In his speech at TechCrunch Shanghai, United States Consul General Hanscom Smith expressed his concern in developing local innovations in China. He said that the country must be very open and transparent when it comes to developing technologies. Its importance will reflect the success of certain technological projects as opposed to those that were developed outside the limelight. According to TechNode, the consul general made these comments when questioned about the legal ecosystem for tech in China.

Like Us on Facebook

He also indicated that IP protection is a must in order to maintain credibility of these innovations. Smith said, "The U.S is a leader in IP law, and if you have a strong IP foundation, then you are helping the infrastructure that supports innovation. Openness to foreign investment, transparency, predictability and rule of law are important foundations." He also encouraged the tech community to take risks and not be afraid of failure. He emphasized that, in the United States, failure has become a part of their imminent success. Giving Silicon Valley as an example, he said that the company's badge of pride is their failure on some of their endeavors.

The United States have promoted some encouragement to expand the U.S.-China tech trade and even encouraging the Americans to study in the Asian country as support to their growing partnership, where technology is concerned. As proof of the looming partnership, the consul general revealed that there has been an increased in the number of visa requests with the latest agreement between the two countries promoting the 10-year China-U.S. visa. In his statement, he said, "We've seen an explosion in visa demands, about 1.8 million in Shanghai alone."

In an interview by INSIGHT, when asked about his priorities as the U.S. consul general in China, he said that the main concern will have to be the facilitation of travel by people and strengthen the ties of U.S. to China. While they have a target of 400,00 visas to be issued, the consul general also made clear that aside from tourism, the U.S. also aims to strengthen their business partnership with China.

Tagstechnology, technology market, transparency