From Austin oil to Seattle aviation, China’s ties with US run regional and deep

If US President Donald Trump gets confrontational with Chinese President Xi Jinping over trade at their Mar-a-Lago summit in Florida in April, the Chinese leader will have potential allies in some surprising places – namely, Austin, Sacramento and Olympia.

The economic ties that bind China to the United States are primarily regional and run deep. Now, with a wild card in the White House, the Chinese want even more leverage should bilateral trade relations get hammered. China’s Ministry of Commerce says it’s working to expand various investment agreements with California, Texas, Iowa and other states, deals it estimates were worth US$2.5 billion to American and Chinese businesses last year alone.

Sun Jiwen, a spokesman for the ministry, used an old Chinese saying to describe the trade situation: “A good relationship between two nations is based on close connection between their peoples,” Sun said. “Province-state and intercity economic partnerships provide an important foundation for China-US economic ties.”

While the outreach is a continuation of regional ties promoted for several years by Xi, it’s taken on added urgency as Trump’s economic team weighs whether to follow through on campaign-trail promises of tariffs of as much as 45 per cent on Chinese goods.

Part of the thinking is that making more American friends outside Washington could slow the push for protectionist measures, according to a person involved in the ministry’s campaign, who asked not to be identified discussing its internal deliberations.