Jay Inslee spent quite a lot of time signing agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Seattle last week. Inslee joined “four other U.S. governors and six Chinese governors in signing one agreement to support clean and renewable energy technologies.” Additionally, the University of Washington and Tsinghua University signed an agreement to “explore research partnerships.”
Just what these agreements would do is not clear. Even Inslee’s director of the Washington state Department of Commerce – and his former congressional chief of staff – realizes our green governor’s many agreements would not result in a whole lot other than the headlines Inslee always craves.
The Puget Sound Business Journal,
“So how exactly will these vague, non-binding partnerships further Washington’s business relationship with China?
“‘Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t,’ Brian Bonlender, director of the Washington state Department of Commerce, said. ‘It’s possible not a lot comes out of some of them. In fact, that’s probably likely to be the case.’”
Washington “already has a strong trade relationship with China – the strongest of any state.” China spent more than $20 billion on Washington state goods last year alone. The Puget Sound Business Journal,
“Xi’s visit – and especially that he made Seattle the first stop on his first official visit – will help to strengthen that relationship. Some in tangible ways – such as a $38 billion deal with Boeing for 300 jets and a new production facility – and some more abstract.”
We all know how much Inslee loves to forget about reality and work in the abstract.
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