China - Blog IV

Thursday night I was scheduled to have dinner with my friend Gao Qiang, who until last year was China’s Minister of Health. He no longer has day-to-day management responsibility but continues to have significant involvement in health policy. He called to say he had meetings related to the earthquake so he needed to cancel our plans. I completely understood.

We were able to get together for a brief visit on Friday morning. He had only had two hours sleep the previous three nights. He said the entire government was focused on the rescue effort.

I was also able to spend time with Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology. We had met at the Third Strategic Economic Dialog last December but this was our first opportunity to spend time getting acquainted. We reviewed the existing relationship between HHS and the Ministry and laid out some areas where we have additional common interests.

During the middle of the day, I took a short break to attend a program at an International School on Internet Safety for Children. My wife Jackie volunteers full time for the ikeepsafe Foundation. The foundation has developed a book about internet safety using an Olympic Game theme and the book launch was held at the school. One of their sponsors has arranged to place several thousand copies of the book in schools.

The afternoon was spent in more meetings with government officials. I spent a productive hour with Minister Li and his Deputy Minister Wei. They reviewed with me plans they have to ensure food safety for the Olympics. It was rather extraordinarily detailed and well coordinated. The essence of the plan is if you touch any food during the Olympics as a restaurant, supplier, or processor, or transporter then you have to register and agree to certain standards. They have developed a tracking system that is the most elaborate thing I have ever seen. I can’t recount every component of the system but it includes GPS tracking of every truck carrying food, traceability of ingredients and an incident reporting system. I told Minister Li that if he could pull half of it off, his organization should be given a gold medal in food safety.

We also spoke at length about the progress on the implementation of our Memorandum of Agreement on food safety. We are making steady progress.

After our meeting, my good friend Vice Minister Wei arranged for us to see the Olympic park. What a treat that was. We went to a building where they display scale models of each venue. It was well presented. We then drove to several parts of the park so we could see the venues from close range. They are spectacular. The visit rekindled many of my Olympic feelings from 2002 when my home state of Utah hosted the Winter Olympic Games.

China will be stretched to manage the final preparations for the games and the earthquake recovery at the same time. It brought back memories of our Olympic preparations. The Olympics were only a few months after 9/11 hit. Suddenly the nature of the 2001 games changed. We would become the first major world gathering after the attack. Many were concerned that terrorists would use the Olympics as a target. We beefed up our security arrangements considerably during the final three months.

I rushed back to the Embassy to do a news conference. Regrettably, I was caught in Beijing traffic, which is simply unbelievable. I was about a half an hour late and that always makes me uncomfortable. The journalists were patient and seemed to understand the traffic problem. Most of their questions focused on import safety issues. There were 18 reporters there.

My final meeting of the day was dinner at Ambassador Sandy Randt’s home for members of my delegation. It was a terrific evening. Ambassador Randt has lived in the region for much of his professional career. He and his wife Sarah have been in China several times, starting in the 1970s. He also lived in Hong Kong for many years, speaks the language and is a terrific relationship builder. He is remarkably able and likeable; all good qualities for an Ambassador.

Our dinner conversation focused on China’s place in the next quarter century and a comparison of the unique challenges our respective countries face to maintain our economic momentum. We talked about the challenge of entitlement spending in the United States and the various disparities China will need to manage. It was an interesting conversation.

The best part of the evening was a conversation we had about music that we grew up with. Each of us named songs that took us emotionally back to our adolescence and the associated memories. My song was Strawberry Fields Forever, by the Beatles. It reminded me of sitting at a small drive-in on the outskirts of Loa, Utah where our ranch is located. I would go there on summer evenings to order food and play songs from the Juke box.

We all shared great memories. It was a terrific way to get to know each other.

Comments

Honorable Secretary,

I saw on TV Yang Yang, an Olympic champion in Utah, was with 3 other Chinese Olympic champions in Sichuan to comfort and strengthen the hearts of the school children after the earthquake. They were so well received. Understanding you were impressed by Yang Yang's performance in Utah, I believe you will also be proud of Yang Yang championing the Olympic spirit among kids at their most difficult moment.

As an average Chinese citizen, I hope to thank you again for your sympathy in the recent earthquake in Sichuan.

Best regards to you and your wife,

Han Jianl

Posted by: Han Jianli | May 26, 2008 at 04:06 AM

Secretary Leavitt,

The three most striking elements of your post to me are "agree to certain standards" - which begs the question of who's standards? France, Korean, Ukrainian, US, UK, Australian?

The feedback and tracking system makes me feel better. US restaurants wait until some one checks on them. Often people accuse a place of "food poisoning" without ever calling or reporting the place.

Traffic. With so many Chinese trading bikes for cars when others wish to trade their car for a bike its an interesting picture. To me it says the country is getting more connected and not moving all their goods traditionally by water. Yes, oil comes to mind. But there is more to the picture.

Lastly people are not only looking forward to the HHS webcast on workplace safety but posting links on other message boards. As DemFrmoCT posted on daily KOS, its been four long years but folks are not tired of the subject.

Safe travels to you and yours,

Kobie
"Doing what I can where I can, even when I think I can't."

Posted by: Kobie | June 02, 2008 at 02:06 PM

Hello,

May I suggest a link related to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games?

Our site:

URL: http://www.2008chinaolympics.com
Title: Beijing Olympics

Please let me know if you want a link back.
Many thanks for your reply.

Best Regards,
Don
chinaolympics8@gmail.com

Posted by: Don | August 06, 2008 at 02:08 AM