Lieutenant governor says China, Washington state ties 'go way back'

In September 2017, Cyrus Habib, the lieutenant governor of Washington who had then been in office for less than a year, went on his first overseas trip to China to celebrate and deepen the decades-long relationship with a nation that was "extremely significant" to his state.

Almost two years later, Habib remains optimistic about the relationship, despite the trade dispute between China and the United States on the national level, and is committed to taking it further. The China-Washington relationship "is truly something that touches every part of our state", he told China Daily while attending the Fifth China-US Governors Forum held in Kentucky on May 23.

Habib said the state of Washington and China have a relationship that "goes back so far".

"I don't think it's a coincidence that we have the first Chinese-American governor" in the US, he said, referring to Gary Locke, who served as governor of Washington for two terms starting in 1997, and "I don't think it's a coincidence that we have so many, successful Chinese businesses - tiny ones all the way up to the presence of Tencent and Alibaba in our state", said Habib.

China has developed into Washington's top trading partner with more than 20 percent of the US state's exports going to China and around 30 percent of its imports coming from China in 2018, both the largest among all nations according to the US census bureau.

Foreign direct investment is also an important pillar of Washington's international economic development, according to Habib, and "we have everything from high-tech to real estate and other Chinese firms that have made investments in our state, and we think that is a good thing", he said.

"What we try to do is establish relationships so that it's not 'somebody investing from far away with no connections'," said Habib, who visited investors during his 2017 visit to China, because "we want to really get to know, on a personal level, the people who are helping to create jobs in our state".

While the federal government has "a central role in policymaking and in facilitating funding of different initiatives, the states and then cities are so close to the businesses and the business clusters" and fund the public university system, said Habib, adding that "they have a very strong role to play".

While Habib said he is "frustrated" by the current China-US trade dispute, he is "very optimistic" about the future of the relationship, which has lasted 40 years.

"In that time, though sometimes different issues have come up, generally we've always been getting closer to one another through mutual understanding, through exactly these kinds of exchanges," said Habib whose hope has been that "Beijing and Washington work together every day until this is resolved".

For his part as a state official, Habib said he is looking to also deepen the ties on a sub-national level.

Planning to visit China for the fourth time in early July for the 2019 Summer Davos Forum - also known as the Annual Meeting of the New Champions - to be held in the northeastern city of Dalian, Habib said he is bringing with him the question, "Where are the opportunities for mutual benefits?"

nancykong@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily Global 06/06/2019 page8)