Foreigners’ contributions recognized
▶ China’s reform and opening-up helped by those from other countries
Editor’s Note:
China’s 40 years of reform and openingup has improved the lives of billions of people in the country, and also influenced the world. The achievements were not only made by diligent Chinese people, but numerous foreigners also contributed their fair share. On Tuesday, 10 foreigners were honored with China Reform Friendship Medals at a grand gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up in Beijing.
Alain Merieux, chairman of the Institut Merieux and president of the French BioMerieux Group
Forty years ago, when Alain Merieux, chairman of medical and public health company Institut Merieux, first set foot on China, he not only knocked on the door of the Chinese market, but also became fascinated with the country.
Having settled down in China more than 30 years ago, Merieux made two important decisions. The first was to cooperate directly with Chinese health authorities and participate in important public health events, such as relieving the SARS crisis and avian influenza crisis.
The second decision was to conduct R&D and build factories in China. This meant the French company would draw on local resources and promote R&D achievements to the world. Inspired by Merieux, a number of outstanding French biomedical companies set up operations in China.
In recent years, Merieux’s family also helped China build a P4 bio-safety lab in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, the first of its kind in Asia.
Werner Gerich, first “foreign director” in a State-owned factory in China since the reform and opening-up
Werner Gerich, a German engineer and consultant, was employed as the director of a diesel engine factory in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, in 1984 by the Wuhan government. He was the first “foreign director” at a State-owned company in China.
Between 1984 and 1986, Gerich carried out drastic reforms and introduced advanced management concepts of quality and market at the core. He improved the run-down factory and the diesel engines made by the factory were exported to seven countries in Southeast Asia.
In 1986, he was awarded permanent residency in China. Gerich died in 2003 at the age of 83. Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of World Economic Forum, who invited a delegation from China to take part in Davos in 1979
Schwab was born on March 30, 1938 in Ravensburg, Germany. In 1971, he founded the European Management Forum, which became the World Economic Forum in 1987. The not-for-profit organization is “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”
As the founder and executive chairman of the organization, Schwab first came to the Chinese mainland in 1979, and invited the first Chinese delegation to participate in that year’s forum. Today China plays an important role in the world’s top economic forum. Headquartered in Geneva, the WEF also has two other offices around the world including one in Beijing.
Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic, the first foreign company to invest in China
Matsushita was the founder of Panasonic, Japan’s largest consumer electronics company. Known as the “god of management,” Matsushita was among the first foreigners to support China’s reform and openingup. In October 1978, during his visit to Japan, top Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping asked the 83-year-old Matsushita if he could help with China’s modernization, and Matsushita immediately agreed.
Matsushita paid two visits to China in the beginning of the reform and opening-up, and in 1978, Panasonic became the first foreign company to invest in China. Matsushita died in 1989 at the age of 94.
Masayoshi Ohira, a Japanese politician who promoted the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan and supported China’s reform and opening-up
When the former Japanese prime minister Masayoshi Ohira visited China in 1979, he formally proposed large-scale economic aid to China, which played a great role in China’s development.
In the early days of reform and opening-up, Japan provided China with annual long-term low-interest loans and development grants. The first loan was granted during Ohira’s term as prime minister. Ohira died in 1980 at the age of 70.
Lee Kuan Yew, former Singaporean prime minister who promoted Singapore’s deep involvement in China’s reform and opening-up
Lee first became connected to China in the late 1970s. Since then, he met with a number of Chinese leaders, which had an important impact on China’s policy formulation of reform and opening-up.
Lee once said that since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, China has enjoyed political stability, rapid economic development, and tremendous changes in the social outlook, which has not only benefited the Chinese people, but also made important contributions to regional and world peace and prosperity. Lee died in 2015 at the age of 91.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, the promoter of China’s Olympic cause to the World
Samaranch served as president of the International Olympic Committee for 21 years. Samaranch had long cared about and supported China’s sports. He helped China return to the international Olympic family in 1979 and helped China’s successful bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Samaranch had very friendly feelings toward China. “My true friend is in China,” he said more than once.
Samaranch, the International Olympic Committee honorary president for life, died in 2010.
Stephen Perry, the inheritor of SinoBritish friendship and promoter of Sino-British economic and trade exchanges
Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain’s 48 Group Club in the UK and Managing Director of London Exports Limited, has made outstanding contributions to promoting friendly relations between China and Britain.
In 1950, Britain became one of the first countries to recognize the People’s Republic of China, but the Sino-British relations quickly soured due to the Korean War. But a group of British people, including Stephen Perry’s father Jack Perry, initiated the establishment of “48 Group Club” and led business leaders to visit China, breaking the trade embargo. The 48 Group Club has been committed to friendly cooperation with China for 60 years.
Maurice Greenberg, an entrepreneur who advocates and promotes international economic and trade cooperation with China and Sino-US friendship Morris Greenberg is the former president of American International Group. Since his first visit to China in November 1975, Greenberg visits China more than three times a year. Twenty-seven years ago, under the auspices of Greenberg, the Starr Foundation purchased 10 important cultural artifacts that had been stolen by the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900 from the Baoyun Pavilion in the Summer Palace. He paid the Paris Gallery $515,000 and returned them to China.
Robert Kuhn, an international friend who is dedicated to telling the world about contemporary China
Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is an international investment banker. Since 1989, Kuhn has advised the Chinese government on restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, economic policy, industrial policy, technology, media, culture, SinoUS relations, foreign affairs and international communication. He is committed to telling the world about the real China, with a particular focus on China’s reform and opening-up.
Dr. Kuhn is a senior consultant at Citigroup Global Investment Bank, where he is responsible for multinational companies planning and executing strategies in China, including M&A activities. He also works with major Chinese companies to facilitate their financing, restructuring and mergers and acquisitions activities in the capital markets.