Senate Foreign Relations Report Supports Expo 2020 Bid and Regrets Expo 2010 US Pavilion

On Tuesday, the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee will issue a report. Here are the details:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/uschinadiplomacypoliticseducationrights

Most interesting, for those of us interested in world's fair issues are these lines from the AFP news story:

"The report also faulted the United States for underfunding public diplomacy.

It regretted the quality of the US pavilion at last year's World Expo in Shanghai, which was cobbled together at the last minute using private funds and featured simple films about the United States.

Even if many Americans no longer care about global expositions, the report said, some 70 million people -- most of them Chinese -- visited the Shanghai Expo and seven million went to the US pavilion.

Considering that fewer than one million Chinese visit the United States each year, "the Expo was a squandered opportunity to have maximum impact on our bilateral relationship," the report said.

The report called for the United States to consider changing the law to allow government support for exposition efforts, including for the US pavilion at the 2012 Expo in South Korea, and to make a bid for the 2020 World Expo."