Second Forum on the Economic Zone...

Thursday night we got word that we had to dust off our nice clothes: we were invited to, what was described as at the time, a big business event. We were “invited,” and I use quotes to signify the non-optional part of the invitation, by the school to attend. So, I dusted off of my clothes that I had hoped I’d seldom have to wear, and off we went.

Turns out, they understated the whole “big event” thing. By big event, they meant freakin huge.

Notable honored guests: the governor of the Fujian province, the governor of the Guizhou province, the president of Mozambique (yea, in Africa), the Chief Executive of Macao (he’s the president basically), the Head Financial Dude from Hong Kong, a representative from the Kuomintang (Taiwan), some dude from the provincial (I think) reform committee, and some dude from the provincial (I think) science and tech committee. Finally, the deputy chief of the National Central Communist Party was in attendance.

About six of us had seats up front, and we had a headset that had some ladies translating. I took copious notes. The whole event was called “The Second Forum on the Economic Zone on the Western Coast of the Taiwan Straight.” We only went to the morning opening ceremony, but it seemed like a lot of it was talk about setting up this economic zone which would ideally bridge a few gaps: mainly draw in more economic trade with Taiwan, as well as pull in more support from massive economic areas like Macao and Hong Kong.

What was most interesting for me was being able to see how things like this occur, how relations with Taiwan are, regional and national relationships, and I probably indirectly witnessed the use of “face,” that is, no one talked bad about anyone. The closest that things came were the several times “reunification” was mentioned. Interesting quote by the Taiwanese representative: “Economically, Taiwan wants to grow closer to the mainland. Politically, they want to move away.”

Anyway, it was very interesting, and a huge honor.

Xiamen University also gave the guys a free tie. The girls got some nice scarf.

Awesome.