“When things calm down, which I believe that they will, having this partnership and relationships in advance is going to make it a lot easier for us to rebound and rebuild,” Joe Nguyen, the director for the Washington State Department of Commerce, said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday.
Nguyen gave the remarks while attending an import expo in Shanghai, where he met with regional officials and business representatives. He is the first commerce director from the state, a key manufacturing base for Boeing Co, to visit China since 2019.
His trip was not an isolated gesture. Weeks earlier, Oregon State Senate President Rob Wagner led a delegation on a 10-city tour, culminating in a meeting with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng. Wagner told a Chinese state broadcaster that Oregon remained committed to working with China.
While many states have adopted policies more aggressive than the federal government’s to limit Chinese investment, this parallel track of engagement also highlights the diverging interests fracturing America’s approach to its chief rival.
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For some, the calculation is rooted in simple economics. China is Washington state’s top export market, with aerospace and agricultural goods among top products sold — and the second-largest for Oregon.
“I am seeing some nervous governors,” Sean Stein, the president of the US China Business Council (USCBC), told Bloomberg TV on Thursday. The USCBC earlier estimated that nearly one million American jobs are supported by exports to China.
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“We are seeing governors starting to think about how can I continue and protect the jobs that we have that are tied to exports to China,” said Stein, who added that he expects to see more aggressive outreach from US states.
For officials on the ground, the fear is that the tensions between the capitals could lead to an economic fallout despite a recent truce.
The agreement reached last week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping saw both sides cut tariff rates on each other’s goods for a year. China also agreed to expand agricultural purchases and removed levies on some US farm products, although the talks didn’t resolve core differences between the competing powers.
“Once you lose trade partners because of geopolitical issues, it’s not easy to bring them back,” Nguyen said. “That’s why I think it’s important for us to show up and maintain those ties.”
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