From left, Yujian Chen, Vice Mayor of the Yangpu District of Shanghai, Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of the Bay Area Council and Yiaway Yeh, Mayor of Palo Alto, talk about the newly announced economic partnership between Yangpu and Palo Alto on Sept. 27, 2012. Photo by Veronica Weber/Palo Alto Online.
Yujian Chen, Vice Mayor of the Yangpu District of Shanghai, Yiaway Yeh, Mayor of Palo Alto, Donna Grider, Palo Alto City Clerk, and Jim Pelletier, Palo Alto City Auditor, talk about the new economic partnership between Yangpu and Palo Alto at City Hall on Sept. 27, 2012. Photo by Veronica Weber/Palo Alto Online.
Palo Alto Mayor Yiaway Yeh (right) and Vice Mayor Yujian Chen of the Yangpu District of Shanghai shake hands after signing a memorandum of understanding, establishing an economic partnership between the two cities at City Hall on Sept. 27, 2012. Photo by Veronica Weber/Palo Alto Online.
Yujian Chen, Vice Mayor of Yangpu District in Shanghai, discusses the new partnership between Yangpu and Palo Alto at City Hall on Sept. 27, 2012. Photo by Veronica Weber/Palo Alto Online.
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Palo Alto already has six sister cities, but on Thursday, Sept. 27, the city signed a different kind of an agreement with a Chinese municipality known for technological might.
The City Council on Monday, Sept. 24, approved a staff proposal that the city undertake a formal partnership with the Yangpu District in Shanghai, an area known for a dynamic high-tech sector and the prominent Fudan University. The Palo Alto-based cloud-computing giant VMWare also enjoys a presence in Yangpu.
Under a staff proposal that the council adopted Monday, Yangpu wouldn't be a "sister city" but rather a "partnership city" focusing on economics and technology. The "intention agreement" between Palo Alto and Yangpu commits the cities "to explore mutual economic interactions to, among other things, enhance the economic health and betterment" of the two communities and "keep each other informed on important economic and civic issues."
Officials from the two municipalities formalized their agreement at a signing ceremony Thursday at City Hall.
Comments
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Sep 29, 2012 at 10:10 am
on Sep 29, 2012 at 10:10 am
It will be interesting to track the City's involvement with this agreement. The City itself demonstrates no understanding of "technology", and actually has few people on its staff that evidence much public knowledge of what "technology" is all about. Same is true for "economics"--since the City simply spends other people's money, with little evidenced understanding of how business works. Certainly the often-maligned "Palo Alto Process" demonstrates that the City is actually more anti-business than not.
So--what possibly could the City of Palo Alto have that any other City might be interested in?
Wonder if the Mayor ended the negotiations with a few games of ping-pong?
Midtown
on Sep 29, 2012 at 1:48 pm
on Sep 29, 2012 at 1:48 pm
>The "intention agreement" between Palo Alto and Yangpu commits the cities "to explore mutual economic interactions to, among other things, enhance the economic health and betterment" of the two communities and "keep each other informed on important economic and civic issues."
Does anyone have any idea what that means? Is it about human rights issues in China?; manufacturing jobs in Palo Alto?; H1 visas?; Chinese currency rates?; Palo Alto ability/inability to compete? Chinese government investment in Palo Alto assets/real estate/schools?
Taiwan?
Registered user
Old Palo Alto
on Oct 1, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Registered user
on Oct 1, 2012 at 2:59 pm
The government of China has demonstrated for decades that it is dishonest, cruel, cares nothing for human rights, and is corrupt as hell. Chinese businesses have demonstrated that they care only about getting rich quick, not product quality or safety, nor employee safety or quality of life. Many people, especially concerned parents, in Palo Alto actively boycott Chinese products, especially children's products....and that is pretty hard to do, considering everything is made there, and the low prices are quite lucrative.
So why is a supposedly reputable community like Palo Alto doing business with China? Most of western Europe has given China and their products the heave-ho. On my latest trip to Europe, I saw only European clothing, cars, toys, and other products. It was actually nearly impossible to find Asian products of any kind in the Netherlands or Belgium (kudos!).
If you want ultra-cheap products, as least buy from Vietnam, whom we owe a debt to, or Thailand, or India. The prices are even lower than their Chinese counterparts, and of far higher quality.
Doing business with China is a slap in the face to those of us who choose to boycott them and their corrupt government, their unethical businesses, and their monstrous abuses.
Crescent Park
on Oct 1, 2012 at 3:18 pm
on Oct 1, 2012 at 3:18 pm
I agree with Jan, the whole implementation of globalization only to change political and social demographics to turn the social justice clock back in American, with unions, classes, social programs, etc has been an utter disaster for America. We could have gotten along just fine without junk Chinese products and economic corruption.
I do disagree though the VietNam or Thailand are good alternatives. A piece the other day on Thailand shrimp which makes up the majority of US imports shows Thailand using human trafficked slave labor from Burma to bypass regulations of the Thailand government ending with injury and misery to those illegal workers. But we do the same thing here.
Globalization would have worked a lot better and slower if there had been better regulation and human rights laws from the get go.
East Palo Alto
on Oct 1, 2012 at 3:51 pm
on Oct 1, 2012 at 3:51 pm
"Palo Alto finds an economic partner in China"
Bain Capital?
"We could have gotten along just fine without junk Chinese products and economic corruption"
But I saved a quarter on a tee shirt the other day. That's worth the destruction of the middle class, isn't it?
Crescent Park
on Oct 1, 2012 at 8:52 pm
on Oct 1, 2012 at 8:52 pm
> But I saved a quarter on a tee shirt the other day. That's worth the destruction of the middle class, isn't it?
The is exactly the point, when we began importing cheap products made with cheap labor there was virtually no savings. The profits ballooned but not the savings for consumers, yet another way we consumers were "taxed" privately to create this radical regime of privatization.
Midtown
on Oct 1, 2012 at 10:07 pm
on Oct 1, 2012 at 10:07 pm
There is no such thing as a "partnership" with China
It is always a one way street-
- China takes and gives nothing in return
Through industrial espionage, intellectual property theft and direct military/intelligence espionage.
Barron Park
on Oct 1, 2012 at 11:03 pm
on Oct 1, 2012 at 11:03 pm
Golly, but China is a Most Favored Nation!
Registered user
Old Palo Alto
on Oct 29, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Registered user
on Oct 29, 2012 at 9:11 pm
[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]