China becomes an international stage

By 杜江凌 on July 5, 2007

By John Du.

Each year we hold the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in China and in fact, we host the largest attendance of any of the IDFs held throughout the world. In the past, we gave our presentations in Chinese which made sense since the audience was primarily all Chinese. However, this year, we were asked to present in English. Why? Because there were to be so many non-Chinese speaking people in the audience. As just one measurable indicator, at the Beijing IDF in April there were more than one hundred international journalists in attendance, not to mention all the non-Chinese attendees. As I walked through the crowd, I sometimes had the feeling that there were more foreigners than Chinese.

The change gave me a sense of the increasing importance of the PRC geography in the business world. China has become an international stage. Intel itself has recognized this growth by making PRC an independent geography. Previously, PRC had been a part of Intel’s Asia Pacific region. In the opening keynote by our CTO Justin Rattner, he played a video interview with the PRC management in which we talked about the unique and growing influence of the PRC geography on our global business. At the Day 0 Press and Analyst event, my colleague Wen-hann Wang and I gave a presentation about the rich Research & Development activity in PRC. Again, we were asked to conduct the presentation in English.

As PRC continues to grow, we look forward to making even more significant contributions to Intel and to the global business world for many years to come.

One Response to China becomes an international stage

  1. Lord Volton says:

    From a Corporate Social Responsibility perspective “(CSR)” (my new word for the day) it would be interesting if Intel engaged the PRC on topics such as technology and human rights.
    A modern day version of the Lincoln/Douglas debate.
    The fact the IBM and Ford Motors partnered with the Nazi regime seems shocking, but that is probably because there were no CSR positions back then. ;-)
    Corporations that don’t simply buckle to the profit motive and open a dialogue on human rights will be doing the people of China a great service, since most of the commoners don’t carry much weight in the eyes of the totalitarian regime that runs China.
    As you know, corruption is rampant in China.
    Those of us who are the beneficiaries of freedom have a duty to work hard on the behalf of all those who are not. And Intel is in a unique position to lead China toward a path where its people are free to write blogs without fear of being imprisoned.