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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 030941 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
BEIJING FOR CG 
STATE FOR CA/VO, EB, AND EAP/CM 
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS ECON ETRD CH
SUBJECT: Mindrays! - Consular Outreach to Shenzhen Mindray in 
Shenzhen.  Part 3 of 3. 
 
REF: A) GUANGZHOU 30782 B) GUANGZHOU 30894 C) GUANGZHOU 031368 D) 
GUANGZHOU 018161 
 
THIS DOCUMENT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  IT SHOULD NOT BE 
DISSEMINATED OUTSIDE OF U.S. GOVERNMENT CHANNELS OR IN ANY PUBLIC 
FORUM WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONCURRENCE OF THE ORIGINATOR.  IT SHOULD 
NOT BE POSTED ON THE INTERNET. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: At an August 25 meeting with Congenoffs, Shenzhen 
Mindray officials - whose company is a fast-growing producer of 
low-cost medical diagnostic equipment - emphasized the importance of 
U.S. trade shows in their overall sales growth. Despite Mindray's 
heavy research and development focus, its products do not appear on 
the technology alert list (TAL); most of the company's employees are 
of little TAL concern. Note: This is the third of three cables about 
how the consular section is reaching out to Shenzhen companies to 
better understand the South China business environment and visa 
needs. (see Refs A and B).  END SUMMARY 
 
¶2. (U) Shenzhen Mindray is a Chinese medical device company that has 
received significant U.S. funding through venture capital firms in 
the United States.  Although Mindray executives told us that U.S. 
investors had cashed out in 1999, the company does plan to open a 
new R&D center in Seattle and will seek to raise funds for expansion 
by offering an initial public offering on the New York Stock 
Exchange in 2007.  Recent press reports confirm Mindray will trade 
under the symbol "MR" and will seek to raise USD 276 million in its 
IPO. 
 
Shenzhen Mindray - More Science than Science Fiction 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶3. (U) Shenzhen Mindray, located in the glittering NanShan district 
of Shenzhen where the towering headquarters of ZTE (Ref C) casts a 
shadow on Mindray's smaller office, is a bio-medical electronics 
company with a 15 year history.  Beginning in 1991 as a humble 
distributor of patient monitors in China, company founders sought 
venture capital funding from the United States and aggressively 
reinvested revenues from previous years into research and 
development.  Today, the firm has its own lines of medical 
diagnostic equipment; it designs, manufactures, and markets patient 
monitors, ultrasound machines, and clinical laboratory equipment 
such as hematology and urine analyzers.  Mindray recently entered 
the anesthesia machine market.  Mindray markets under its own name 
but also serves as an OEM manufacturer for foreign medical product 
companies such as Datascope and BCI. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Jie Liu, Vice President of International Marketing, Sammie 
Su, Marketing Manager, and Lisa Li, Deputy Manager from the 
President's Office told Congenoffs that Mindray's workforce 
consisted of 2420 employees and they emphasized that the company was 
primarily a medical device R&D firm.  Mindray does perform all of 
its own manufacturing due to the narrowness of its market and the 
high requirements of the Food and Drug Administration and other 
regulatory agencies, but over 800 of its employees are engineers 
engaged in R&D, and 70 percent of them have graduate degrees. 
Marketing comprises another third of the workforce; a third of its 
employees work in Mindray's factory in Xili, a short drive away. 
 
VISAS 
----- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Mr. Liu explained that while Mindray is making great 
strides in developing state-of-the-art technology in medical 
devices, it still cannot compete in the United States, Canada, 
Australia, and Western Europe with the likes of industry giants 
General Electric, Philips, and Siemens.  Mindray thus purposefully 
tries to develop lower-cost, but still high-tech, products to suit 
its primary markets: Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America.  Ms. 
Su explained that while the United States is a small market for 
Mindray, four large medical device trade shows held in the United 
States each year attract many potential purchasers from markets such 
as Latin America.  The company's ability to send marketing and 
engineering teams of 12-15 people to each of these shows is crucial 
to its efforts. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Mindray's main complaint about the visa process was that 
wait times are unpredictable due to administrative processing and 
issued visas are usually only for one entry.  Ms. Su further 
commented that one entry visas are extremely inconvenient for 
company staff as they often need to transit the United States twice 
to visit with customers in Latin America on the same trip.  A single 
 
GUANGZHOU 00030941  002 OF 002 
 
 
entry visa forces employees to take less desirable routing.  (Note: 
Visas issued after a Mantis Special Advisory Opinion are limited to 
single entry, three months. End note.) Conoffs explained they 
understood the frustration and that the meeting would help line 
officers better understand travel needs. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Conoffs in the past have felt unease with issuing visas to 
applicants from Mindray without seeking a SAO, due in large part to 
the company's heavy emphasis on medical device research and 
development.  After this facility tour and dialogue, Conoffs came 
away with the firm belief that Mindray is what it states itself to 
be: a manufacturer and producer of largely lower-cost, 
hospital-quality medical products.  While high-tech in design, the 
products are primarily for hospital and clinical use in aiding 
patient diagnosis.  In addition, the impending IPO on the New York 
Stock Exchange should make the company's plans and financing more 
transparent.  None of Mindray's current product lines appears to be 
on the technology alert list.  While Conoffs agreed that Mindray and 
its products should be monitored and were wary about Mr. Liu's 
unwillingness to comment on the founders backgrounds, there seems 
little need to perform SAOs on most applicants. 
 
GOLDBERG