On June 9 100 years ago, 45 American businessmen met at Shanghai's Palace Hotel to discuss creating a business association that would promote the interests of American commerce in China. The provisional committee included representatives from iconic industrial companies such as American Steel, Standard Oil and British-American Tobacco.

A century later, the modern incarnation of that association, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AmCham Shanghai), gathered to commemorate the special occasion. Among the 250 members attending the event were representatives from Apple, FedEx and Starbucks - companies whose products and services have become interwoven with the fabric of contemporary Shanghai but whose founders, ideas and inventions were un-invented, unborn and even unimaginable in 1915.

"For over a century, AmCham Shanghai has worked to support healthy commercial ties between the United States and China," Robert Theleen, Chairman of the Board of Governors of AmCham Shanghai and who has been active in US-China business since the 1970s, said. "We are proud of the contributions American companies have made to China's economic development."

AmCham Shanghai remains as committed to supporting and growing American businesses in Shanghai as its original founders, however their mission now extends beyond the Yangtze River Delta.

Community involvement

In 1915, AmCham Shanghai was the third American Chamber established outside the United States. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan business organization, AmCham Shanghai's mission was to encourage free trade, open markets and private enterprise. Today, it is one of the largest and fastest growing American Chambers in the Asia-Pacific region.

AmCham Shanghai's involvement in the local community also continues to grow. Between 2004 and 2014 the chamber and its members gave over 8.8 million yuan ($1.42 million) to charitable causes in and around Shanghai. Another 750,000 yuan was raised in 2015 in partnership with the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation, which will go in part toward their Centennial Scholarship to give financial assistance to Chinese undergraduate students at Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Over the past four decades, bilateral US-China trade has expanded from $4.7 million in 1971 to $592 billion in 2014, an increase of 125,957 times. The chamber claims over 3,700 members, of whom 40 percent are Chinese nationals working for US companies.

As we enter the next century, we support investment from China into the United States, AmCham Shanghai President Kenneth Jarrett said. We embrace this change, which will further strengthen US-China commercial ties, he said.

Global Times



 

 

Over 250 members and guests attend an evening reception to celebrate 100 years of American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Photos: Courtesy of AmCham Shanghai