Mayor Conrad Lee was among hundreds of world leaders who attended BoAo Asian Forum (BAF) last week in Hainan, China, an assembly equivalent to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
BAF, now in its 13th year was attended by such figures as Bill Gates, Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia and Admiral Bill Owens. Lee has long encouraged business relations between China and Washington state.
“He always tries promoting Bellevue in the world,” said Mei Young, who founded Era Young to facilitate contacts between Chinese businesses and the city. She’s worked extensively with Lee on projects in the country.
“I think he saw the economy slowing down a couple of years ago, and saw that [we needed] some financial injection for our region…And given China’s booming economy…wanted to cultivate that relationship.”
Lee was born in Kunming, China and raised in Hong Kong, before moving to the U.S. in 1958. As a councilmember he helped initiate a cooperative business agreement between the city of Dalian, China and Bellevue. Two years later he assisted in a similar partnership between the city and Qingdao. He built out those connections with ads on Chinese social media sites. The recent launch of BellevueCN.com, a bilingual website focused on technology leadership in the region, further strengthens that global community.
Young says initial efforts have focused on showcasing the Eastside. She says the two regions have natural connections given Bellevue’s growing technology sector and many examples of start-up entrepreneurism. Though preliminary, efforts seem to be paying off. AdSage, China’s largest search engine marketing firm, now has offices in downtown Bellevue.
Young points also to a demand for real estate in the city, with Chinese nationals sometimes paying as much as $9 million to 12 million and competing for properties.
“As a regional ecosystem, we want [China], when it thinks about entrepreneurship and start-up businesses to think of Bellevue as a platform,” she says. “…So we can bring capital and business over here.”
