Monday November 5, 2007
Joe Manchin: Devoted WVU grads can be found in China
Governor says business program has resulted in ‘powerful connection'
Editor's Note: Gov. Joe Manchin provided his thoughts about traveling to China to promote West Virginia businesses to Daily Mail Business Editor George Hohmann.
TAIYUAN, SHANXI PROVINCE, CHINA -- I have to give West Virginia University's Center for Chinese Business kudos for jumping out years ago and offering a six-month program for Chinese to come to Morgantown to study business and economics.
The WVU program started about 15 years ago. We were on the front end of that one, I can tell you. One of the high officials in the mayor of Shanghai's delegation is a WVU program graduate. Not only did he go to WVU, but his son met his wife, who also was in the program, in Morgantown. They got married in Morgantown. This has cycled now into the second generation.
The Shanghai WVU alumni get-together on Thursday was packed. Everybody gave talks and speeches about their college life. It was wonderful. I met a vice-governor who has been in the WVU program. During the get-together, the WVU program graduates not only sang "Country Roads," they sang it twice.
WVU Dr. Steve Sears was there. I asked him if other universities were doing this. He said, "A few are trying now."
The graduates truly believe that West Virginia is their second home. So anything they hear about the U.S., they say the first thing they think about is Morgantown. I thought it was so powerful. I never would have thought we had made that type of connection, that kind of impression.
I meet with some of these graduates when they come to Charleston. I met with the man who used to be the governor of Shanxi Province. He now represents the province in their Congress. He was so appreciative.
We have graduates of the program recruiting for us. Some are 35 to 40 years old when they go. So you have a true mixture of ages that participate. Right now we have an entrepreneur in Shanghai who is sponsoring six students himself.
The government and businesses in China have seen the value in sending people to West Virginia.
When our business people come over here, the graduates are more than happy to help with their business.
I think these relations we're building are going to last a very long time. I think it's truly beneficial for our country to have these relationships. It's up to us. We're still dealing with a communist country. None of these officials I speak to are elected. They're all appointed. With that said, they're very warm, open people -- very receptive to new technology, a better way of doing things.
It's not something we would have thought we would have had under the old, closed system under Mao. It's a different philosophy.
It amazes me how you can have 1.3 billion people. We're in a smaller town now, Taiyuan. There are 3 million people in this town. There are 14 million people in Beijing, 18 million in Shanghai. They think there might be another 1 or 2 million in those cities, undocumented.
Just the infrastructure -- the water, the sanitation -- it's mammoth. They're pouring money into it. They have the Olympics in 2008 in Beijing and the World Expo in 2010 in Shanghai. That's one country hosting two major events. It's an unbelievable feat. Consider the cost to put them on. If they weren't trying to clean up and do things differently, there's no way they would want the world's attention.