The US China Business Council has just put up (Maybe I just found it) one of the most useful maps I have seen when it comes to trade between the US and China called the Congressional District Exports to China: 2000-07

With the ability to make a cut at the state level, and at the congressional level, the USCBC has done a great job of providing a useful interface for people interested in learning more about exports of goods made in the United States.

As an example, take a look at Missouri (my home state):

Missouri’s Congressional Districts

1. MO-01
2. MO-02
3. MO-03
4. MO-04
5. MO-05
6. MO-06
7. MO-07
8. MO-08
9. MO-09

US Exports to China by State

Missouri
All states

Click for Congressional District Locater

Kind of depressing that the top 3 exports from Missouri are waste, chemicals, and minerals…. but good to see the Great State of Missouri (not Missoura) is representing!

With so much going on in China, and only a limited amount of bandwidth, I have created this weekly post to highlight articles that I feel are (1) important, (2) relevant, and (3) interesting.

This week there are 3 articles that I have chosen to highlight as each are quite interesting, they are all relevant, and there are issues within each that I think you the reader should be aware of.

If you have an article that you feel needs to be mentioned, please do so in the comments section. We all have different areas of interest and bandwidth, so I hope you will take some time and post those articles!
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I am generally of the opinion that if you are writing a blog focused on business, you should follow the cardinal laws of topics to avoid at networking events: politics and religion. In china, I would also add culture.

However, I recognize the fact that the line between business and politics is a fine one, and that come this November the line that the Bush Administration has drawn in the sand will be moved by one of the candidates…. and more than ever, I think we need to understand clearly the knowledge, understanding, experience, and potential impact of the candidates as it relates to globalization.. and of course China.

and, as luck would have it, Youtube has provided such an opportunity through a 9 minute clip of Hillary Clinton being interview on the George Stephanopoulos show:

 The highlights of the clip are:

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Long a proponent that halfpats were the future in China , I recently came on two articles that I think have done a great job of identifying some of the issues that US business persons have with China.

The Fortune article You have 7 years to learn Mandarin is an piece on the fact that doing business in China is changing into doing business with China.

Reaching back to the years of Japan Inc., Geoff Colvin writes

While short-term investors are already cashing in on China’s growth by playing the global commodities boom, smart long-term thinkers are contemplating what happens when China matures from an exporter of cheap goods to a competitor in sectors where the U.S. is dominant - technology, brand building, finance.

To make sure firms/ individuals have a place in an area where China’s GDP is larger than the US (he thinks 2015 - I have my doubts) and when Chinese firms begin buying up or competing with US firms , he writes:

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A native of St Louis, I am used to the fact that my hometown is a 2nd tier US city.

The Gateway to the West, we are famous as a good sports town, the Arch, Anheuser Busch, and a few other things… but it is St. Louis’s geographic position that historically gave St. Louis an advantage.

If you have read the book The Box, or perhaps just read my post 3 weeks ago about the impact on US export opportunities following a shortage of containers, then you will have a basic understanding that geographic position + good logistics can = good business. And so it was with great excitement that I read the article St. Louis places a trade bet on China

Economically, St. Louis is a city that used to rely heavily on large companies like TWA, McDonnell Douglas, Monsanto, and Ford to provide its manufacturing base. the problem with that reliance is that many of these firms have moved, been scaled down, or have shuttered… and so a process of revitalization has been occurring, and it appears that St Louis is returning to its roots:

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U.S International Trade Commission has just released a 270 page report entitled Description of Selected Government Practices and Policies Affecting Decision-Making in the Economy, and while this report is long in title and content, it has a lot of information about just how decisions are made:

The Committee requested that this first study describe the practices and policies that China’s central, provincial, and local government bodies use to support and attempt to influence decision making in the economy, including the manufacturing, agricultural, and services sectors; the second study is to assess, to the extent possible, the relative impact of these policies on selected sectors; and the third study is to examine the role of these policies in influencing patterns of production and investment in the Asian region

For me, 270 pages is just too much information, and I am thankful that before the 4 pages of describing common terms and abbreviations they provided a table of contents so that I could find the topic that was most interesting for me (Chapter 3: Price coordination, utility rates, and taxation and Chapter 5 Restraints on imports and exports).

For anyone interested in learning more about the bureaucratic process in China, specifically how things work and what issues are being balanced when decisions are being made, I highly suggest you download the document (5MB) and spend some time going through the relevant topics.

I will put some thoughts together on the chapter 3 and 5 shortly..