Hawaii-2013-HR22-Introduced

WHEREAS, China and the people of China have been a part of the economy and culture of Hawaii since the first Chinese sugar plantation laborers arrived in the islands in 1852; and

WHEREAS, the first one hundred seventy-five laborers were from Hong Kong bound for Maui–-most of them from depression-torn Guangdong and Fujian in southern China; and

WHEREAS, from 1852 to 1876, nearly four thousand Chinese laborers migrated to Hawaii and by 1882, these huaqiao or migrants, made up almost forty-nine per cent of plantation labor, outnumbering Caucasians in the islands; and

WHEREAS, the progeny of these humble but determined Chinese immigrants rose quickly through the ranks of Hawaii’s educational, political, and business communities, and have left lasting impacts on Hawaii and even the world, the most famous of whom, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, is referred to as "The Forerunner of the Revolution"; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Sun’s education at Iolani School and Oahu College inspired him to develop the vision of an educated, strong, and democratic modern-day China that he would dedicate the rest of his life to building, and would later prompt him to say that Hawaii was where he "came to know what modern, civilized governments are like and what they mean"; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Sun established the first Chinese revolutionary party, called Xing Zhong Hui or Revive China Society, and returned to Hawaii five more times, and during those trips, many Hawaii families contributed financially to his cause; and

WHEREAS, the Counties of Hawaii Sister-Cities Summit held in Honolulu from September 13, 2011, to September 15, 2011, highlighted the inextricable and historic ties between China and Hawaii with a particular emphasis on strengthening our relationships with Honolulu’s sister cities of Zhongshan, Haikou, Qinhuangdao, and Chengdu; and

WHEREAS, the summit demonstrated that China will continue to embrace our open door policy and fortified our understanding of each other’s needs in the areas of cultural exchange, economic development, trade, tourism, and education; and

WHEREAS, recently, members of Hawaii’s business and government communities welcomed two hundred seventy-one passengers at Honolulu International Airport from China Eastern Airlines’ inaugural direct flight from Shanghai, heralding a new era for Honolulu’s economic growth and forging closer ties between the United States and China; and

WHEREAS, the People’s Republic of China, with its 1,300,000,000 people, represents a very large and lucrative pool of visitors, as the average Chinese tourist to Hawaii is expected to spend about $368 per day, compared to $275 daily for every Japanese tourist and just $178 per day, on average, for all tourists to Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, tourism dollars have been identified by the United States Department of Commerce as an export, and President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative of May 2010 seeks to double United State's exports by 2015; and

WHEREAS, China has transformed itself from an impoverished country to the world’s second largest economy and, as it grows, continues to have an impact on Hawaii and the globe; and

WHEREAS, China is now a major trade partner with the United States and a force for stability and peace in Asia, becoming a world leader in the auto market and the world’s largest producer of energy; and

WHEREAS, in spite of the reciprocity between China and Hawaii, the visa application and approval process for Chinese business and tourist travelers is an arduous and often lengthy process that deters many potential visitors to Hawaii and the United States; and

WHEREAS, a Chinese citizen who wishes to visit the United States must appear in person before a United States consular official to obtain the visa, but there are only five United States consulates in the entire People’s Republic of China; and

WHEREAS, due to the small number of consulates and staff to handle the in‑person interviews necessary for entry visas, the average wait times for those interviews in China far exceed those wait times in other countries; and

WHEREAS, one solution to ease this problem is for a country to be admitted to the United States State Department’s Visa Waiver Program, which allows nationals from foreign countries to enter the United States for tourism- or business-related purposes for as long as ninety days without obtaining a visa; and

WHEREAS, both the citizens of Japan and South Korea qualify for visa waivers; and

WHEREAS, when South Korea became one of the thirty-six countries in the United States State Department’s Visa Waiver Program in November of 2008, it boosted tourism to Hawaii from that country; and

WHEREAS, in order for a country to qualify for the Visa Waiver Program, the country must satisfy certain conditions, with the United States government retaining the ultimate discretion to admit the country to the program; and

WHEREAS, one condition for entry into the waiver program is the rate of refusal of a country’s visa applicants, which must be three per cent or lower; and

WHEREAS, the refusal rate for Chinese visa applicants was 13.3 per cent as of 2010; and

WHEREAS, the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, a newly created industry group appointed by the United States Secretary of Commerce, recommended measures that can be taken to increase travel to the United States from China, which include:

(1) Raising the visa refusal rate from three to ten per cent;

(2) Establishing a maximum wait time for in‑person visa interviews of five days;

(3) Adding four to six visa processing locations and several hundred consular officers to process visas; and

(4) Allowing non-immigrant visas to last ten years for Chinese visitors, which is permitted in other countries; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2013, that this body urges the United States Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Attorney General to include the People’s Republic of China in the Visa Waiver Program and support the recommendations of the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board to ease visa restrictions and the visa application and approval process for business and tourist travelers from the People’s Republic of China; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to Secretary John Kerry, United States Department of State; Secretary Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security; United States Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.; Acting Secretary Rebecca Blank, United States Department of Commerce; China’s Ambassador to the United States, the members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation; the Hawaii Tourism Authority; the Director of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; the Asian American Institute; the Organization of Chinese Americans; the President of the Hawaii State Association of Counties; and the Mayors of the Counties of Kauai, Hawaii, Honolulu, and Maui.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

People's Republic of China; Visa Waiver

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	22
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013
STATE OF HAWAII