Spring Comes to New York

3/17/2010 - In nature, spring is a time of rebalancing, from which comes renewal and life. More or less, it’s when winter and summer – yin and yang - renegotiate, and so, it’s the perfect time for east and west to celebrate together.  On March 16, The China Business Network teamed up with the China Center and China Daily for such a celebration.

Opening remarks by Janet Carmosky

Good evening to all.

I am your emcee tonight, my name is Janet Carmosky and I am CEO of The China Business Network, which is a community for everyone doing business between China and the West.

On behalf of our hosts tonight - China Daily and China Center New York- welcome to “Spring Comes to New York 2010”. The coming of Spring is to be a universal cause for celebration. We’re ready to go outside without the coats. Feel warmth, hear birds, see leaves….

In nature, spring is a time of rebalancing, from which comes renewal and life. More or less, it’s when winter and summer – yin and yang - renegotiate, and so, it’s the perfect time for east and west to celebrate together.

Having said that, tonight, we should all put away the negotiating and the renegotiating that our lives as business people entail. Nothing to manage, report on, or clean up tonight. Just enjoy the food, the music, and especially the company. Catch up with your old friends and make some new ones. Just to provide an incentive, any guest who makes a few new friends tonight can enter the drawing for a few really fabulous gifts.…three copies of China Speakers Bureau A Changing China, which happens to have my picture on the cover; two copies of China Daily’s gorgeous book of historical news photographs 1949-2009; and..contributed by China Center, a pair of courtside Nets tickets for the March 26 game against the Detroit Pistons. Stay tuned!

New York is capital of America’s financial, media, and real estate sectors and so we have a growing population of expat business people from China. They are here to build bridges that continue China’s economic and social integration into the larger world. Bringing skills and resources, ideas, energy, and visions of a world where China – as in many past eras - has a central role to play on the global stage – they also need us to make it happen.

Having spent most of my adult life working and living in China, I understand expat life. I lived many years in Shanghai and I know that nothing I did, as part of a western organization, would take root unless it was facilitated by and integrated with what was all around us. Which was China. (Or at least Shanghai, which is representative of China as New York is of America.) So those of us who want to be part of integrating and blending Chinese business into our culture and economy are key. If we want to be useful, we have to bring appropriate access to the resources, talents and structures we have in place. We need to reach out and listen, to be constructive, and to hang in there while we all figure out how to do this. The rebalancing is important, and it is a new effort, and it is a multi-point to multi-point endeavor.

The hosts of Spring Comes to New York are major forces in the business community, and now fully focused on the path of rebalancing.

First, China Center of New York. This building, 7 WTC, on the 33rd floor, is where China Center is opening its marketing center. And the Freedom Tower floors 42-47 are the future home of the fully built Center. China Center will be a base of operations and a home away from home for Chinese on business here, just as the two China Center locations in Beijing are now a comfortable and flexible space for business travellers in Beijing. We will hear from Xue Ya, President of China Center, a bit later tonight.

Second, China Daily, the venerable English daily established in 1981 for the specific purpose of helping a growing number of English speaking expats to connect better with China. Here they are in the USA now, expanding distribution to reach English speakers who are not expats, to connect better with China.

I moved to China in 1985, 4 years after the first China Daily issue, and 3 years after my first Chinese lesson. China Daily was a smoothly written read, in my native language, defining precisely what the government wanted me, as a foreigner, to know. It was more or less the only English I saw. My Chinese got better, and I picked up knowledge through conversation, osmosis, and increasingly, Chinese language media. 25 years later, there’s a lot more coverage to scan. I can read many sources, in Chinese and English, on the internet and in print. And it’s helpful to see the spectrum, where every writer and publication has some position reliably orthodox and relentlessly critical. Yet when I want to know the frame of reference and the tone of China’s approach to the west, China Daily is still my True North. So, if you don’t subscribe, you probably should. The senior management of China Daily USA are here tonight and I’m sure they’ll sign you up. 

We are also fortunate to have Mr. Gao Anming, secretary general of China Daily, who came from Beijing to be here with us tonight.
Third, Lawrence Tian, CEO of CIFCO, and the founder of China’s commodities futures market, is here with us tonight. His company is the third sponsor for Spring Comes to NY 2010. For those of you who follow commodities, you may know that China’s commodities market, as of a few months ago, has overtaken the USA as the largest commodities market in the world. We wish Mr Tian well with his USA business objectives. 

So now, without further ado, enjoy the view, the food, the entertainment, and each other’s company. 

各位来宾，晚上好！
我叫Janet Carmosky, 是今天晚会的主持人。我是中国商务网络的总裁，中国商务网是对华商务人士的社区网。

首先，我代表今天晚会的主办方，中国日报和China Center 欢迎各位和我们一起享受“春至纽约2010”晚会。春天的到来是万众喜庆的日子，让我们一起轻装，感受春天的温暖，倾听小鸟唱歌，畅饮绿啤酒。

随着春天的到来，大地回暖，阴阳重衡，也正是东方和西方合手共同欢庆的佳日。

今晚，让我们忘掉平日繁忙的商务会谈，不需要处理事务，没有报告，没有要事，尽情的享受这里的美味，音乐，特别是你身边的嘉宾。 和老朋友叙叙旧，结识新友，今晚，我们特地设制一个奖项，结交新朋友的各位有资格参与抽奖，有许多优美的奖品等待大家，例如，新泽西网队的场边座位球票，上海世界博览会入场券等等。

纽约市是美国金融，媒体，不动产中心，越来越多的，中国商务人士常驻这里为搭建中国经济和社会融入世界的桥梁。他们带来了技能和资源，理念和精力，他们心中有着一个新世界，在这个新世界秩序里中国扮演着重要的主角。为了实现这个理想，他们也需要我们的协助。

我很熟悉外籍商务生活，我的成年生活大部分在中国度过，我在上海工作居住多年，在那里我明白了一个道理，那就是，无论你做什么事情，都必须和当地的实际结合在一起，有本地人疏通，融入当地，否则任何国外组织，公司都无法在当地扎根。
所以我们这些愿意帮助中国企业组织和人士融入美国社会的本地人还是有用的。当然，我们需要应有的技能和框架，我们需要伸出援助的手，仔细倾听，和大家一起寻找途径，调整策略，寻求新的平衡。 

这项工作很重要，是多点对多点的努力今天晚会的主办方就是两家努力寻求新的平衡的商界重要力量：

首先是中国纽约中心，他们的市场部就在33楼，他们未来的总部在自由大厦。中心将为在纽约的中国公司，商务人士提供商务活动需要的场所，设施，设备，创立一个他乡家园氛围。如同他们在北京为在中国的外国人提供的两个舒适，灵活的商务中心一样。稍后，中国纽约商务中心的总裁，雪雅将为大家详细介绍。
今晚的另一位主办方是大名鼎鼎的，创办于上世纪八十年代创的，致力于为在中国的外籍人士更好的了解中国的 “中国日报”。 现在他们为让美国人更好地了解中国他们来到美国纽约。


一九八五年，我来到中国，第一次阅读到中国日报，一个使用我的母语的报纸，她的语言流畅，清晰的向我，一个美国人，传递中国政府想要我了解得事情。当时，他几乎是唯一的英文报纸，渐渐地我的中文有所提高，能通过中文对话了解一些信息，能从中国其他媒体中得到更多的信息。25年过去了，现在媒体更多了，有中文的，英文的，有印刷媒体，互联网，各持不同观点，太多了，但是，每当我想了解中国对西方态度，有一个可靠的参考，中国日报仍然是我的指南针。所以，如果各位还没有订制，赶紧订。我相信，参加今天晚会的中国日报的高层管理人士会帮助你的. 晚，我们很有幸，中国日报的总书记，高安明先生专程从北京来到纽约参加我们今晚的活动。下面，我们欢迎高先生致辞。


下面，我们请中国驻纽约总领事馆副总领事董小军先生致辞。

The China Center's press release

China Center was a co-organizer for the “Spring Comes to New York” celebration on March 16. The company celebrated the occasion with New York’s brightest China-business community for its moving into the 33rd floor of Seven World Trade Center and the launching of phase I operations.

Ms. Xue Ya, President of China Center, extended sincere gratitude to the clients and friends of the company for their unyielding supports over the years. She said the historic momentum of US-China economic and cultural exchanges reaffirmed the direction China Center set for itself since its inception in 2003. China Center serves as a platform for multinational companies seeking business in the US and China markets, providing business space and value services.

China Center is a high-profile business service provider for multinational companies in Beijing and New York. In March 2009, it locked into a 22-year lease with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for its operational space on 5 floors in One World Trade Center. Upon completion in 2014, the future China Center ventures to be state-of-the-art business facilities targeting the China-business market.

While awaits its future luxury home to complete, China Center kicked off its phase I operations with its transitional office moving onto 33rd floor of Seven World Trade Center, overlooking the construction site of Freedom Tower. China Center recently opened two business centers in Beijing, one in the white-hot CBD area, one in Beijing’s Financial Street. Its Beijing operations, Vantone Commercial Center, have signed on tenants such as New York State government office in Beijing, Rutgers University EMBA program.

China Center is the brain baby of China’s real estate tycoon Mr. Feng Lun. Feng, chairman of Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co., Ltd, and Vantone Industrial Co., Ltd, invested millions of dollars into this project.

Mr. Feng said: “We will offer high-level professional and personal support services, making the overseas expansion process as seamless as possible and providing tenants with the valuable on-site expertise and familiar comforts necessary to make the China Center the unequivocal center of Chinese corporate and cultural life in New York City.”


Remarks by Mr. Gao Anming, Secretary-General and Board Member of China Daily