Sino-US tech ties need 'understanding'

Experts and business leaders said on Monday that people in the United States need to enhance their understanding of modern China in order to promote collaboration opportunities in technology innovation between the two countries.

The comments were made at a panel discussion at the Horasis China Meeting on Monday during which attendees from both countries discussed opportunities and challenges in technology innovation across multiple sectors in China and the United States.

"Most Chinese know a lot more about Americans than Americans know about China," said Savio S. Chan, president and CEO of US-China Partners, a cross-border business development firm based in New York.

Around 400,000 Chinese students study at some of the best schools in the US every year, Chan said, adding that most of them then return to China.

At the same time, very few US people, even those who work in the business sector, have traveled extensively in China, Chan added.

The understanding of a "modern China" is especially important in the current situation, because the country has changed so rapidly, especially in the last decade, that the old perception of China held by Americans is no longer applicable, experts said.

Liu Qing, president of Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute and a former vice-president of Chongqing University, noted that US people "know very little about China, and that is a big challenge right now".

The US university system is one of the best in the world, Liu added, but added that it needs to be open to attract young international talents.

Stacy Kenworthy, CEO of HellaStorm, a company based in Georgia which specializes in information technology and services, said sometimes doing business across the border involves some "give and take".

Although both China and the US are blessed with different styles of innovation, they are complementary to each other, Kenworthy said.

He encouraged officials and industry leaders from both sides to have more communication with each other, especially in the current situation.

"What we talked here is true, but there isn't a lot of conversations going on, particularly now," he said.

"I think the more that we can communicate the better. So we are going to know there are just some things that are going to be very delicate to discuss on both sides, for some time, and it's going to take a lot of time to figure out," Kenworthy said.