President's Blog

We all have our perceptions of China. For some of us, those perceptions may relate to our involvement in various conflicts such as Korea and Vietnam. They can be influenced by the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square or by current events. We all have our own mental image of what we would expect to find on a visit to China.

I had the opportunity to meet with an organization called The Promotion Center for Emergency Assistance of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. It is quite a long title for what in the United States would be known as FEMA. While both organizations have a common goal of emergency management assistance, they are very different organizations. The PCEA, while it has the focus of emergency management training and assistance, is also heavily involved with the development and provision of private sector emergency management assistance.

A suborganization of PCEA is the China Emergency Assistance Investment Company.  It was developed to be an integrative management platform and is the leading enterprise in China’s emergency assistance industry. It is committed to the construction of China’s emergency management assistance system, using industry and private sector resources. Their goal is to secure private sector investment in equipment, resources, and personnel to do the emergency response. China has many natural disasters, but also has significant disasters resulting from coal mine accidents. They are looking to the United States and private sector companies to partner with them to identify the best practices and equipment in order to reduce their coal mine accident fatalities. But what is significant about this organization is that it is totally profit-driven. They need to invest in profit-making ventures. They are not tax-supported. For instance, they would contract with a company to build helicopters in China. These helicopters could be used in tourist and other activities, but when an emergency occurred, these helicopters and associated personnel would be immediately dispatched to the scene of the disaster. If I heard these gentlemen say “profit” once, I heard it at least a dozen times. They want to enter into profit-making ventures that will allow them to enhance and expand their emergency system network.  They are looking for firms with a broad point of view to assist them in what they believe are limitless opportunities.

The Chinese model is one of business partnerships whose profits allow further expansion of the emergency management system. They view their organization as working in concert with the public, through education and contributions that the public would make (similar to a contribution to the Red Cross or United Way for which the individual gets a tax credit) and the private sector. The organization is only a few years old and is run by businessmen who were very successful in previous careers. 

Clearly, this is not the China that I expected to find.