November 20, 2023, Chicago

Chairman Ni Pin and Chairman Hu Wei,

Ambassador Baucus,

Ambassador Branstad,

Governors and mayors,

Senators, congressmen and congresswomen,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be in Chicago, the hub of the United States, to join friends old and new in exploring the right way forward for China and the United States. This year marks the coming-of-age of the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC). Over the past 18 years, the CGCC has provided an important platform for exchanges between entrepreneurs of our two countries, and played a positive role in promoting bilateral economic cooperation. CGCC Chicago has been actively involved, giving a strong boost to investment, trade and cultural exchanges between China and the American Midwest. Let me first express my warm greetings and heartfelt thanks to all those who have long supported bilateral investment and cooperation and the development of China-U.S. relations!

I just came back from San Francisco, where I had the privilege to participate in the summit meeting between our two Presidents and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. The summit meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden in San Francisco a few days ago is of special significance, producing fruitful outcomes and attracting worldwide attention. It is a highlight in the China-U.S. relationship this year, a milestone in the history of bilateral relations, and also a major event in international relations. During the visit, I witnessed how the two Presidents set the direction for China-U.S. relations at this critical moment, sensed the eagerness of both peoples for greater exchanges and cooperation, and also felt more acutely the extensive common interests between our two countries and the profound public support for China-U.S. friendship.

The visit helped to put in place the pillars for China-U.S. relations. The two Presidents had a four-hour-long candid, comprehensive and in-depth exchange of views on strategic and overarching issues critical to the direction of China-U.S. relations. President Xi pointed out that for China and the United States, turning our back on each other is not an option. It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other. Any conflict and confrontation would have unbearable consequences for both sides. The right approach is to respect each other, coexist in peace and pursue win-win cooperation. China is committed to having a stable, healthy and sustainable relationship with the United States. We are willing to be its partner and friend. At the same time, we have interests that must be safeguarded, principles that must be upheld, and red lines that must not be crossed. In particular, the U.S. side should stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification.

The visit fostered a future-oriented San Francisco vision. The journey from Bali to San Francisco has not been an easy one. But San Francisco should not be the finish line. President Xi emphasized that China and the United States need to jointly develop a right perception toward each other, and find the right answer to the fundamental and overarching question as to whether we are adversaries or partners; jointly manage disagreements effectively, and refrain from flip-flopping, being provocative, or crossing the lines; jointly advance mutually beneficial cooperation, including in such areas as counternarcotics, law enforcement and AI; jointly shoulder responsibilities as major countries, and coordinate and connect our initiatives; and jointly promote people-to-people exchanges, and support greater interactions and communication between our peoples. These are the five pillars that have laid out a roadmap for the sound, steady and sustained growth of China-U.S. relations.

The visit reached more than 20 important deliverables in multiple areas, including: establishing government talks on AI and launching the Working Group on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s; setting up a working group on counternarcotics cooperation with the U.S. side lifting its sanction on relevant Chinese institutions; agreeing to work toward a significant further increase in scheduled passenger flights early next year, and expanding cultural, sports, youth and business exchanges; in terms of principles related to China-U.S. relations, stressing the importance of all countries treating each other with respect and finding a way to live alongside each other peacefully, and of maintaining open lines of communication, preventing conflict, upholding the U.N. Charter, cooperating in areas of shared interest, and responsibly managing competitive aspects of the relationship, so as to provide guidelines for bringing China-U.S. relations back to the right track.

The visit also renewed the goodwill between the two peoples. At the welcome dinner hosted by friendly organizations in the United States, President Xi fondly recounted his friendship with the American people, stressing that the more difficulties there are, the greater the need for us to forge a closer bond between our peoples. President Xi also expressed China’s readiness to continue cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and to invite 50,000 young Americans to China on exchange and study programs in the next five years. 

President Xi’s old friends in the United States, including those from Iowa who have known him for more than four decades, a 103-year-old Flying Tigers veteran, the descendants of General Joseph Stilwell, Kuliang Friends and those from the Washington state, joined him in San Francisco for a heartwarming reunion. Also, an American family, dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, warmly welcomed President Xi, holding up a board with handwritten Chinese characters “Welcome, President Xi! We love you!” All these touching episodes have made us even more confident that the friendship between our peoples will surely weather wind and rain and continue to thrive.

Dear friends,

We are living in a time of changes and chaos, when challenges abound. The crisis in Ukraine is lingering on. The Middle East is again engulfed in conflicts. The recovery of the world economy remains sluggish. And global production and supply chains are facing new disruptions. China-U.S. cooperation is indispensable for both developing bilateral relations and creating a better future for the entire world. The China-U.S. relationship has never been smooth sailing, and we are still facing many difficulties and challenges. The theme of this annual gala, “Let’s Move Forward”, reflects the readiness of both sides to implement our Presidents’ important common understandings, and also our aspiration to embark on a new journey from San Francisco onward.

The two sides need to rise to the challenges, and act on the important common understandings reached in San Francisco. To do anything, attitude comes first, action is the key, and real effect is what matters most. At the summit meeting, President Biden noted that a stable and growing China is good for the United States and the whole world, and reiterated that the United States does not support “Taiwan independence”, does not seek a new Cold War, and does not seek to contain or suppress China’s development or to decouple with China. It is important to move in the same direction, follow up on the important common understandings reached between the two Presidents, and translate the commitments into concrete policies and real actions. It is important to avoid backpedaling, still less saying one thing but doing another. The two sides need to respect each other, coexist in peace and pursue win-win cooperation, so as to turn the San Francisco vision into reality and further improve China-U.S. relations.

The two sides need to follow the rules and bring bilateral economic relations back to the right track. Earlier this month, IMF upgraded China’s GDP growth forecasts for this year to 5.4%, speaking volumes about the confidence of the international community in the Chinese economy. Right now, more than 7,000 Chinese companies are doing business in the United States. The Chinese-funded members of the CGCC alone have invested a total of over US$137 billion in the United States, creating over 230,000 jobs directly. Many of you attended the sixth China International Import Expo a few weeks ago. Altogether, over 230 American businesses participated in the event, taking up the largest exhibition area for six years in a row. China’s development is a blessing for the world, and the success of China and the United States is an opportunity for each other.

Sanction is never a solution, and will only create more problems. It is important to follow the will of our peoples, respect market rules and uphold free trade, and resolutely say no to any attempt to politicize economic issues on the pretext of security.

The two sides need to bring out the vitality, and foster closer ties between the peoples and at the subnational level. The Midwest is known as the granary and the industrial heartland of America. It is home to 30% of American companies on the Fortune Global 500, and it exports 70% of the world’s grains and soybeans. The Midwest is also a promising land for China-U.S. economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. The first pair of sister cities between our two countries was between Nanjing, Jiangsu province and St. Louis, Missouri. Chinese companies including Wanxiang and Fuyao have invested in projects here, writing more stories of China-U.S. mutually beneficial cooperation.

It is hoped that the U.S. side will provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies. And I count on CGCC Chicago to continue building bridges and providing solutions for its members, pool the strength of our two peoples, and make the pie of win-win cooperation bigger, so as to inject more stability into China-U.S. relations and positive energy into the world.

Dear friends,

Martin Luther King once said in Chicago, “The time is always right to do what is right.” Let’s embark on a new journey starting from San Francisco, move forward with no delay, and jointly usher in a better future for China-U.S. relations and our two peoples!

Thank you.

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Perhaps because I spent most of my newspaper career covering politics, elections and government, I always jumped at assignments that let me talk to just plain folks.

Politics and elections and government were my beat, the reason I got hired for a newspaper job in Pierre. Those activities were important. Still are. Politics and elections are part of the process used to choose the people we will count on to serve us in this state and country. Government is about what those leaders do for us and to us. That’s big stuff, certainly worth assigning reporters to cover and file stories on their deliberations and actions.

Truthfully, though, covering those topics sometimes got old. Now and then, it seemed like the issues and debates were the same, and nothing changed but names of people involved.

That said, I liked the hard news part of my beat. That’s the politics and the elections and the government. I didn’t often take vacations. I guess you could say the plain folks were my way of vacationing. Those were assignments to “go around the state and find some interesting people.’’ That was my way of taking a break from the important stuff. I’m an introvert by nature, but it was fun to drive into a random town, walk into a coffee shop and say, “Who is the biggest character around?’’ I met a lot of fascinating people that way.

One thing I liked about plain folks was that they seldom took themselves seriously. Politicians I covered took themselves terribly seriously. Plain folks took life as it came. They lived through the day and did it again the next day. The lives they described to me were simple but fascinating, remarkable.

The plain folks didn’t seem to find it remarkable that they ranched 10,000 acres, that they ordered their first house through Sears, Roebuck and had it delivered by train to a bare piece of prairie next to the tracks, or that at age 6 they sold an extra edition of their dad’s newspaper from a city street corner when a major earthquake hit San Francisco in 1906. Such things were just part of living. I loved how nonchalant such folks could be about such amazing things.

I didn’t consider visits with the plain folks to be interviews. They were conversations, just two people talking, frequently about the old days. Some of my conversation partners referred to those times as “the good old days.’’ Other disagreed.

One who disagreed was Mel Gibbs from Custer. He was 90 when I met up with him at one of the town’s busy breakfast places. When I mentioned the good old days, he shook his head.

“Bah. There was nothing good about the old days. Who’d trade a new car for an old wagon? Who’d give up television and plumbing and electric lights? I say leave the good old days where they belong, a long way in the past.’’

During our coffee conversation, he asked where I was from. When I said Chamberlain, he brightened. He had started his teaching career north of there, in a country school not too far from Gann Valley.

In the heyday of one-room rural schools, he said, a teacher often operated by the seat of their pants, adjusting the course work to fit the needs of the students who came from nearby farms and ranches. He told of the parents of a ninth-grader who wanted to keep the boy close to home. Gibbs said he earned a certificate that allowed him to be “an accredited one-year high school.’’ The next year that student boarded in town for high school. Gibbs went back to just being a grade school teacher.

I remember suggesting that, in 90 years, he must have seen incredible changes. Not many, he said, unless you mean the telephone, or the automobile, or the airplane. Well, yeah, things like those, sure.

In the end, he gave me a quote that summed up why I liked meeting plain folks, especially the older ones.

“If a person lives long enough, he just about has to have some experiences that other people would find interesting – not spectacular, you know, but interesting.’’

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By James Reynolds and Keith Griffith

12:47 May 25, 2023, updated 13:09 May 25, 2023

Banana Republic is the latest chain to close its doors in a crime-ridden part of San Francisco, joining a slew of brands citing security and lower footfall as reasons for the closure.

The clothing store announced it would be leaving the Westfield San Francisco Center as the city’s flagship store is located at 256 Grant Ave. will also downsize and become a store at 152 Geary St.

Dozens have closed or are expected to close in recent months, including Saks, H&M and Nordstorm, citing a drop in foot traffic, online shopping and safety concerns.

The Gap, which owns Banana Republic, has closed a number of Banana Republic stores during the pandemic and last month announced it would lay off 1,800 employees at its San Francisco headquarters as net sales fell six percent to $15.6 billion last fiscal year US dollar declined.

Drug addicts and homeless people in the Tenderloin District, San Francisco The luxury department store blamed the closings on the changing “dynamics” in the city. Pictured is the Westfield store

High-end retailer Nordstrom is also cutting 400 jobs as it prepares to close all of its San Francisco stores.

A total of 379 jobs will be eliminated at the department store, as well as at the Westfield San Francisco Center mall and the Nordstrom Rack outlet a few doors down.

LEARN MORE Why San Francisco is caught in an apocalyptic DEATH LOOP: A work-from-home boom has devastated the local economy, while drugs and homelessness are soaring thanks to soft policing.

The company announced earlier this month that it was closing both stores, blaming the “changed dynamic” of the crime-ridden city.

Jamie Nordstrom, Chief Stores Officer, said, “Decisions like these are never easy, and this one was particularly difficult.”

“But as many of you are aware, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, impacting the flow of customers into our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”

Westfield Mall said in its statement to the Washington Post that business churn could be due to “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees.”

The mall said, “These significant problems are preventing an economic recovery for the region.”

In April, Whole Foods announced it was closing its flagship store in downtown San Francisco “for the time being” to ensure the “safety” of employees.

“If we believe we can ensure the safety of our team members in store, we will consider reopening our Trinity location,” a spokesman said.

Multimillionaire tech entrepreneurs in the city have also indicated they would relocate to London, UK, as crime and homelessness rose.

“Tech workers are increasingly disillusioned with San Francisco,” Annie Ingram, a private banker at Coutts, told The Telegraph this week, citing concerns about rising crime, homelessness and outdoor drug use in the Golden Gate City.

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri made a highly publicized move from the Bay Area to London’s ritzy Kensington district, despite being called back to the US by Meta bosses.

Organic food giant Whole Foods opened a new “flagship” location on Trinity Place in the city’s Tenderloin area in March 2022, but closed its doors after a year. Bags of beef jerky are sealed in plastic crates at the Target store in the Metreon neighborhood of San Francisco May 8, 2023 as soft crime policies correlate with an ongoing crisis of everyday shoplifting

A recent study found that San Francisco is the most expensive US city to raise children at more than $35,000 a year.

At the same time, residents say San Francisco is beginning to feel like a ghost town as many retailers are moving out of town due to crime and low foot traffic.

A disturbing recent report showed that 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the COVID pandemic began, down more than 50 percent.

Of the 203 retailers that opened in the city’s Union Square area in 2019, only 107 are still operating, a 47 percent drop in just a few years battered by the pandemic.

In early May, T-Mobile closed its flagship store in Union Square, a 17,000-square-foot building in the heart of the city.

They said it was part of a “nationwide retail strategy to better serve customers”.

The T-Mobile building previously housed Apple’s flagship store before the tech giant moved to its current Post Street location.

Since early May, San Francisco has been hit by a spate of retail closures since the pandemic as the city failed to deal with rising crime and drug problems. The Anthropologie store in Union Square (pictured) in San Francisco is now closed

Earlier this month, women’s retailer Anthropologie closed its store in the Union Square retail space in San Francisco as more stores relocated for security reasons.

The now-closed location was scheduled to close permanently on May 13. They urge customers to visit nearby branches on Fourth St and Village at Corte Madera.

Though Anthropologie didn’t give a reason, they join retailers like RealReal, Gap and Whole Foods that have closed their nearby locations.

The city is also affected by a statewide shoplifting law that downgrades theft of goods from a criminal offense to a far less serious offence.

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STOCKHOLM, March 21 – Alecta, Sweden’s largest pension fund, has sold all its shares in ailing US lender First Republic Bank (FRC.N) at a $728 million loss, Alecta spokesman Jacob Lapidus said on Tuesday.

Alecta was hit by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank as the pension fund was invested in three niche banks, all facing liquidity fears.

San Francisco-based First Republic Bank lost 90% of its value in March and S&P Global downgraded its credit rating to junk status.

Reporting by Marie Mannes, editing by Essi Lehto

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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SAN FRANCISCO – (BUSINESS WIRE) – First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC), a leading private bank and asset management company, announced today that Ashley Evans is joining First Republic Investment Management in San Francisco.

Evans has been named Managing Director and Wealth Manager. It will provide portfolio management, retirement planning, investment advice and other wealth management services to individuals, families, non-profit organizations and private family foundations.

“Ashley Evans is an accomplished wealth manager and a great addition to our growing team of wealth management professionals for the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Bob Thornton, president of First Republic Private Wealth Management. “Ashley shares First Republic’s commitment to exceptional customer service.”

Evans has over 15 years of wealth management experience. It provides wealth management solutions to high net worth individuals and families with an emphasis on equity compensation and concentrated equity positions. Prior to joining First Republic, she was Senior Vice President and Wealth Management Advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Evans is active in her local community, mentoring students and supporting several nonprofit organizations. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from San Diego State University. Evans is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP®) professional.

To learn more about First Republic Private Wealth Management, click here. To see our growing team of wealth management professionals, click here.

Via First Republic Bank

Founded in 1985, First Republic and its subsidiaries provide private banking, private business banking and private wealth management, including investment, fiduciary and brokerage services. First Republic specializes in delivering exceptional, relationship-based services and offers a full line of products including residential, commercial and personal loans, deposit services and wealth management. Services are provided through preferred banking or asset management offices primarily in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, and San Diego, California; Portland, Oregon; Boston, Massachusetts; Palm Beach, Florida; Greenwich, Connecticut; New York, New York; and Jackson, Wyoming. First Republic is part of the S&P 500 Index and the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index. More information is available at www.firstrepublic.com.

FRC-G

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