The Washington State China Relations Council’s charity arm, the Washington State China Relations Fund recently produced a two-part webinar series addressing the rise of Asian Hate crimes and violence in our community.

The first webinar, held on June 24^th,  featured leaders of the AAPI community who shared their concerns and insightful comments on the rise of crimes against Asians, particularly since the outbreak of COVID 19. The panel included Connie So, UW Professor, Sam Cho, Commissioner for the Port of Seattle, Helen Wong, the director of the Chinese Information and Cultural Center and Lori Matsukawa former King 5 anchor. The speakers emphasized the need for greater educational efforts to highlight the contributions of Asian Americans in the history of the U.S. They also praised the work of Asian American journalists who are presenting an Asian viewpoint in the mainstream media.

The second part of the series on July 8^th focused upon government responses to the rise of Anti-Asian hate crimes. The interim Chief of Seattle Police, Adrian Diaz related that there was an almost doubling of reported hate crimes between 2019 and 2020 and noted that the department is  increasingly focusing upon community outreach to address the issue. The FBI’s Supervisory Special Agent Ryan Bruett explained how the FBI becomes involved in hate crime cases. Prosecutors from the King County Prosecutor’s Office Yessenia Manzo and David Bannick provided how hate crimes are under-reported and as stand-alone crimes difficult to prosecute. Ye-Ting Woo, who recently left her post as a Federal Prosecutor in the region to become the Resident Legal Advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, spoke of federal grants that are available to local police forces to address hate crimes. The speakers also provided useful information on by-stander intervention and crime reporting.

The Council would like to thank all panelists for their availability to participate in the discussions and providing their candid opinions. We’d also like to extend the appreciation to Nelson Dong, a partner in the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney and a long-time engaged board member of the Council, for moderating both sessions.

The first session (community voices) can be viewed here.

The second session (government perspectives) can be viewed here.

Andrew Polk, the co-founder and head of economic research at Trivium China, a Beijing-based strategic advisory firm, and a senior associate (non-resident) of the Freeman Chair of China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies addressed the WSCRC Board at its quarterly Board meeting on May 27^th. Andrew discussed China’s macroeconomic growth policy framework from the short term, medium term and long term perspectives, which are driven by the key goals of the two sessions, the dual circulation, and the 14^th five-year plan respectively.

Andrew presented a contrarian view of the commonly acknowledged short term growth of the Chinese economy, predicting that Chinese leaders would like to slow GDP growth but not to take “sharp turns”. Andrew noted that credit cycle, a key economic growth determinant of China’s economic growth, should be basically in line with potential nominal GDP growth. He suspects that credit growth, which had been expanding at approximately 13% p.a. would be dialed down to 10% per annum by the end of the year.  Andrew believes that with China limiting the growth of its credit markets that the drivers of global growth in 2022 will be the U.S. and European economies as they rebound from their Covid slowdowns. He mentioned that will make for tougher times for companies operating in China as opportunities develop in other markets.

For the medium term growth that’s driven by the dual circulation framework, the principle is to reduce external demand and increase domestic demand. Andrew argued that if this policy framework is effectively and fully executed, it could fundamentally reshape  global trade and investment flows and could be seen as part of China’s own plan for decoupling. Andrew also listed and commented on several key goals of dual circulation as articulated by economist Yu Yongding.

Andrew noted that the policy setting for the long-term growth in China is the 14^th Fiver-Year Plan (FYP). There are three overarching themes of the 14^th FYP – national economic security, innovation and tech self-sufficiency, and transitioning to greener growth. Both the U.S. and China see green tech as a key competition area and this is where companies should focus on.

To see Andrew’s presentation please click here.