Speeches and Articles by Former Consul General James R. Keith

"The U.S., Hong Kong, and Greater China"
Remarks by U.S. Consul General James R. Keith to the Committee of 100's First Greater China Conference

Grand Hyatt Ballroom, Hong Kong
January 13, 2005

[John Chen, CEO of Sybase, will introduce]

Thank you, John, for that kind introduction. I'm honored to have been invited to speak to the Committee's first conference to be held in greater China. Although I might not qualify for membership, I've spent most of my career working on the U.S.-China relationship and can endorse the Committee's goal of promoting understanding between our two cultures and countries.

A hard-fought heritage

The individual accomplishments of your members say a lot about the American experience in general, and the Chinese experience in America in particular. The Chinese immigrant experience in the U.S. was not dissimilar to that of scores of other ethnic groups. They left their home countries to escape political or economic woes and forged new lives in the U.S. Some Chinese-Americans have been on the continent longer, since before the Mayflower, having come to the Spanish colonies by way of Manila with the 16^th century galleon trade.

Assimilation was not easy. Many came to work the railroads or the Hawaiian sugarcane plantations, leaving their families back in China. The ratio of Asian men to women was as high as 10-to-1 in 19^th century America. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 drove them to maintain separate immigrant communities, creating further distance between themselves and mainstream America.

With further waves of immigration through the beginning of the 20^th century, Chinese-Americans were creating families, educating their children, and putting down roots. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, combined with turmoil in Asia, led to the immigration of millions of Asian to the U.S. The population of Asian Americans grew from 1.5 million in the 1970 census to nearly 12 million today. According to the 2000 census, Asian Americans now comprise nearly 5% of the U.S. population and represent one of the fastest growing ethnic groups.

Of today's nearly 12 million Asian Americans, the largest group among them is Chinese-Americans, with 2.3 million. Asian Americans hold the highest number of college, law, medicine or doctorate degrees of any minority, so it is not surprising that Chinese-Americans comprise 20% of computer programmers, scientists and engineers. Although Chinese-Americans are not yet free from discrimination, as some of the Committee's own research has shown, this is a remarkable record of accomplishment.
Hong Kong as a gateway

It is fitting to hold this meeting – the first Committee of 100 conference to be held in greater China – here in Hong Kong. Hong Kong residents have some of the same history and experience of immigration, struggle and eventual triumph over adversity that is true in the Chinese American experience. But it's also significant that you hold your meeting here because Hong Kong's role in fostering understanding between East and West, and particularly between the U.S. and China – one of the Committee's expressed missions.

Hong Kong plays a key role in China's engagement with the rest of the world. U.S. companies – and indeed many international companies – use Hong Kong's expertise to find partners and launch their businesses on the mainland. In Southern China, more than 11 million Chinese workers are employed in 65,000-odd Hong Kong-run factories, learning first-hand how to do business based on the free market business model. Hong Kong provides access to capital markets and is the listing center of choice for PRC companies, helping them to become more expressed in an international context.

The ties between the U.S. and Hong Kong people are deep and abiding. We have a significant economic stake in Hong Kong. Some 55,000 Americans live and work here. This city hosts more than 1,100 American firms employing a quarter of a million people. Cumulative American foreign direct investment in Hong Kong was $44 billion at the end of 2003. U.S. exports last year were $13.5 billion, making Hong Kong our 18th largest trading partner. Imports reached $8.9 billion.

We share numerous common interests with Hong Kong, among them:

• Trade liberalization. Hong Kong has been at the forefront of WTO efforts to reduce barriers to trade and will host the WTO ministerial meeting later this year.
• Secure trade. As the single largest source of U.S.-bound sea containers, Hong Kong participation in the Container Security Initiative is vital to protect the global trading system from terrorist threats.
• Denying funds to terrorists. As the second largest financial market in Asia, Hong Kong's work on preventing terrorist financing has been crucial. We have excellent law enforcement cooperation and work together on a range of issues to protect the people of both Hong Kong and the U.S.
• Protection of intellectual property rights. An effective IPR regime is fundamental to fostering investment and growth. Hong Kong has made strides in IPR protection and in some respects serves as a model for the region. We hope that Hong Kong will sustain the pace of its ongoing enforcement activities aimed at local producers and vendors of infringing products and that it will step up efforts against end-use piracy and the cross-boundary flow of infringing products.

In addition, port calls to Hong Kong by U.S. ships allow our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines to enjoy rest and recreation, as we saw over Christmas with the visit by the USS Abraham Lincoln. At the same time, over seven thousand Hong Kong students study at U.S. universities. (This is in addition to the nearly 62,000 mainland Chinese students and 26,000 Taiwanese students who are there.)

All of this says a lot about a city of seven million people, and underpins our national interest in Hong Kong's maintenance of a high degree of autonomy under the "one country, two systems" formula as well as Hong Kong's continued prosperity. We have global, regional, and bilateral reasons for hoping for Hong Kong's continued success. We also believe that Hong Kong's success and the success of "one country, two systems' are closely linked to China's success.

As China assumes an ever more important international role, it is vital that we work together for the greater stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Although U.S.-China relations have developed well, challenges remain – on trade, Taiwan, and human rights policy to name just a few. As an organization of prominent Chinese-Americans, the Committee of 100 is uniquely positioned to provide a bridge between our societies that can foster mutual understanding and overcome challenges. We fully share your vision and your over-arching goals, and wish you every success in this conference.