Chinese Consulate in L.A. Opens to Flood of Inquiries About Travel Visas, Trade

The doors of China’s newest consulate in the United States opened Thursday to a flood of inquiries about travel visas and business opportunities in the world’s most populous nation.

“We’re very busy. The calls are coming in very heavily,” consulate building manager Peggy Heng said. “It’s so busy they asked me to help with the telephones.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday to open his country’s fifth consulate in the United States and begin an eight-day U.S. tour that will include his first official visit to Washington since October, 1983.

The visit to Washington was expected to include discussions on human rights and arms sales to Iran in that country’s 7 1/2-year-old war with Iraq. Both issues have strained Chinese-U.S. relations in the last year.

Wu and other top Chinese and U.S. officials gathered Wednesday night to mark the opening of the new consulate in a move to strengthen business and cultural ties between Southern California and the People’s Republic of China.

China already has a consulate in San Francisco.

“With the acceleration and deepening of China’s reform and the all-round application of its open policy, there will be even closer ties between China and California and other Western states in terms of friendly exchanges and economic, trade and technological cooperation,” Wu told 1,300 people attending the reception.

Wu and newly designated Consul General Ma Yuzhen headed a delegation of officials from China at a reception at the Biltmore to celebrate the opening of the consulate.

Among those attending the reception were U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord, other State Department officials, California Secretary of State March Fong Eu, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Deane Dana.

After leaving Los Angeles Wu planned to swing through the South before his March 7-9 visit to Washington. Talks are scheduled with President Reagan, Secretary of State George Shultz, Cabinet officials and congressional leaders.

After touring the United States, the Chinese foreign minister will visit Britain from March 10 to 15 for talks with Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe.

In Britain, Wu’s discussions are expected to focus on the administration of Hong Kong in the nine years leading up to the return of the British colony to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, and calls for the introduction of direct elections in the territory in 1991.