Xiang-Yu Zhang, a lawyer from China, arrived here in August. She is the People's Republic's first participant in a ground-breaking Shanghai-Honolulu lawyer exchange program. This program holds great promise for Hawai'i, and we ought to celebrate and support it.

IT'S ALL ABOUT GUANXI

Local attorney Mark Shklov is the progenitor. He's been developing law relationships in China for years. Through his network, he met Richard Hsu, founder and visionary leader of a small Chinese law firm in Shanghai called the Shanghai Pioneer Law Office.

Multinational firms in China use small Chinese firms to do legal work for their overseas clients. The large firms take large fees and pay small fees to the small firms. Richard Hsu and his protege David Mao, managing director of the firm, want to deal directly with overseas clients, thus eliminating the proverbial middleman. Good for them.

How do you do that? Well, you send your lawyers all over the world to take graduate law degrees, participate in international programs, work directly with international clients and develop long-term business relationships, what the Chinese call guanxi.

A PROGRAM IS BORN

The discussions ripened into an idea for a lawyer exchange between Shanghai and Honolulu. The Shanghai Pioneer Law Office, at its expense, would send a Chinese lawyer to visit a Honolulu firm for six months, and a Honolulu firm, at its expense, would send a Hawai'i lawyer to visit a Shanghai firm. This is the only such program in Hawai'i.

Mark contacted Roger Epstein of Cades Schutte, a highly respected firm in Honolulu, and Cades agreed to take not one but two Chinese lawyers, one this fall and one next spring. They also agreed to introduce these lawyers to the Hawai'i community to foster as many professional and business relationships as possible.

Larry Foster, former dean of UH law school now practicing in Shanghai, says the program strengthens Hawai'i's ties with China's commercial center. Both he and Roger foresee a wave of Chinese investment into Hawai'i that will rival the Japanese investment of the 1980s. The networking that will result from this program will help that happen.

Could this affect U.S.-Chinese relations? "These kinds of people-to-people programs are an extremely effective way to cross cultural divides," Larry says. "Better understanding at an individual level can and does affect relations at a national level."

AN AUSPICIOUS START

After two weeks in Hawai'i, Xiang-Yu is settled in for her visit at Cades. She also has been meeting carloads of new friends and has charmed and impressed them as enthusiastic, bright, competent and professional. Richard should be proud.

Xiang-Yu (which means Jade of Hunan) is from that province, where the River Xiang flows. After taking a degree in economics and then a master's in law, she was admitted to the China Bar in 2001 and joined the Shanghai Pioneer Law Office. She was assigned to Hewlett-Packard Shanghai as in-house counsel. She knows the value of tech to China and ultimately sees herself as a tech and international lawyer.

At Richard's suggestion, she participated in a British-Chinese legal training program in London and Hong Kong, where she still has business ties. On her return to Shanghai, Richard asked her to come to Honolulu for our program. She sees it as an investment in the future. So should we.

Roger has asked Xiang-Yu to look at alternative energy strategies, including cutting-edge issues relating to "carbon caps," and tax and international business strategies for U.S. companies setting up in China and Chinese companies setting up in the U.S., in hopes that this will lead to joint publication of professional articles in these areas.

The UH law school is participating in the program, and through Spencer Kimura, it has encouraged Xiang-Yu to audit classes and speak with students and faculty about the comparative practice of law in China. The Hawai'i State Bar Association has gotten involved, and its president-elect, Rai Saint Chu, has been introducing Xiang-Yu to the Honolulu legal community.

FILLING THE DANCE CARD

Xiang-Yu keeps a Google calendar, and it's filling up with meetings, courses, tours and social events. We want her to meet the community, and bring back a list of friends and a comfortable understanding about how things work in Hawai'i, and why the Chinese should do business here.

Regrettably, Xiang-Yu's visa gave her only a three-month stay. She's leaving in November, so we need to work quickly. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to engage, make a good impression and build a bridge to realize our destiny with China.

Roger and other attorneys from Cades hope to visit Shanghai in the spring to give talks on doing business in the U.S. But it remains for us to find Hawai'i lawyers to send to China for our side of the exchange. Do you know someone? Contact Mark Shklov.

PASSING THE TEST

Connecting with post-Olympics China might save Hawai'i, so let's not take it lightly. The train is leaving the station, and we need to be on it. For big things, China will probably overfly Hawai'i. If we play our cards right, however, we can develop relationships that will help us do business with them on many other things.

The choice is ours. If you are a member of the legal, business, academic or cultural communities of Hawai'i, you should show face and do aloha. Call Xiang-Yu at Cades, and see if you can get onto the dance card and learn how they practice in China.

Today's China is all about the notion of "stand up — it's China's time." Hawai'i should echo that idea — maybe it can also be Hawai'i's time. Even if we can't transform our economy as China has done, at least we can do business with them. Carpe diem, though. This chance won't last forever — other places are vying for their attention, too.

Now that the Olympics are over, we need to push for group visas and direct flights. We need to put Mandarin signs in our airports and public places. We need to support exchange programs like this one. China is not only an important part of Hawai'i's past, it's important to Hawai'i's future.

With credit to Larry Foster, there is an old Taoist parable about a frog at the bottom of a well. It teaches us that you cannot begin to think outside the box until you realize that you're in a box. Take my word for it — we're in a box. Now, let's get on with it.

Jay Fidell is a business lawyer practicing in Honolulu. He has followed tech and tech policy closely and is a founder of ThinkTech Hawaii. Check out his blog at www.honoluluadvertiser.com/blogs.