EVERETT — The United States needs to continue to talk with China about doing business, but the nation’s heavy debt and lack of a policy on clean energy make that difficult.
That was the message Monday from Congressmen Rick Larsen and Jay Inslee, both Washington Democrats, during a talk on U.S.-China relations sponsored by the Economic Development Council of Snohomish County.
“China is acting in a lot of ways that are unwholesome for us and for them,” Inslee said. “We’re enablers because our deficit creates a market for their lending and provides them with tremendous sway in our relationship.”*
Larsen said the U.S. needs to deal with its debt so the country will be in a stronger position to negotiate with China.
Having the world’s biggest economy, the U.S. needs to deal with China, the world’s largest emerging economy, said Larsen, who is co-chairman of the bipartisan U.S.-China Working Group, intended to educate congressional leaders on U.S.-China issues.
But he said that China has become difficult to deal with in recent months.
He noted that China adopted a new “indigenous innovation policy” that restricts products from outside the country with patented intellectual properties. China has also set goals to make more items at home to reduce imports and continues to restrict its currency, which artificially makes its goods less costly and U.S. goods more expensive, Larsen said.
“We need to continue to engage the Chinese on these matters and get some measure of a response,” Larsen said.
He’d like to see China abandon the innovation policy and to allow its currency to follow market conditions.
Inslee said China has been stealing technology around the world for at least the last 10 years, and now needs to start protecting other countries’ technology — and its own, as well.
“We need to get China to understand that it has a self-interest in protecting technology rather than stealing it,” he said.
Inslee, whose work includes a focus on clean energy, said China is off to a running start in the field and intends to dominate it. It needs clean energy, he added, both to deal with its own environmental problems and for the economic opportunities.
“They are ahead of us big time,” he said.
Inslee said China has a partnership between government and industry that’s lacking in the U.S.
“We need to pass clean energy legislation to compete with China,” he said. ”If we don’t, we’ll be left at the post. The first guy in the race usually wins.”
Inslee said the clean energy sector is one with tremendous economic opportunity for the U.S. “But only if we get started right away.”
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459, benbow@heraldnet.com.
*Correction: Inslee’s comment was incorrectly attributed to Larsen in an earlier version of this story.
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