Mayor R. Rex Parris delights in rattling cages, putting Lancaster, California, on the map in China and beyond
- The outspoken mayor brought a Chinese-owned BYD electric vehicle plant to his struggling city – and says he envies the power wielded by officials in China
- Parris once proposed a ‘birth tourism’ concept so Chinese could give birth at Lancaster’s hospital to give their babies US citizenship
He lured a multibillion-dollar Chinese company to the California desert, encouraged Chinese “birth tourists” to have babies with US citizenship and envies Chinese officials who have real clout.
The United States has its share of colourful mayors. But few compare with R. Rex Parris of Lancaster, California.
“He’s a schemer,” said Matt Sheehan, author of The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future. “Rex Parris would make a great Chinese mayor. He’s fully in that groove.”
Never one to think small, Parris proposed a US$31 million, 10-story Buddha statue complex in this city of 160,000 east of Los Angeles to welcome Chinese companies before US-Chinese tensions spiked. Parris, a Republican, has made Lancaster carbon neutral – rare in a political party known for denying climate change – and suggested residents carry firearms to deter the homeless.
Lancaster’s links to China almost didn’t happen. In 2009, Parris considered skipping a business dinner where he met Wang Chuanfu, the billionaire founder of electric bus and battery maker BYD.
The gritty city was battling 17 per cent unemployment and Parris was promoting solar power given Lancaster’s location on the Mojave desert’s periphery. The two huddled over renewable energy and hit it off.