The Mar-a-lago meetings: Trump, China and – yes – Philadelphia

Guest column by Terry Cooke published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on April 7, 2017 (see original article here)

As President Donald Trump prepares to meet with President Xi Jinping for the first time this week, the world is watching closely. Of particular importance is the ‘gut feeling’ which each leader will take away following their informal sessions together in Mar-a-Lago on Thursday and Friday. At the bilateral level, will the leaders trust each other to hold to the last quarter-century’s course of strategic engagement or will pressures from North Korea or from economic nationalism precipitate outright conflict? At the global level, will the two share some intuition that the national security of both countries requires continued demonstration of U.S.-China co-leadership on the world stage in confronting climate change? Or will they accept the break-down of the Paris COP21 breakthrough? 

While the initial meeting between these two men is doubtless important, engaged citizens must remind themselves that their voices too matter greatly in answering these questions. Fortunately, in the Greater Philadelphia region, we already have a place on this global stage. With history to prompt us and the present-day resources of the city and region to guide our role, we can speak up and be heard on these vital questions.

How? Start by recognizing that U.S. policies toward China and climate change are inseparably linked. There is simply no global solution to the climate change challenge without cooperation between our two countries. Look at the history of talks on climate change between the advanced and developing worlds, which spun their wheels for a quarter-century, enduring breakdowns in Kyoto and Copenhagen. It was only following the first tentative gestures of cooperation between the U.S. and China in 2009, building eventually to a Presidential-level announcement of joint commitments by Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping in November 2014, that a first-ever global agreement on action steps could emerge in Paris in December 2015.

Similarly, there is no possibility of the U.S. and China sustaining their cooperation on the climate change front if the U.S. starts viewing China as an outright antagonist. The relationship between the U.S. and China is too complex and dynamic for simple “friend or foe” typologies. The two sides must manage conflict in those areas where U.S. and Chinese national interests diverge (North Korea, cyber, South & East China Seas, etc) and maximize cooperation in those areas where national interests are shared (climate change cooperation, counter-terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation, etc). 

Can a metropolitan region like Greater Philadelphia play a meaningful role on this monumental global stage?  Not only can we, we have been called to do so. In their joint 2014 announcement, Presidents Obama and Xi made clear that, with the stage for bi-national and multi-national cooperation against climate change effectively built, the spotlight was now on ‘sub-national actors’  -- cities and states, the private sector, and NGOs – to step forward and implement actions “at the local level where they matter most.” City actors are particularly important on this stage because more than half of humanity now lives in cities and mayors have direct influence over the urban built environment and the metropolitan transportation systems that together account for roughly two-thirds of global greenhouse emissions.

 Moreover, Philadelphia boasts a unique history of cooperation with China, reaching back to 1784 when The Empress of China, a ship captained and financed by Philadelphians, began the first commercial trading voyage to China from the newly formed United States. This sparked a century-long trade boom – furs, woods, and silver coins from America for artworks and exotic foodstuffs from China – that brought lasting mutual benefit. So much so that, at the time of the Centennial World Fair in Philadelphia in 1876, the Guangxu Emperor sent a personal emissary and over 6,000 categories of objects, staking China’s claim as the largest foreign pavilion at the exhibition and helping to establish this event by upstart Americans among the top tier of world exhibitions. With those strands of history in the weave, it was especially fitting that, 96 years later, President Nixon selected Maestro Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra to travel to China in 1973 to boost diplomacy with people-to-people outreach. With this ‘cultural diplomacy’ helping overcome a quarter-century of isolation and enmity between the U.S. and China, Philadelphia and Tianjin were able to become the first two U.S-China Sister Cities in 1980.

It is not only historical experience but, more importantly, present-day resources that equip Philadelphia to take a leading role on this epochal stage. We are recognized, nationally and internationally, as a leading center for innovation and application in a wide-range of energy-efficient building, smart grid and other clean energy technologies. We are pioneering open data initiatives and other forms of innovative public/private collaboration that improve the urban environment. Crucially, our region is home to globally-acclaimed universities, and it offers lifestyle amenities that attract the best-and-brightest to study and live. In fact, the most comprehensive study of the U.S. clean energy economy (Brookings, 2011) identifies Philadelphia as the fulcrum of a clean energy super-corridor of innovation and job-creation stretching from northern Virginia to the Boston area.

There is, and will remain for some time, uncertainty at the national level over the Trump Administration’s policies toward China and climate change.  But we can take positive and effective action now. We can welcome our P.R.C.-national students (UPenn alone has 2,100) and young professionals as ‘new Philadelphians’ and introduce them to ‘green Philadelphia’ (including The Circuit network of hiking and biking paths in the largest urban park system in the country; and the Northern Liberties and other urban lifestyle neighborhoods of the future). We can work with our private sector and business associations to encourage them to start looking across the Pacific as readily as they do the Atlantic. We can support organizations like Citizens Diplomacy International, Global Philadelphia Association and China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia which are innovating new models of engagement on platforms of cultural, trade and investment, and environmental leadership. In the best tradition of Philadelphia – a wellspring of civic and social activism and home to Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s most creative thinkers --  we can lead with a spirit of cooperation and prove yet again that innovation is the surest path to a better future.           

Terry Cooke is the author of Sustaining U.S.-China Cooperation in Clean Energy (2012) and the founding director of China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia. Previously, he served in the U.S. Senior Foreign Service with postings in Taipei, Berlin, Tokyo and Shanghai.