computer engineer.
“History and geography
are closely connected. In
another 150 years, with the
changes in landscapes, it
will be impossible to identify
those sites.”
L i sa i d h e p l a n s to
donate his photos to the
Chinese Railroad Workers
in North America Project
at Stanford University,
which aims to create an
online archive and digital
visualizations of the era.
Two photo exhibitions

Chinese photographer Li Ju retraces the footsteps of 19th century photographer Alfred Hart, who
chronicled the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the U.S. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

featuring Li’s images
paired with Hart’s photos
are now on display at the
Utah Cultural Celebration
Center in West Valley City
and the Museum of the San
Ramon Valley in Danville,
California. Both exhibitions

are sponsored by the
Stanford project.
“The railroads connected
commerce between the
west and the east,” said
Paul Fong, a professor of
political science at the
Evergreen Valley College

in San Jose and a former
member of the California
Assembly.
“People should know
who built the railroads; it
was the Chinese workers.”
SEE “RAIL” ON P4

China Watch materials are distributed by China Daily Distribution Corp., on behalf of China Daily Beijing, China.
Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

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2

  CHINA

CHINA DAILY

China seeks pacts on robotics
I

n a sprawling warehouse
in Tokyo, several robots
made by the Chinese
company HIT Robot
Group are busy picking and
stacking goods on to the
shelves.
Equipped with sensors
and image recognition
software, they navigate
the alleys between the
shelves intuitively, choosing
unobstructed straight lines
that save time and enable
efficiency, unlike human
workers who might zigzag
unconsciously.
“In Japan, labor costs are
very high with its shrinking
pool of working population.
said Yu Zhenzhong, senior
vice-president of HIT Robot
Group.
“The demand for workers
in warehouses also changes
with the alternating peak
season and slack period in
e-commerce. Our robots
solve this problem with
lower operating costs and
higher efficiency.”
With constant progress in
research and development,
Chinese robot makers such
as HRG are increasingly
going global, shipping
their products to overseas
markets. At the same time
they are helping foreign
companies better tap
the potential in China,
the world’s largest robot
applications market, to
deepen global exchanges.
“International collaboration
is of crucial importance to
build a well-organized global
robotics industrial chain,”Yu
said.
“Frequent communication
can generate new ideas for
cutting-edge technologies.”
With robots increasingly

COMMENT
CHINAWATCH.CN

CONNECTING THINKERS
by

Erik Solheim

Veteran poachers have
killed so many elephants that
they can often imitate the
screams the animals make
when speared. They can tell
you how other elephants
howl in distress when they
see one of their own felled.
Calves have been known to
circle the disfigured body
of their mother for days in
mourning, even until their
own death.
Behind the savagery
visited on these magnificent,
h i g h l y s e n s i t i ve a n d
intelligent creatures lies
greed and a desire for shiny
objects — sometimes rooted
in trends, and sometimes
tradition. It began with the
early white settlers, with
ivory becoming one of the
great prizes of the colonial
era. In recent years, however,
demand has skyrocketed
to match the rise in global
consumer wealth, and
poaching has reached an
industrial scale.
Over the past decade,
poachers have slaughtered

Government, innovators, companies and investors highlight
global partnerships. Ma Si reports

A boy interacts with a robot at the World Robot Conference in Beijing on Aug. 16. LUO XIAOGUANG / XINHUA

intertwined with artificial
intelligence and other
technologies, Chinese
companies and their foreign
counterparts are realizing
the need to go beyond naked
competition, Yu said.
Instead, they are trying to
cultivate a win-win mentality,
marked by shared interests
and an intent to take full
advantage of each other’s
expertise to grow rapidly.
To w a r d t h a t e n d ,
HRG is partnering with
multinational robot
heavyweights such as ABB
Group of Switzerland. Such
companies are seeking to
integrate robot systems

to offer better localized
solutions for diverse sectors.
HRG, of Harbin,
Heilongjiang province, is
also teaming up with Israeli
companies for research and
development of drones.
They hope to feed off each
other’s expertise.
The push for closer ties
has become a trend in
China. Government officials,
entrepreneurs and experts
are all calling for deeper
international collaboration
in the booming robotics
sector.
Miao Wei, minister of
industry and information
technology, the country’s

industry regulator, said
China will ramp up resources
to strengthen international
cooperation as it strives to
build a globally competitive
robotics industry and
accelerate the use of smart
machines in manufacturing,
healthcare and other
sectors.
“China, as the world’s
largest robot market,
sincerely welcomes foreign
companies to take part in
the strategic opportunity
to jointly build a global
industrial ecosystem,”
Miao said last month at the
World Robot Conference in
Beijing, in which more than

Beijing can set an example for the world
more than 100,000 African
elephants for their ivory
— more than one quarter
of the population. Many of
the tusks ended up in China
and other parts of Asia,
where they were turned into
trinkets and marketed as
status symbols.
Elephants are not the only
victims. The illegal trade has
generated enormous profits
that feed corruption and
financial criminal cartels,
stoking instability around
the world.
That is why China’s
decision to ban the sale of
ivory nationally, to come in
line with the international
ban that has been in place
since 1989, deserves huge
praise. The government
ban will shut down the legal
trade in ivory, and establish
a new narrative for China’s
worldview: as a leader in
environmental action.
Surveys in China’s three
largest cities found that 95
percent of people supported
the ban because they
believed it would protect
African elephants. Only a

few years ago, similar
surveys found that
average people
d i d n o t eve n
realize that an
elephant had to
die to obtain ivory
— as the word for
ivory in Chinese
means tooth —
many people
thought it
was gathered
without harm.
That the ban has such
widespread support is a
major victory. The fight to
end the slaughter, however,
is far from over. While the
ban sends a strong message
that ivory products are now
taboo, the legal trade is
only a very small part of the
problem.
The bigger battle lies in
tackling the far larger illegal
trade. Reducing demand
will be a key weapon in this
fight but changing minds
takes years of hard work
— time that the world’s
dwindling population of
elephants may not have. It is
essential that we also come

down hard on the
supply chain. This
means tackling
the booming
internet trade,
strengthening
law enforcement,
smashing the
criminal cartels
running smuggling
operations and
disrupting the
tax havens where
they stash their
money. Much of
this will require improved
s e c u r i ty c o o p e ra t i o n
between China and
countries in Africa where
the slaughter, and initial
trafficking, takes place.
China’s influence in Africa
is growing, and with the
Belt and Road Initiative, it
is certain to grow further.
There are more than one
million Chinese expats living
in Africa. Chinese firms have
a strong foothold in most
of its 54 countries. China’s
reputation on the continent
is also broadly positive. In
attitude surveys, 70 percent
of Africans say they view the

News digest
Trade tensions windfall
Non-U.S. exporters
of seafood, meats and
grain to China are reaping
unexpected benefits from
tariff tensions that are
hurting U.S.-China bilateral
trade.
Salmon exports from
Chile doubled year-onyear in the first six months
of this year. The Thai
Ministry of Commerce
said the country’s seafood
exporters, especially those
dealing in fresh and frozen
shrimp and crab, have
benefited from the shift in
China market’s demand
from the U.S. to Thailand.
Online tool for trade
Shanghai has launched
a web-based intelligent

160 companies from 15
countries took part.
The ministry will take
measures to encourage
wider collaboration among
Chinese companies, their
international peers and
foreign universities in
technological research,
product development and
technical education, Miao
said.
That would build on the
achievements over the past
five years. China’s robotics
industry has been growing
at about 30 percent a year.
Last year the industry
was worth 120 billion yuan
($17.5 billion), according

to the Analysis Report on
Robot Industry in China
2018, jointly published by
HIT and the China Institute
of Science and Technology
Evaluation, a research
institute.
China became the world’s
largest market for industrial
robots in 2013, surpassing
Japan, according to the
International Federation of
Robotics. Last year, sales
of robots used in assembly
lines exceeded 140,000
units in the country, up 58
percent year-on-year.
Still, the robot density,
a metric for measuring
a c o u n t r y ’s l e ve l o f
automation, in China is
lower than that in many
economies, indicating
ample room for growth.
In 2016 the density of
robot workers in China was
68 units per 10,000 people,
ranking the country 23rd
worldwide, lower than the
global average of 74 units
per 10,000 people.
K a re l E l o o t , s e n i o r
partner at the consultancy
McKinsey & Company, said:
“We forecast in 2020, the
demand for robots in China
will account for 40 percent
of overall global demand.
It will grow into a gigantic
market for robot makers.”
Qu Daokui, president of
Siasun Robot & Automation
Co., said: “To better prepare
for opportunities in China
Chinese robot companies
must go global. The robotics
industry is so globalized
and changing so fast that
no one knows what a robot
will look like in five to seven
years. If we only keep our
eyes on the home turf we
will die out.”

tax inquiry system to
help companies reap
the most from free trade
agreements. The system,
called Smart FTAX, the
first of its kind in China,
aims to give importers and
exporters quick access to
existing trade agreements
and help them properly file
documents.
E-games study is no game
A university in Wuhan,
Hubei province, plans to
join the growing number of
Chinese colleges offering
a course on electronic
games, as the country looks
to fill the talent gap in the
rapidly developing industry.
Huazhong University of
Science and Technology’s
course, introduction to

country positively.
Better intelligence sharing
with African countries
could seriously disrupt
the smuggling rackets and
break the cartels. China
could also strengthen
anti-poaching teams —
the embattled first line of
defense against poachers —
and support institutions that
tackle corruption, including
police and customs officials
at African ports. Africa also
needs expertise in ecotourism and alternative
livelihood programs that
undermine the financial
incentives for poaching.
Chinese businesses can
also get involved. I was in
South Africa recently for
the African Ranger Awards
Ceremony, where Jack Ma,
the cofounder of Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba,
pledged his support for
wildlife conservation. He
said rangers should not only
be given monetary support,
but also the resources and
technology they need to
carry out their dangerous
work. That’s a great example

of the positive role Chinese
businesses can play.
By sharing its phenomenal
development journey, China
can help Africa leapfrog the
rest of the world.That means
helping African nations steer
a more considered course
to industrialization. China,
after all, has suffered more
from pollution than most
nations, and has done more
to tackle it. More broadly,
it means showing that the
old ways of development
accompanied by
environmental destruction
can be broken.

The author is unders e c re t a r y - ge n e ra l o f
the United Nations and
executive director of the
United Nations Environment
Programme. The views
do not necessarily reflect
those of China Watch.

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Leap of faith
James Yaru, a 32-year-old competitor from the United
States, flies over Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie,
Hunan province, on Sept. 13 at the seventh World
Wingsuit Championship. LIU JINWEN / FOR CHINA DAILY
game studies, will open in
September next year, said
Xiong Shuo, a lecturer in
the university’s School of
Journalism and Information
Communication. “It won’t
train students to play

games, but will introduce
issues related to video game
research and development,
technology, industry and
psychology.”
CHINA DAILY

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CHINA DAILY

3

Dispute: Fruit of a president’s folly
FROM PAGE 1

By the end of last year,
the cumulative value of U.S.
foreign direct investment
transactions in China had
passed $256 billion, and the
cumulative value of Chinese
FDI in the U.S., a relatively
re c e n t p h e n o m e n o n ,
reached $140 billion,
according to the Rhodium
Group in New York, which
tracks two-way investment.
Bilateral trade in goods
between the two countries
has expanded more than
20 0 - fo l d s i n ce 1 979,
reaching $636 billion last
year, with a $375 billion
surplus in China’s favor. But
the U.S. ran a $38.5 billion
surplus in services trade
with China in 2017, and that
figure is expected to rise
rapidly as China further
opens up its financial
services sector.
A s t u d y by Ox fo rd
Economics last year found
that China-U.S. trade
supports 2.6 million jobs
in the U.S., and trade with
China saves an average
family in the U.S. $850 a
year.
Historian Niall Ferguson
and economist Moritz
Schularick have used
“Chimerica” to describe the
two economies, due to their
close links.
Stephen Roach, a senior
fellow at Yale University’s
Jackson Institute for Global
Affairs, said the China-U.S.
relationship remains heavily
co - d e p e n d e n t . C h i n a
needs U.S. consumers
and businesses to support
the external demand that
underpins the world’s most
powerful export machine.
The U.S. depends on
China to provide lowcost imports that enable
income-constrained
consumers to make ends
meet. It also relies on China
as its third-largest and most
rapidly growing export
market as well as being a
major lender of its surplus
savings to help fund its large
and growing government
budget deficit, according to
Roach, a former chairman
of Morgan Stanley Asia and
former chief economist at
Morgan Stanley.
“Over time, I suspect
that this co-dependency
will diminish as Chinese
rebalancing shifts the
structure of demand away
from exports toward internal
private consumption,” he
said.
Roach said that as
China then shifts from
surplus savings to savings
absorption, it will have less
excess savings to lend to
the U.S. — a potentially
problematic outcome in
light of a savings problem
in the U.S. that is likely to go
from bad to worse as federal
budget deficits expand
sharply in the years ahead.

I think he (Trump)
genuinely believes
that bilateral trade
deficits are bad. He
is not the only one.
He is just the loudest
voice.”
SIMON LESTER
RESEARCHER AT THE CATO
INSTITUTE

“This ‘asymmetrical
rebalancing’ — with China
saving less and the U.S.
squandering the opportunity
to rebuild savings — was
always the greatest risk
of codependency,” said
Roach, author of the 2014
book Unbalanced: The
Codependency of America
and China.
C h i n a ’s e c o n o m i c
rebalancing started after
the global financial crisis in
2008 to avoid the so-called
middle-income trap and
to shift its economy from
a model driven by exports
and debt-fueled investment
to a more sustainable
model driven by domestic
consumption, innovation
and moving up the global
supply chain.
This has been a
remarkable success as the
consumption, services and
technology sectors have
become new engines for
China’s economic growth.
A report by consultants
McKinsey in May said that
from high-tech unicorns to
specialty chemicals, China’s
economy is moving swiftly
beyond its lower-margin
roots. (Unicorn is a term
used to denote a startup
company whose valuation
exceeds $1 billion).
The report said China’s
e-commerce market has
come from almost nowhere
to become the largest in the
world, accounting for more
than 40 percent of global
transactions in the sector.
China’s mobile payments
are 11 times the value of
those in the U.S. thanks to
consumers’ early embrace
of the technology.
China has also impressed
the world with its rapid
infrastructure development,
from high-speed railways to
airports, bridges, highways
and subway systems.
The rapid progress has
made China not only a
trade partner but also
increasingly a competitor to
the U.S. and other advanced
economies. The growing
economic relationship
has also resulted in more
friction.
For years, China and the
U.S. engaged in dialogue,
such as the annual Strategic
& Economic Dialogue and

From top: A Boeing factory in South Carolina. WANG YING / XINHUA
A shop assistant in China presents the iPhone X.
LI ZHIHAO / FOR CHINA DAILY

A pecan farmer in Georgia with some of his crops. XINHUA

the Joint Commission
on Commerce and Trade,
to address each other’s
concerns, from government
subsidies and intellectual
property rights protection
to restrictions on high-tech
exports and investment.
Trump, however, has torn
up that script. Instead of
engaging in dialogue, he
has initiated and threatened
tariffs on China and the rest
of the world, including using
the outdated Section 301
of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974
— which authorizes the
president to take action,
including retaliation, against
foreign governments in
certain cases — and national
security as excuses.
Simon Lester, a researcher
at the Cato Institute who

worked as a legal affairs
officer at the Appellate Body
Secretariat of the World
Trade Organization, said
the U.S. will lose any case
against the Section 301
tariffs, but litigation might
take years.
“I think he (Trump)
genuinely believes that
bilateral trade deficits are
bad. He is not the only one.
He is just the loudest voice,”
Lester said.
Henry Levine, a senior
adviser at consulting firm
A l b r i g h t S to n e b r i d ge
Group and former U.S.
deputy assistant secretary
of commerce, said Trump’s
decision to impose punitive
tariffs on China reflects two
of his deeply held, long-term
beliefs. These are that trade

is a zero-sum game and
that other countries have
for decades been taking
advantage of the U.S. by
running trade surpluses
with it and depending on
it for security guarantees
without paying their fair
share.
Most economists
disagree with Trump’s view
on trade deficits, and Lester
said he could line up 1,000
economists to explain why
it is misguided. The U.S. has
been running a trade deficit
every year since 1976, a
deficit caused largely by
U.S. fiscal policy, the low
domestic savings rate and
the role of the dollar as a
global reserve currency.
The country’s trade
d ef i c i t w i t h C h i n a i s
misleading to the public,
as China has become a
multinational assembly line.
The often-cited example
is the iPhone, which has
components from around
the world. China adds about
$10 in labor costs, but this
is calculated as more than
$300 in Chinese exports by
U.S. Customs.
This saw the iPhone alone
contribute $15.7 billion, or
4.4 percent, of the U.S.
trade deficit with China last
year, according to a Reuters
report.
Such complicated global
supply chains led Mary
Lovely, an economist at
the Peterson Institute for
International Economics,
to conclude that Trump’s
Section 301 tariffs against
China actually disadvantage
U.S. producers and harm
U.S. allies in East Asia.
David Dollar, a senior
fellow at the Brookings
Institution and a former
U.S. Treasury emissary in
Beijing, echoed the view,
saying,“As the U.S. imposes
tariffs (on China), half
of that pain will be felt by

other countries.” He added
that the collateral damage
will include U.S. firms that
produce and operate in
China.
Trump has always blamed
China for the loss of U.S.
jobs, but most economists
believe that it is automation,
rather than China or Mexico,
that are responsible for U.S.
job losses.
Under the administration
of Barack Obama, Beijing
and Washington engaged in
negotiations for a Bilateral
Investment Treaty, which
was expected to help
increase their economic
interdependence in the 21st
century.
About 150,000 U.S.
jobs are now supported
by Chinese investment,
according to the Rhodium
Group.
G a r y H u f b a u e r, a
nonresident senior fellow
at the Peterson Institute,
said analysis by himself and
his colleagues shows that
economic interdependence
has been very beneficial for
the U.S.
But he said that as long
as Trump is president, there
will be less interdependence
of trade and investment.
“This is highly regrettable,
and will cost both countries
in terms of innovation and
economic performance,”
said Hufbauer, a former
deputy assistant secretary
for international trade and
investment policy at the
U.S. Treasury Department.
In 2014, Hufbauer and his
colleagues Fred Bergsten
and Sean Miner coauthored
the book Bridging the
Pacific: Toward Free Trade
and Investment Between
China and the United
States, in which they argue
that both countries will
benefit enormously from
free-trade and investment
accords.

Online sports apps gain popularity
by Zheng Yiran

Jin Chi, 28, a white collar
worker in Beijing, wakes up
at 6 a.m. every day. Wearing
his smartwatch equipped
with Codoon, a GPSsupported app that keeps
track of his route and time,
Jin runs for 40 minutes,
a habit he has kept up for
three years.
In the evening he uses
Keep, another mobile
exercise app that instructs
him in his personal strength
training program.
“I use Keep one hour every
day, seven days a week,” Jin
said. “I can’t live without the
app now.
“After using mobile fitness
apps I seldom go to the
gym. Using mobile apps to
do sports is more flexible. I

can enjoy extensive strength
training or a yoga course
whenever and wherever I
want to.”
Many people today are
relying on online products
to support their sporty
lifestyles.
A report by the Beijing
market research consultancy
Analysys showed that
by April the number of
active users of such online
platforms had reached 68.5
million in China.
On l i n e a p ps i n t h e
walking, running and
fitness categories grab
the most traffic among
users, accounting for 34.3
percent, 34 percent and
18 percent respectively.
Guangchangwu, or
square dancing, cycling
and yoga also represent a

considerable proportion.
“We have now entered an
era in which the number of
internet users will not jump
dramatically, said Chen
Qiaoshan, a medical analyst
with Analysys.
“Traffic in the online
sports sector will grow
moderately, and businesses
will need to compete to win
market share.”
Users in different sports
categories have a wide
range of demands for the
functionality apps offer,
she said. While fitness
enthusiasts value how the
online apps track their
sports data and plan out
their training, those who
aim to lose weight mainly
rely on the apps to serve
as a private tutor to guide,
encourage and accompany

them during training, she
said.
Helen Yang, who took
part in a 1,699 yuan ($346)
online weight reduction
course for 45 days, said she
liked the flexibility that the
online course offered.
“ T h e o n l i n e co u rse
costs less than hiring a
private trainer in the gym.
In addition, users who take
part in the same course
have a virtual space for
chatting. We talk about
fitness topics often and
encourage each other in
losing weight. The course
has social features.”
The Analysys report found
that last year, the average
daily use time was about
30 minutes. In July 2017
the average use time was
77 minutes. The peak times

A man looks at data displayed by a mobile phone app, which
tracks the time and energy consumed, as he exercises in a gym in
Beijing. XINHUA

are usually the morning and
evening.
The National Development
and Reform Commission
said on Aug. 2 that the
country’s sports industry
had continued to grow
rapidly this year, becoming
a new driver for economic
development.

The added value of the
sports industry is estimated
to account for more than 1
percent of the country’s
GDP this year, with related
consumption reaching 1
trillion yuan, said Ou Xiaoli,
director of the commission’s
social development
department.

 SECTION SPONSORED BY CHINA DAILY

4

  CHINA

CHINA DAILY

TV host and fashion icon who
introduced China to the world
Yue-Sai Kan broke the mold with her 1980s travel show then launched a top cosmetics line. Wang Linyan reports

T

oday the Chinese
travel and study
abroad, watch
b l o c k b u ste rs a t
cinemas, order international
fashion brands online and
do business with people
from other countries.
But 32 years ago they
mainly saw the outside world
only by watching television at
home, starting with Yue-Sai
Kan’s One World.
The 15-minute show,
which aired twice a week
in Chinese and later in
English, was the first travel
program on Chinese TV. It
brought Western society to
an audience of 300 million
Chinese.
Viewers saw the pyramids
in Egypt, the Acropolis in
Greece, the River Thames
in England, baseball in the
United States, and much
more. The show was also
packed with ideas and
issues.
“In those early years we
talked about ecological
problems, environmental
problems, housing for the
poor, equal rights for women
in Sweden,” Kan said.
“I talked about things like
that, which they (Chinese
people) hadn’t even started
to think about at that time.
The goal was to give a
global view to the Chinese
audience.”
The show lasted a year,
running for 48 episodes on
China Central Television,
the State broadcaster, and
covering 14 countries. It
made Kan the most-watched
TV personality in the country.
The most remarkable
part, Kan said, was that so

many Chinese had not seen
anything about the outside
world before her program.
It changed “the vision and
mindset” of the Chinese
people, she said.
“So many people would
say to me, ‘I never knew the
outside world was like this.
You really inspired me.’”
The program put her in
the spotlight, winning rave
reviews in the media and
countless letters from fans.
One magazine called her a
modern-day Marco Polo,
while The New York Times
wrote, “Yue-Sai Kan’s work
augurs well not only for China
and the U.S. but also for the
rest of the world.”
“During my trips to China
in the past year, I have been
greeted with such great
hospitality and affection, as
if I were a returning relative

Top: Yue-Sai Kan demonstrates makeup for customers in a
shopping center in Shanghai in 1996. Above: Kan presents her TV
show One World from Brazil, in 1986. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

or a long-separated friend,”
Kan wrote in her memoirs,
also titled One World.
“Everywhere I went I
was deeply touched by
the genuine warmth I
encountered.”
The book, published in
1987, came after Ai Zhisheng,

then minister of radio,
television and film, asked her
to write about how she made
the TV program.
“He said, ‘We don’t know
how to make TV shows. This
book will teach the Chinese
people how to,’” she said.
At t h e t i m e, C CT V

broadcast for just six hours
a day, “so that’s one of the
most outstanding things I’d
heard”, she said.
Kan’s trademark haircut,
known as the Yue-Sai hairdo,
and her Western makeup and
clothes fascinated people
in the 1980s, when women
dressed in a similar style and
looked the same, with short
haircuts and no makeup.
“It was really an alien idea
to smear lipstick on your lips,”
she said, speaking in her New
York apartment.
“Only actresses at that
time used lipstick.”
Kan launched cosmetics
under her Yue-Sai brand
in Shanghai in September
1992, two years after she
had registered a company
in Shenzhen. The first day’s
sales brought in 20,000 yuan
(about $3,600 at the time).

“It was like a breath of fresh
air, just like in television,” Kan
said. “We basically colorized
the whole country.”
Kan is also credited as
being the first TV journalist
to connect East and West
with the creation of her
award-winning weekly show
Looking East, which aired in
the United States.
The program was her first
major production and the
first of its kind to introduce
American audiences to
Asian cultures in countries
including Thailand, Malaysia
and Singapore.
Having observed that
the West knew little about
Asia, particularly China,
Kan believed it was her duty
to help the U.S. and China
get to know each other
better. She also produced
and hosted a documentary
in 1988 called Journey
Through a Changing China.
Kan has a charity that has
built schools and libraries
and provided scholarships
to underprivileged
students in high schools
and universities in China,
including in her native Guilin,
where she lived until she was
2 years old. Her family first
moved to Hong Kong and
then the U.S.
In March, she returned
to her birthplace, a Qing
Dynasty-style building
called Yanshan Garden,
which has been turned into
a picturesque park.
Kan said she was happy
to see the growth that has
taken place in her hometown
and across China.
“I’d bet on China,” she
said.

Rail: The toil of laying down iron
FROM PAGE 1

Yan Ran (front), chairman of Shaolin Temple U.S.A., and kung
fu instructors practice at a Shaolin culture center in San
Francisco. LIA ZHU / CHINA DAILY

Kung fu skill helps
light up life path
by Lia Zhu

Like any other boy, Jason
Luo wanted to be strong, so
he started practicing kung fu
eight years ago. As he grows
he finds that he has honed
skills that can help prepare
him for the future.
“I started out because I
had too much energy, and
then I thought this was a
good place to release it,” said
Jason, 14, who lives in the
San Francisco Bay Area.
“As I got older this was
not just a place to vent all
my energy, not only exercise,
but to use as a stepping
stone for something I need
in the future, like college
applications.”
Jason enrolled in a Shaolin
kung fu program eight years
ago and has been practicing
almost every day since.
He is much healthier now
and a lot more confident
after having taken part in
competitions, he said.
“I build confidence when
hundreds and thousands
of people are watching me
doing what I’m prepared
for. That’s a very helpful skill

that I developed through this
program.”
Chinese kung fu became
popular among Westerners
thanks to Bruce Lee and Jet
Li, but more people study
the traditional Chinese
martial art because they
benefit from it, said Yan
Ran, chairman of Shaolin
Temple U.S.A., a nonprofit
organization committed to
promoting Shaolin kung fu
in the United States.
Since the organization
was founded in 2007, four
centers have been set up in
the Bay Area and another
in Herndon, Virginia, with
more than 2,000 students
enrolled.
For more than 1,500 years
the monks of Shaolin Temple
have been practicing Chan
Buddhism through martial
arts. Shaolin kung fu is the
best-known forms of ancient
Chinese martial arts and the
Chinese government listed
as a national intangible
cultural heritage in 2007.
Among Shaolin Temple
U.S.A.’s students, about 70
percent of them come from
non-Chinese backgrounds.

The FirstTranscontinental
Railroad, originally known
as the Pacific Railroad, was
a 1,907-mile continuous
track completed on May
10, 1869, linking the Pacific
west coast with the Atlantic
east coast for the first time
in U.S. history.
Fong’s great-grandfather
worked on the railroad from
1897 to 1898 before he fell
ill and returned to China.
“It was hard work,” he
said. “There was no labor
protection; you had to work
long hours and workers
were easily exploited back
then.”
Fo n g o n l y l e a r n e d
about the role of Chinese
workers in the railroad
when he attended an AsianAmerican studies class in
college.
“I was surprised that we
had such a long history.
People need to know they
sacrificed a lot, including
their lives, to build the
railroad. It’s a significant
part of history.”
The railroad, which took
six years to build, was one of
the most remarkable feats
of engineering in the 19th
century.
Chinese laborers joined
the workforce for the
western section, the most
arduous phase of the
construction, because
workers from Ireland were
reluctant to undertake
such hazardous work.
The Chinese workers
set a record for laying
10 miles and 56 feet of
track in 12 hours and
foremen considered them
indispensable.
California Governor
Leland Stanford reported
to congress in 1865:
“Without them (Chinese

A section of track on the Humboldt Plains stretches into the distance at the same site as it did
150 years ago, as photographed by Hart in those days (below). PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

workers), it would be
impossible to complete
the western portion of this
great national enterprise,
within the time required by
the Acts of Congress.”
Chinese workers,
desperate for work to
support their families, left
their towns and villages
in Guangdong province,
which were then blighted
by poverty and unrest, and
boarded ships bound for
California.
Historians estimate that
at any one time as many as
10,000 to 15,000 Chinese
laborers were working on
construction of the railroad
between 1865 and 1869.
The most hazardous
sections of the route
included the construction
of tunnels at high elevations
through the mountains of
the Sierra Nevada range.
In winter, fierce blizzards
would often block tunnel
entrances and trigger
avalanches that swept
away the worker’s camps
— carrying many of them
to their deaths, according to
the Stanford project.

It is estimated that
nearly 1,200 Chinese
railroad workers died from
work-related accidents,
avalanches and explosions
while toiling through the
Sierra Nevada.
In honor of the Chinese
workers and their sacrifices,
the California Assembly
passed a resolution last
year to designate May 10 as
California Chinese Railroad
Workers Memorial Day.
“As a fourth-generation
C h i n ese A m e r i ca n , I
think it is very important
for all Americans to

commemorate the
historical significance of
the experiences of Chinese
railroad workers,” said Evan
Low, California Assembly
member and author of the
resolution.
Next year marks the
150th anniversary of
the completion of the
First Transcontinental
Railroad. Celebrations to
mark the occasion will
include a commemorative
ceremony at the Chinese
American Memorial
Museum in San Jose
History Park.