Clean tech and nuclear energy on the agenda for Chinese President's visit to US
Included in the talks this week ﻿on how the US and China can collaborate further are nuclear energy and clean technologies.  The University of Washington and Tsinghua University in Beijing are to collaborate on clean tech research; and Bill Gates' TerraPower is to work with China National Nuclear Corp on next-generation nuclear power plant technology.  China is seeking to be a leader in nuclear energy, as it tries to curb its own pollution issues but with its continuing urbanisation and expanding middle class, this is a continual problem.  This latest deal could lead to some clean-tech firms in the US, which rely largely on hydropower and where natural gas is cheap, finding markets and investment in China more quickly than they can at home.

SEATTLE -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington state Tuesday for a visit to the U.S. that will include talks on how U.S. and Chinese experts and businesses can collaborate on nuclear energy, smarter electricity use and other clean technologies.

Photo by ELAINE THOMPSON / AP

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrive Tuesday in Everett, Wash., outside Seattle, at the start of a U.S. visit that will focus on energy efficiency, cleaner energy and business opportunities in the energy sector.

The visit comes a year after Xi and President Barack Obama announced their nations would cooperate to fight climate change.

Xi's plane landed at Paine Field in Everett, where he was welcomed by a group that included Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, former Washington governor and U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.

In Seattle, supporters turned out to welcome the Chinese president and other dignitaries traveling in his motorcade.

Wendy Hu, a native of Guangdong province who has lived in Seattle for 20 years, had her 11-year-old daughter, Anna Ni, with her.

"China and the U.S. are good partners now, with Boeing and Microsoft," Hu said. "I love both countries."

Hundreds of protesters from the religious group Falun Gong demonstrated outside the federal courthouse, holding banners and banging drums as the motorcade passed.

Falun Gong said members are persecuted in China.

"It's about compassion and tolerance," said Sabrina Chang, 28, who traveled to Seattle with other Falun Gong practitioners for the protest.

Xi delivered a policy speech Tuesday evening in Seattle, the first stop on his visit. He discussed the poverty he saw in rural villages in his country as a younger man and how China's rapid economic expansion had lifted millions out of poverty.

He said China would continue its policy of aggressive development to help more people "live a better life."

He said China was a staunch defender of cybersecurity, but it also had been a victim of hacking.

Acknowledging that China and the United States don't always see eye to eye, Xi said China is ready to set up a joint effort with the United States to fight cybercrimes.

The issue of cyberattacks is a sensitive one between the two nations. American officials say hacking attacks originating from China are approaching epidemic levels, including the theft of millions of U.S. federal personnel records that American lawmakers have said was engineered by Beijing.

The University of Washington and Tsinghua University in Beijing were expected to sign an agreement to collaborate on research related to clean tech. In addition, TerraPower Inc., an energy company founded by Bill Gates, will be entering an agreement with China National Nuclear Corp. to work together on next-generation nuclear power plant technology.

"These are the largest economies in the world, and we're the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, so improving cooperation and collaboration is really a necessity," said Brian Young, Washington state director of economic development for the clean-technology sector. "Second, it's a huge business opportunity. Both sides recognize the opportunity for job creation."

The trip comes at a time when China's economic growth has slowed considerably, and when the communist nation is overhauling its economy to put more emphasis on consumer spending and less on exports and often-wasteful investment in factories, real estate and infrastructure such as railways and airports.

That shift will demand vast amounts of energy as China's middle class expands, said Tom Ranken, president of CleanTech Alliance, a Seattle-based trade association of companies and organizations with a stake in clean-energy technology, including Boeing, the University of Washington and hundreds of others.

The need for China to curb its pollution is obvious to anyone who's spent time in Beijing or Shanghai, he said.

"For an American going to those cities, it's quite stunning," he said. "They're ultramodern, and yet everybody has a story, including me, about going out Monday morning running and almost getting sick after about a half-mile from the air pollution."

Some clean-tech firms in Washington state, which relies largely on hydropower and where natural gas is cheap, may find markets and investment in China sooner than they might domestically, he said.

China invested a record $83 billion in renewable energy last year, according to the Frankfurt School's Center for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance in Germany.

"They see this as a huge business opportunity for the future, especially in solar and wind," said Mikkal Herberg, research director for the energy security program at the National Bureau of Asian Research.

He said China also wants to be a leader in nuclear energy.

A Section on 09/23/2015