Chester gives US cause for rethink on China trade

CHESTER COUNTY, United States - While US President Donald Trump sees an "economic enemy" in China, the northeastern US county of Chester in Pennsylvania sees an economic partner.

The county, with an area of 1,965 square kilometers and about 516,000 people, has long taken pride in its diverse agricultural products. Farmers here produce a whopping half of all the mushrooms in the United States. Soon some of them will grow mushrooms in China, for China.

Chris Alonzo, president of Pietro Industries, a third-generation family-owned and operated mushroom farm, has partnered with a Chinese businessman to open a mushroom-growing facility in East China's Anhui province. He expects it to be operational by the end of this year and produce 17 metric tons of mushrooms daily in the beginning.