Visiting China, Riordan Woos Shipping Line for L.A. Port
Feeling his way through the nuances of Sino-American diplomacy, Mayor Richard Riordan scored subtle political victories Monday, but failed to win a major Chinese shipping line’s firm commitment to make Los Angeles rather than Long Beach its West Coast port of entry.
Executives of the firm, Cosco, did not reject Riordan’s overtures, and expressed continued interest in the port. They did not, however, offer an unambiguous commitment to give it their business, which could produce between $20 million and $25 million in annual revenue for the harbor. The Port of Long Beach also is pushing hard for the Cosco contract, fueling a rivalry that the Chinese firm seems in no hurry to end, since it leaves the door open for Los Angeles and Long Beach to bid against each other for the lucrative deal.
“This is a sale,” said Larry Keller, director of the Los Angeles port. “If it takes a little bit of time, that’s what we have to do.”
Though Los Angeles officials had downplayed the possibility of reaching an immediate agreement with Cosco, they nonetheless pushed hard for it. “It’s a bit of a disappointment,” Keller said. “But that’s only because this would have short-circuited a long process.”
That process, Keller said, may run until May or June. He and other officials maintained that the meetings Monday, including top-level sessions with Chinese government and Cosco officials, strengthened Los Angeles’ chances by demonstrating the seriousness of the city’s interest.
On his first night in China, Riordan was welcomed by top Chinese leaders during a dinner at the Great Hall of the People. There, the venture capitalist mayor mingled with leading members of the world’s largest Communist Party, trading congenial toasts and expressing the view that within two decades China will be America’s largest trading partner.
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Still, the occasion was not without its difficult moments. The mayor, who prides himself on his ideological flexibility, confronted leaders whose rhetoric is finely tuned and highly ideological. That was brought home by a provocative, suggestive speech by Mei Zhao Rong, president of the Chinese Institute of Foreign Affairs, delivered face-to-face to Riordan over mugs of hot tea.
In his address, Mei enthusiastically trumpeted China’s economic progress and liberalization without commenting on political freedoms.
“The transformation of the mind of the people, the thinking of the people, has been a prerequisite for the economic progress,” he said, adopting the curious mixture of Chinese and Marxist vocabulary customarily employed by Chinese officials.
“I agree with you,” Riordan responded, “that you cannot have economic progress without people having the freedom to make things happen.”
That answer touched off a brief flurry between interpreters, who argued over whether Riordan had meant to suggest that political rights were paramount--whether he meant, as one observer noted, “freedom with a small f or a capital F.”
When their debate subsided, Mei seemed satisfied, and both Chinese and American observers credited Riordan with a neat, if unintentional, maneuver that allowed him to agree with Mei without departing from the traditional American insistence on the centrality of political freedom.
Monday, Riordan’s day began with a meeting with President Jiang Zemin--his third conversation with a head of state in six days. The two first met during Jiang’s recent visit to the United States, and the Chinese leader greeted the mayor cordially.
The two shook hands and posed for photographs, then sat down for tea and coffee. They joked about the differences between leading a country and heading a city--Jiang is a former mayor of Shanghai, China’s largest municipality. Jiang said being president was easier. As mayor, he said, he was blamed for everything from fires to famine.
“I know what you’re talking about,” Riordan responded.
While that meeting was largely social, the mayor’s next stop was with China’s vice premier in charge of industrial policy, Wu Bannguo, and it turned on more purely business questions. That session, attended by Cosco’s chief executive, focused on the harbor deal and ended inconclusively.
Riordan, however, seemed more pensive than troubled about the setback. He settled into the back of his limousine, played a few hands of computer bridge, then took a stroll around a quiet state garden before hosting a dinner for 200 Chinese and American officials.
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In that capacity, the mayor was obliged to deliver a formal welcoming speech with five television cameras rolling. At its conclusion, he introduced “Minister Liu,” as his staff had briefed him to do, only to discover that Liu was not the person sitting next to him. An awkward silence followed in which some of the Chinese guests winced or looked down toward their laps.
Eventually, Mei, Riordan’s host the night before, rose and delivered the responding toast.
Despite that miscue and the inconclusive discussion over the Cosco deal, the American business executives accompanying Riordan found reason to be optimistic about their mission. A number of executives on the trip said they already had made intriguing contacts, and Western diplomats who briefed the group offered a prognosis for China that was strikingly more positive than one that some of the same executives heard last week in Japan.
Much of the delegation’s trip has been shadowed by the Asian economic crisis, but diplomats told the delegation in Beijing that China remains largely unaffected by it. In recent years, the Chinese economy has expanded by 9.5% per year, a pace that has greatly elevated the living standards of many Chinese. Today, diplomats said, more than 90% of Chinese own color televisions; 21 million own stocks; about 100,000 officially connect to the Internet.
All of that, particularly the news about television viewing, was music to the ears of the business executives accompanying Riordan. Those executives include a contingent of entertainment company officials, who are trying to figure out ways to link up with Chinese companies to provide programming for regional and national television shows.
The obstacles are daunting. There is no rating system to judge how many people view shows. And for those companies that choose to advertise, there is no guarantee that their ads will actually appear.
But the potential rewards are as enticing as the obstacles are formidable.
During one briefing Monday, for instance, Charles Rivkin, president of the Jim Henson Co., asked about the reach of the national Chinese television network, CCTV.
“CCTV reaches about 80% of the population,” one official answered.
“Eighty percent of 1.2 billion?” Rivkin asked.
“That’s right,” the official said.
