U.S.-China Relations Are Embraced in Store Aisles

For Ioan Cheres, the global battle for his paycheck ends at the cash register.

The Chicago truck driver, who was trolling the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Torrance looking for bargains Tuesday, said he didn’t really care whether the products he buys come from Chongqing or Chatsworth.

“If China can make good stuff, can make it cheaper and faster, then it wins,” said the slender 27-year-old, who left Wal-Mart $85 poorer but with a red plush rug, seat covers, air freshener and five DVDs.

Thousands of miles away in Shanghai’s Pudong district, Wang Huimin, 74, and his wife, Yao Zhengyan, 66, both retired teachers, were similarly unconcerned.

“Didn’t China recently buy 100 Boeing airplanes?” asked Wang, who was heading out of a Wal-Mart with his 2-year-old granddaughter. “That’s a big purchase.”

With Chinese President Hu Jintao arriving in Washington today for his first official U.S. visit, trade officials in both countries are talking about oil diplomacy, piracy and trade deficits. But some of the most powerful decisions shaping U.S.-China relations are made in shopping aisles, factory floors and boardrooms, not the halls of Congress or the White House.

There is no greater example of the growing interdependence -- and tensions -- between the two countries than Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which purchased $18 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2004, 9% of all U.S. imports. Critics blame Wal-Mart for steering jobs to lower-cost factories overseas and boosting the U.S. trade deficit with China, which last year topped $200 billion.

Economists say those imports have brought huge savings to American consumers, kept inflation low and made Wall Street and shareholders happy.

Wal-Mart, which entered China in 1996, is hoping to revolutionize the Middle Kingdom’s retail world, employing about 30,000 people in 56 stores.

If Cheres, Wang and Yao are a barometer, then grass-roots sentiments in both countries may be more accepting, and less skeptical, of this complex economic relationship than is reflected in the often-hostile rhetoric from Washington and Beijing. That poses a challenge for policymakers on Capitol Hill, who have threatened to impose punitive tariffs that would raise the cost of Chinese imports. U.S. lawmakers want Beijing to relax controls on its currency, which critics say is artificially weak and gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage.

In Cheres’ view, penalizing China would be a lose-lose situation. With gasoline prices spiraling, he needs every extra penny to pay off the loan on his $53,000 Kenworth T2000 rig and save for a house. And those giant containers of Chinese goods rolling off the ships in Los Angeles are providing badly needed work for him. He averages 4,000 miles a week hauling containers filled with goods between the West Coast and Chicago.

“I don’t see this as a problem,” said the trucker, who is married and has a 3-year-old daughter. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or where the products you buy are from.”

Sino-U.S. relations loom much larger in China, where Hu’s first visit to the U.S. is being covered like a rock star concert tour. All of the shoppers interviewed at the Wal-Mart in Pudong knew about their president’s trip and most regarded it as important for strengthening ties between the two nations. In contrast, just two of the dozen shoppers interviewed in Torrance knew Hu was visiting the U.S. and most said relations with China weren’t important in their lives.

High gas and home prices? Certainly. But China?

“Don’t think about it,” said Xiomara Martinez, 24, a FedEx employee who was browsing the wedding goods section with her friend Noemi Iribe, 24, and their children.

A 2004 survey by Zogby International found that 59% of Americans viewed China positively, compared with 46% a decade earlier, and more than 70% thought trade with China was beneficial to the U.S.

However, that survey, which was conducted for the Committee of 100, an influential Chinese American organization, also showed that more than 60% of Americans considered China a serious or potential economic threat and at least half saw it as a potential military adversary.

Fang Lei, 36, a Shanghai advertising executive, said Americans should quit fretting about China’s competitive threat and focus on the buying power of the nation’s expanding middle class. Chinese government data show average household disposable income in urban China has risen thirteenfold in the last two decades to nearly $1,200 a year. Wal-Mart recorded $1.2 billion in sales in China last year, according to China’s Commerce Ministry.

Fang and his wife, Li Peiyan, 27, who between them earn more than $15,000 a year, said they have been regulars at Wal-Mart since it opened in July.

“The price is higher than local markets, but I’m willing to pay more because fruits and vegetables are better,” said Li, as she and her husband pushed a cart full of fresh produce including Dole bananas, which sell for about 45 cents a pound.

In another section of the Wal-Mart, real estate agent Liang Tao, 23, was watching “King Kong” on a 42-inch Haier plasma TV. Liang said he understood why Americans were concerned about the large trade imbalance. But he said he agreed with China’s minister of commerce, Bo Xilai, that the United States should focus on producing high-end goods such as advanced computers and telecommunications equipment and let China produce the labor-intensive products.

“The U.S. is very advanced and strong,” said Liang, who was surrounded by a dozen migrant workers glued to the television screen. “The U.S. and China are like two brothers. One is doing very well and other not as well. If both do well, how much more they could help the world.”

In Torrance, A.P. Owens, 68, voices a similar sentiment, though his reasoning is much bleaker. Owens, who put in 46 years with Union Pacific Railroad and was a union representative, tries to buy American whenever possible. But he had a Chinese-made Hamilton Beach single-serve blender and a Mexican-produced coffee grinder in his shopping cart because he couldn’t find a U.S.-made brand.

“I don’t have a cellphone because I can’t find one that isn’t made in China,” said the former conductor, who was in Los Angeles doing a training seminar for Union Pacific. “It’s aggravating.”

Still, Owens said he supported President Bush’s efforts to develop closer relations with China and believed the only way his five grandchildren could compete would be to “absolutely get an education and go into some kind of high-tech or medical field.”

“I think China’s our biggest threat to the world economy and safety,” he said. “But we’d better work with them instead of against them.”

Iritani reported from Los Angeles and Lee from Shanghai.