The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and do not represent the views of the World Economic Forum.

Kaiser Kuo is the China Bureau Chief of Red Herring Magazine

Saturday, September 2, 2006 – Beijing

In 2003, the first year I attended the China Business Summit as a summary writer for World Economic Forum, the magnitude of China’s rise had finally hit home for many Americans and Europeans. Suddenly, the U.S. trade deficit with China, the outsourcing of jobs, and Beijing’s military spending were hot-button issues. Western journalists based in China—especially those of us writing for business publications—all saw a huge uptick in demand for stories from editorial desks back home. We privately wondered why it had taken so long for the rest of the world to really wake up to something so plain to anyone on the ground here.

There wasn’t any single event, no tipping point that I can identify, that pushed China’s economic rise into western consciousness. But suddenly everything was China: half the journalists I knew were landing book deals, venture capitalists were swarming to Beijing and Shanghai, and China’s rise became the unavoidable subtext—if not the explicit theme—of every conference.

Whether they’re about alternative energy, private equity investing, or bridging the digital divide, China-themed conferences I’ve attended over the last few years—even those held in China—are too often light on representation from actual Chinese influencers and policymakers. There’s the token mayor or deputy minister who gives a passionless keynote, but that’s about it: the panelists and participants tend to be industry or academic experts who, however insightful, aren’t the decision-makers.

That’s one of the things that sets the World Economic Forum’s China Business Summit apart. As in years past, this year’s Summit affords a rare opportunity to interact with key Chinese government and industry leaders on a range of issues critical to China’s future.

It’s an opportunity, however, that can be easily squandered.

There’s a common tendency among westerners who haven’t really been immersed in China to underestimate the country’s policymakers. To be sure, it’s not hard to understand why some of the ideological formulations to have come out of Beijing in recent years—things like former president Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents”—are mocked or openly dismissed by casual China-watchers, however important the actual substance of such formulations might be. The stiff speechmaking, the antiquated, unpolished rhetorical style of all but of few of China’s recent leaders, just doesn’t go over well no matter how well it’s translated.

At this year’s Summit we will, no doubt, be treated to plenty of this. We’ll also meet some whose style of presentation is polished to western standards. But these are some very, very smart people—not only at the very highest echelons, but just as importantly, in the key ministries, at the NDRC, and at important regulatory agencies. They have a formidable combination of raw intellect and native pragmatism—not surprising in a leadership comprised overwhelmingly of technocrats. They’re the most cosmopolitan leaders that China has ever had, many of them (in the China Securities Regulatory Commission, for instance, or in the State Environmental Protection Agency) having been educated abroad.

China’s leaders hardly need to be told about the acute challenges that China faces—energy and the environment, China’s lackluster capital markets, intellectual property protection, the looming pension crisis, currency revaluation or non-performing loans. These are of course the same batch of issues that have appeared time and again on “whither China?” conference agendas. I’m not suggesting that these aren’t worth talking about

Whether in industry or in government, Chinese leaders exhibit more patience than I’d ever be able to muster for patronizing western experts who fly in to deliver lectures as if telling Beijing of these problems for the first time. China’s leaders tend to be humble, but they can’t be blamed if they’re more apt to take advice that doesn’t come with high-handed upbraiding.

I hope participants take the opportunity to engage in productive dialogue on the important issues. That’s what the World Economic Forum’s mission has always been about. And I hope that in these discussions, there’s more listening to Chinese participants than I’ve witnessed in past years, and less moralistic bludgeoning over a litany of issues that I assure you are more familiar to the Chinese leadership than to its critics.

Kaiser Kuo