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".