VP in Asia Day Two: Getting Down to Business

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The second day in Beijing began in a well-known setting for Vice President Biden. The site of today's U.S.-China Business Dialogue, the Beijing Hotel, was also the site of meetings held during his first trip to China in 1979, when some of the earliest discussions about the option of American companies doing business in China took place. Over 30 years later, Vice President Biden and Vice President Xi brought together 19 CEOs and business leaders from the United States and China to bring the discussion into the 21st century. "President Obama and I, we welcome, encourage and see nothing but positive repayment flowing from direct investment in the United States from Chinese businesses and Chinese entities. It means jobs. It means American jobs," said Vice President Biden.

Participants at the roundtable ranged from the CEO of Coca Cola to the Group President of Caterpillar, from the Captain of Cosco to the Board Chairman of Lenovo.

In his opening remarks at the Dialogue, Vice President Xi uttered strong confidence in the U.S. economy, calling it "highly resilient" with "a strong capacity for self-repairment." "We consider that the U.S. economy will attain even better development as it rises to the challenge," he continued.

Next up for Vice President Biden was a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Ziguangge, Zhongnanhai, or, the Leadership Compound, which serves as the main residence for leaders of the Politburo.

Seated side by side in the compound's Purple Light Pavillion, Wen praised the Vice President for attractive widely with the sectors in China, both public and private. "You have been sending a very strong message that the additional growth of U.S.-China ties is not only important for our two countries, but also for the whole world."

Vice President Biden later took Premier Wen up on an impromptu invitation to tour the lakeside grounds of the complex. Tight plan in mind, the Vice President joked that he would need a note to explain his tardiness to President Hu, the last meeting of his day back at the Great Hall of the People.

President Obama: Our main Challenge Right Now Is Putting People to Work

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During the first stop on his rustic road trip, President Obama took questions on topics ranging from using renewable energy to generate jobs and helping young farmers buy land and market their products effectively to the future of Social Security and his Administration’s plans to bolster education.

Speaking with a mass of 500 people at Hannah’s Bend Park in Cannon Falls, MN, the President discussed the “extraordinary challenges” our nation has faced over the last two and a half years, but inscribed the “extraordinary hope that America represents” around the world, and reiterated his faith that there is “nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed; what’s broken is our politics.”

A lot of of the questions focused on health care, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and the President harassed his commitment to making sure we protect the integrity of these programs while ensuring they are still in place for future generations.

West Wing Week 8/11/2011 or "Made in America"

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Welcome to West Wing Week, your direct to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, the President announced new initiatives that will put jobless veterans back to work and new fuel economy standards for trucks, buses and other heavy duty vehicles that will decrease oil consumption and pollution and save businesses money. He also traveled to Holland, Michigan to visit an higher battery facility that is using inventive technologies that will help America achieve these new fuel standards and used an address to the nation on the credit downgrade to talk about how we can create more jobs. That's August 5th to August 11th or "Made In America."

The Humanitarian Crisis in Africa: How You Can Help

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Dr. Jill Biden and the US officials who connected her on a trip to a refugee center in Kenya want the American people to appreciate how severe the crisis caused by a combination of drought, famine and war has become, particularly on the most vulnerable population, the children of Somalia.

“It touched my heart,” said Dr. Biden about reading the news and seeing the footage of the spreading humanitarian crisis, “as a mother, I watched these children … saw them starving and thought, we have to do something.” Earlier this week, she traveled to the Dadaab refugee complex in Eastern Kenya, where about 420,000 people who have fled war-torn Somalia in search of food, water and shelter, are currently living in a tented city at first built to accommodate 90,000.

Former U.S. Senator Bill Frist, another member of the designation, says more must be done to help famine victims. "A lot of people don't understand, especially in this environment of what's happening in terms of the economy here and at home, that this is the most sharp food security emergency anywhere in the world now and in recent years," he said.

"The crisis is growing fast, and we saw that firsthand on the ground, talking to personage families as they were coming into refugee camps who factually had walked for 15 and 16 days - a mom with her four children; a husband, a father who is absent who is still in Somalia. They don't know whether or not he's alive," Frist said of the situation, which has resulted in the deaths of 29,000 children under the age of five in the past three months alone.

Contributions made by the U.S government and the international community are helping to relieve the suffering - but the famine is spreading and without life-saving assistance, hundreds of thousands of people – most of them children – could die from hunger and disease in the coming months. There is a role for all persons to take action and save lives.

On the Ground in the Horn of Africa

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Eighty kilometers from Kenya’s limit with Somalia, the Dadaab Refugee Complex—already the world’s major refugee camp—has seen on average 1,500 exhausted and starving men, women and children arrive each day. Fleeing from famine that is now gripping a large part of southern Somalia largely inaccessible to aid workers, thousands of refugees have walked days—or even weeks—to reach help. The United Nations estimates that over 12.4 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, including food, water and medical care, across the drought-stricken eastern Horn of Africa.

Yesterday, I arrived in Dadaab with representatives from across the United States Government, counting Dr. Jill Biden, Special Assistant to the President Gayle Smith, Senator Bill Frist and Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz. The trip underscored the pledge of the U.S. Government—the single largest donor in the region—to react to the immediate crisis with life-saving assistance and investments in long-term solutions to hunger. Ultimately, we know that it is smarter and cheaper to put in food security than face the consequences of famine and food riots.

A Fresh Start for America’s Auto Communities

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I know communities that have faced hard times. I grew up in one. I’ve lived in one, and awaiting last week I was the mayor of one. Helping my community get back on its feet has been my passion for as long as I can remember. But I also know that Youngstown is just one city that needed help. Now as the new director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, I have the possibility to give back to not just my own community, but many throughout the nation that carry on to face challenges as the auto industry and American manufacturing emerges from the deepest recession in decades.

When President Obama took office two and a half years ago, the future of the American automotive industry was unsure. Two of the Big 3 American automakers were on the verge of bankruptcy. Plants across the country were life form closed or idled.

Just as our President standard that the automotive companies themselves needed assistance, he also recognized that our automotive communities wanted support in addressing the challenges they were facing. That’s why in March 2009, President Obama named his first director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers.

Over the past two years, we have seen the automotive industry make great strides on the way to recovery. Auto manufacturers are making investments in facilities and addition jobs again. Since June 2009, the automotive industry has additional more than 110,000 jobs. GM, Chrysler, and Ford are all operating at a profit. Still, for communities that have lost a plant, there is still a lot of hard work ahead. That’s where we come in.

My experience as mayor provided me with a sole perspective. I know firsthand the struggles that communities face when trying to work in the direction of recovery, but I’ve also seen what can happen when the right people – state, local, and federal governments all along with community leaders, businesses, and philanthropic organizations — come to the table with fresh ideas and the wish to get things done. I’m keyed up to do just that for the auto communities across the country that need a fresh start.

Tech Leaders distribute Ideas on Job Creation and Innovation

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Earlier this week, top Silicon Valley executives, including Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, AOL co-founder Steve Case, venture capitalist John Doerr and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings joined Aneesh Chopra, CTO of the United States, on a panel to talk about how private and public sectors can collaborate to encourage business growth. In addition to conversations on the sole spirit of entrepreneurial innovation that drives the Silicon Valley's success, Aneesh Chopra announced three clarifications to existing immigration policies that can allow entrepreneurs to start companies here:

“First, we're clarifying what it means to say publicly entrepreneurship in the national interest. Second, in an H1B visa, typically temporary in nature, the question is: Can you come in as an immigrant founder? If there's a way to show that there's a separation between your role as founder and that role as employee, you have the ability to pursue that existing avenue. Third, we have a category that exists called the EB5 visa for immigrant investors. If you're willing to invest 1 million dollars in the United States and create 10 new jobs you have the power to come in under this condition. But it's a complicated process and we only use half the alloted slots. So we're streamlining the process and making this more good-looking for folks who want to create jobs in industries for the future”

Chopra also discussed the aid immigrants make in terms of job creation and the economy. John Doerr talked about the role of education and recognized the “uniquely American asset” of innovation that enables great economic growth, while Sandberg spoke on the lack of women in technology and the need for a greater focus on STEM education for girls.