Page 18 - The South China Business Journal
P. 18
OVER STORY
“When you say we’re going to go to “When you say could approach it in a very constructive way, and I
every province it says … you care about we’re going think we’ve got an ambassador who has experience
the whole country, and all the people, to go to every in looking at how we approach this in a very
and you want to learn about the huge constructive way.”
diversity that’s here,” he said. province
it says you Branstad’s retail politics in China extends into
“From the Himalayas to Jilin to care about the embassy itself and his own staff: When not
Guangzhou to Chengdu where the the whole traveling, he sits with a rotating cast of staffers
pandas are. Shanghai, which is the country, and in the cafeteria for lunch and tries to get to
biggest port in the world. Beijing, the all the people, know them.
capital city. And I’ve just scratched the
surface of all the places there are to see and you The ambassador is surrounded by many career
and do here.” want to learn diplomats new to their roles in what has been
described as a tumultuous era for a depleted and
Colm Rafferty, who has spent 15 years about the demoralized State Department.
living and working in Beijing, is Iowa- huge diversity
based Vermeer Corp.’s vice president Last month Branstad hired a fellow Iowan, Steven
in the Asia Pacific and a well- that’s here. Churchill, a former member of the Iowa House of
connected vice chair for the American Representatives, as chief of staff.
Chamber of Commerce in China. He
sees Branstad’s travels as more than Before Branstad even set foot in Beijing as
good public relations. ambassador, there was staff drama.
He calls Branstad a “constructive David Rank, a career diplomat who was bridging
engager” whose retail politicking is the gap between Branstad and his predecessor, Max
part of a renewed pro-business push Baucus, resigned in June in protest over Trump’s
that could lead to new deals as he withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement,
scours the terrain. which was forged two years ago among 196 nations.
“How do we reduce the deficit?” Rank wrote that many of his colleagues whom
Rafferty said. “How do we increase U.S. he left behind also shared his worry over what he
jobs in a way that’s constructive for called “the unraveling of 70 years of bipartisan
both countries? You could approach the foreign policy.”
same issue in a destructive way or you
In a phone interview last
summer, Rank cited America’s
pullback from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) as a problem.
The trade pact, he said, was “an
important element in cementing
us, our role as an Asia-Pacific
power.”
In recent years Rank watched
China storm into growing
technology sectors such as
aerospace engineering and
alternative energy.
“I worry that in another decade
we’ll look back and find that if
we don’t address those, we’ll
have the same problems in
semiconductors that we have
today in steel.”
16 AmCham South China [Photo/U.S. Embassy in Beijing]
“When you say we’re going to go to “When you say could approach it in a very constructive way, and I
every province it says … you care about we’re going think we’ve got an ambassador who has experience
the whole country, and all the people, to go to every in looking at how we approach this in a very
and you want to learn about the huge constructive way.”
diversity that’s here,” he said. province
it says you Branstad’s retail politics in China extends into
“From the Himalayas to Jilin to care about the embassy itself and his own staff: When not
Guangzhou to Chengdu where the the whole traveling, he sits with a rotating cast of staffers
pandas are. Shanghai, which is the country, and in the cafeteria for lunch and tries to get to
biggest port in the world. Beijing, the all the people, know them.
capital city. And I’ve just scratched the
surface of all the places there are to see and you The ambassador is surrounded by many career
and do here.” want to learn diplomats new to their roles in what has been
described as a tumultuous era for a depleted and
Colm Rafferty, who has spent 15 years about the demoralized State Department.
living and working in Beijing, is Iowa- huge diversity
based Vermeer Corp.’s vice president Last month Branstad hired a fellow Iowan, Steven
in the Asia Pacific and a well- that’s here. Churchill, a former member of the Iowa House of
connected vice chair for the American Representatives, as chief of staff.
Chamber of Commerce in China. He
sees Branstad’s travels as more than Before Branstad even set foot in Beijing as
good public relations. ambassador, there was staff drama.
He calls Branstad a “constructive David Rank, a career diplomat who was bridging
engager” whose retail politicking is the gap between Branstad and his predecessor, Max
part of a renewed pro-business push Baucus, resigned in June in protest over Trump’s
that could lead to new deals as he withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement,
scours the terrain. which was forged two years ago among 196 nations.
“How do we reduce the deficit?” Rank wrote that many of his colleagues whom
Rafferty said. “How do we increase U.S. he left behind also shared his worry over what he
jobs in a way that’s constructive for called “the unraveling of 70 years of bipartisan
both countries? You could approach the foreign policy.”
same issue in a destructive way or you
In a phone interview last
summer, Rank cited America’s
pullback from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) as a problem.
The trade pact, he said, was “an
important element in cementing
us, our role as an Asia-Pacific
power.”
In recent years Rank watched
China storm into growing
technology sectors such as
aerospace engineering and
alternative energy.
“I worry that in another decade
we’ll look back and find that if
we don’t address those, we’ll
have the same problems in
semiconductors that we have
today in steel.”
16 AmCham South China [Photo/U.S. Embassy in Beijing]
