Well, this is what we all thought.

The meeting was held in the Beijing News Plaza Hotel and attended by a wide range of European embassies and chambers of commerce (the room ended up fully packed). So, out of faithful dedication to the European Chamber I took part, together with its chairman, secretary general and others.

The speakers panel from left to right:
The moderator; Mr. Werner Hans Lauk (German Embassy, Minister Counselor), vice minister Yu Guangzhou of the Ministry of Commerce; Mr. Xu Bingjin, president of CEATEC; Dr. Michael Pulch (EU delegation, Deputy Head, Minister Counselor).
Germany presently holds the EU presidency.
While the EU side was constructive in its declarations and warmly thanked MofCom for hosting the meeting, the much anticipated speech by the vice minister was unfortunately once again a poor example of how some officials make us spend time to listen to non-information. What was communicated in terms of “data” one can read in better detail in China Daily or any other newspaper. Nothing new. As I am used to those lengthy waste-of-time type of meetings, my brain has been trained to do other things (review notes from other meetings, learn Chinese) while being on stand-by to any worthwhile points. Well, I heard three that woke my brain up:
– Germany was in the past a good friend of China but that seems to “have changed”, better tell that to their Chancellor (what did SHE do wrong?)
– the EU should do more to export to China but if EU companies are not competent enough, well, nothing much MofCom can do.
– IPR enforcement is fine and people can get years of prison for it (really? sure?)
Obviously, many in the audience were not amused, particularly by the “comment” about Germany in front of the whole EU audience. They surprised me by their strong reaction (maybe I have become too used to this?)

The EUCCC in the corner: Ian Kay (interim Secretary General), Ms. Carol He (Government Affairs), Ms. Hanna Boehme (SME Working Group Chairperson – Landesbank Baden-Württemberg)
As for us of the European Chamber, we had to provide our name in advance for the seating arrangement. But nothing was done, we had to scramble to find a seat. Who knows what we have done wrong too. Our Position Paper?
Conclusion: I guess few people will turn up in the future for similar meetings. Talking about “communication and bridge building between China and its top trading partner”.
Our consolation prize: a big heavy book (621 pages) all in Chinese, version 2005, about “China and Europe”. Mentions Czechoslovakia. Belgium was not listed (maybe they only know Brussels?). Possibly the ministry had to clean out their stock before printing the 2006 edition.
China does have some excellent communicators and of course needs to defend its national interests, fair enough. They were in other meetings?
The good point for me was to meet other friends from the EU. As for the buffet, I run back home and preferred my bread from the Kempinski and cold cut & Cheese from the Sanlitun Friendship Supermarket.
Later comments: 28 February 07
I received some interesting feedback on the meeting from others. They actually felt the EU speakers came up with too many and too lengthy (and repetitive) complaints on trade issues, upsetting the vice minister. It seems the vice minister then cut short and changed his speech, lashing out at the EU representatives… and omitting the news he was supposed to announce. Well, maybe a valid point. So, as often happens – miscommunication on both sides?

The European Chamber had its great Networking Event in the Zeta Bar, in the renovated Beijing Hilton. The new bar is real cool and could become a competitor for the popular Centro Bar in the Kerry Center Hotel. Nice bar and, judge for yourself, cool waiters too.
The event was a big success – 200 members filled the ground floor of the bar to full capacity. Very international crowd too – difficult to judge which was the mostly spoken second language after English – French, Spanish, and ???

As a matter of fact, the EUCCC is becoming huge. As it should, the EU is now the top trading partner for China, accounting for 15.5% of total foreign trade. Figures for 2006:
China’s trade surplus: US$ 91.7 billion, up 31% (from US$ 70.1 billion); exports US$ 182 billion up 27% – imports US$ 90.3 billion up 23%.

On 11 January Gilbert gave a presentation to a delegation of 45 EMBA students from the Copenhagen School of Business (Denmark), in the Xinqiao Hotel (Beijing).
The topic: Beijing’s modernization, the 2008 Olympics, business in China and how to deal with the Chinese government and bureaucrats.

Previously, on 4 September 2006 Gilbert gave a presentation on the modernization of Beijing and the 2008 Olympics to another EMBA delegation from Irvine California, in the Tianlun Dynasty Hotel (Beijing).
More and more we see EMBA delegations on fact finding tours here in China, Typically they visit Beijing and Shanghai where they meet executives from Chinese and foreign companies, guest speakers (like myself) as well as embassy representatives. US universities seem to be more active than European ones: most of my talks were for American groups.