As the general election approaches, American congress and government have brought high pressure on imports from China. Apart from continuous discussion on series of bills on this issue, American government announced the new bill of product quality and anti-subsidy sanctions on Chinese welded pipe on November 6th, the first sanction on the sensitive iron and steel industry between America and China.

When this news came to China, the legislative leaders from 7 states arrived in Beijing, which was to lay the ground for the summit conference in 2008. The representative organization of the legislative leaders of all states in America is State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF). The president of SLLF, Steve Lakis said frankly that on the issue of the trade relationship between America and China. There are significant differences between different states and the federal government and congress. While the federal government and congress frequently brought sanctions on Chinese imports due to the political pressure, individual states still put their emphasis on how to increase business opportunities into China and to promote trade with China.

"No matter who wins next year's election, it won't affect the trade between America and China, because American consumers need Chinese products anyway." said Steve Lakis.

Summit conference promotes individual state's understanding of China. According to the legislative system in America, individual state has the authority to pass its own laws, thus state congress has even more influence than the national congress on the issues such as healthcare, transportation, education and environmental protection. However, state congress representative have comparatively less understanding of international affairs than national congress representatives. "I believe that the Chinese people's understanding of America is much deeper than that Americas have on China." said Steve Lakis.

State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF) represents legislative leader from all states in America. The SLLF is governed by a board of House Speakers, Senate Presidents, Majority Leaders, Minority Leaders, and Pro Tempores. Steve Lakis believe that the next step for SLLF is to make its members to know more about China, a country which is becoming more and more important to the United States.

In order to achieve this goal, SLLF plans to hold a summit conference in Beijing in 2008 or 2009, which will invite more than 30 legislative leaders and business leaders from all states to come to China and communicate with representatives of Chinese government, business society and academic society. This event will promote each state congress' understanding towards Chinese culture and economy. On November 8th, Steve Lakis told the reporter that the summit conference may choose Peking University as the base for operation.

In addition, Steve Lakis met National People's Congress Vice Chairman Xujialu during his visit to Beijing. "This is just a beginning. We also hope that we can invite Chinese officials to visit America." said Steve Lakis. In the past, China's national congress had little communication with American state congresses. Now SLLF wants to improve this relationship. Steve Lakis expressed that he wished to set up a permanent headquarters office in Beijing. At present, SLLF has set up its European headquarters office in Berlin.

Green Energy has become the focus of cooperation. Although the summit conference is still under preparation, one thing for certain is that the cooperation between America and China on green energy and infrastructure will become an important issue of the summit conference.

The senior management leaders of Thornton, Caletta Renewable Energy, SourceOne Inc. of Veolia and GE infrastructure & Energy joined SLLF's visit to Beijing. As a matter of fact, the SLLF's visit to Beijing is at the invitation of Michael Lin, CEO of Thorton.

Michael Lin said that on green energy, American companies have strong interests in Chinese market. In the near future, Thornton intends to invest in waste power plants in China. He expressed that Thornton has already visited Beijing's Liulitun landfill and plans to visit cities in Henan province and Chongqing. According to Thornton's plan, it will invest 150 to 200 million US dollars on one waste power plant, which can handle 2000 tons of garbage and produce 75 MW per day. As for log-term plan, the companies that joined this Beijing visit may set up an investment fund on green energy and infrastructure in order to attract companies and overseas capital to invest in China's green energy and infrastructure market.

The meeting with CEPA's vice chairman Pan Yue obviously has given Steve Lakis and the American companies confidence. Mr. Pan frankly said that the current situation of China's green energy and power plant development is not that optimistic. However, Chinese government has made series of plans in the hope of making progresses in green energy and reduction of pollution.

Steve Lakis expressed that in America, environmental protection has been a big concern to each state congress which has a big say in this field. SLLF has a program with the University of California which focuses on how to promote environmental protection and production efficiency. He wishes to invite more Chinese officials and business leaders to go to America and visit this program. Mr. Wei Xin, Chairman & CPC Party Chief of PKU Founder Group became the first Chinese entrepreneur to be invited by SLLF to give speeches in America.
Michael Lin said that currently Chinese companies that may set up cooperation with American companies in the field of green energy and infrastructure include: China Life, CSCEC, Tianjin Jinneng.