US-China tensions are mounting in many areas from the value of currency, tariffs, human rights and access to the Internet. Now according to news sources U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is taking aim at China's indigenous innovation policies which has a "laudable goal of nurturing a stronger innovation ecosystem" but "it has the potential to significantly disadvantage foreign companies interested in bidding for contracts worth billions and billions of dollars annually" he said at a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. ...more
Locke is heading up a delegation of 24 US companies on a clean energy trade mission. US companies, many in the clean tech and energy sector are miffed at Chinese policies which are aimed at supporting Chinese technological leadership and giving government procurement preferences to Chinese produced products. China is now the world's largest investor in energy-efficiency technologies--$34.6 billion dollars in 2009, up more than 50 percent from the previous year according to recent UN reports. Locke said: "If innovative companies perceive an unfriendly investment environment, one of two things will happen -- they'll either stop inventing or they'll decide to innovate someplace else." He called for more cooperation and a clean energy partnership between the two countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ...more
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