Supervisor Expects Trip to China to Benefit O.C.

Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner will head an eight-member delegation leaving next week on a 10-day, five-city tour of China, including a formal ceremony Aug. 1 to establish relations between Orange County and Tianjin, a port city near Beijing.

The city of Tianjin invited the Orange County group, which includes Orange County Protocol Chief Joanne Sokolski and Steiner’s son, Scott, a law-school student. The trip originally was scheduled for February 1995 but was canceled because of the county’s bankruptcy.

Steiner said Tianjin representatives approached county officials in 1994 about establishing formal relations, which officials from both areas hope will result in greater business investments and international trade, and exchanges of professional and cultural groups.

International trade has jumped 42% in Orange County in the past two years, reaching $8 billion annually, according to the county’s protocol office.

“We’re constantly meeting entrepreneurs who come to Orange County and want to do business here,” Steiner said. “We’d obviously like to see China become more democratic. One way to encourage democracy and the pursuit of individual freedom is encouraging an improved economy, a higher standard of living and more participation in the country.”

Expenses are being paid by the International Friendship Assn. of China and Steiner’s campaign committee, and won’t include public funds, Steiner said. He paid for his son’s $1,623 air fare.