U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2009)

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
October 23, 2009

Remarks by the President Challenging Americans to Lead the Global Economy in Clean Energy

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts

12:44 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:

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So the truth is, we have always been about innovation, we have always been about discovery.  That's in our DNA.  The truth is we also face more complex challenges than generations past.  A medical system that holds the promise of unlocking new cures is attached to a health care system that has the potential to bankrupt families and businesses and our government.  A global marketplace that links the trader on Wall Street to the homeowner on Main Street to the factory worker in China -- an economy in which we all share opportunity is also an economy in which we all share crisis.  We face threats to our security that seek -- there are threats to our security that are based on those who would seek to exploit the very interconnectedness and openness that's so essential to our prosperity.  The system of energy that powers our economy also undermines our security and endangers our planet.

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Countries on every corner of this Earth now recognize that energy supplies are growing scarcer, energy demands are growing larger, and rising energy use imperils the planet we will leave to future generations.  And that's why the world is now engaged in a peaceful competition to determine the technologies that will power the 21st century.  From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to producing and use energy.  The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy.  I am convinced of that.  And I want America to be that nation.  It's that simple.  (Applause.)

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END
1:03 P.M EDT