Eyeing US Midwest, Chinese state-owned firms seek new business amid tense ties

Two major state-owned companies in China are scoping out new business opportunities with the US Midwest but have concerns about political relations between the economic powers, according to the chair of a Chinese chamber of commerce.

Cofco Group, a Beijing-based food processor and shipper, wants to engage more with US agriculture but “hopes the geopolitical environment will be easier”, said Ni Pin, chair of the China General Chamber of Commerce chapter in Chicago.

He said the food processor has explored stepping up shipments of food from the US through its international network of ports.

And CRRC Corp, a train-car maker headquartered in Beijing, “would love to expand its footprint” in the US, where it already does work in Chicago and Boston, Ni told the Post. Its American subsidiary, CRRC Sifang Rolling Stock, opened a Chicago base six years ago.

“The USA has been talking about high-speed trains, and we wanted to attract their facility here,” Ni said. However, he said, the firm is wary about existing US congressional bills, though has not said which ones.

A delegation of the 200-member chamber met representatives from both of the state-owned companies in June, during a weeklong trip to China, Ni said.

Representatives of other Chinese firms that met the delegation expressed interest in investing in the Midwest, a region of about 69 million people that has long been reliant on agriculture and manufacturing.

The US-China trade war, launched in 2018, has affected more than US$380 billion worth of US farm and other exports, along with China-manufactured goods and services. US tariffs during the trade war have hit some US$550 billion in goods from China.

Individual Chinese investors can help resolve broader concerns about the US, Ni said.

“We are not outsiders who should sit on the sidelines waiting for the environment to change,” he said. “In fact, we are all the stakeholders of a better US-China relationship, so each company should be its own ambassador to show the logic as to why this could benefit people from both sides.”

To do that, he said, those companies could show they are hiring more local people, paying a “fair tax to support the local economy” and “being good corporate citizens”.

Some of the Chinese businesspeople who met the chamber delegation in June plan to follow up with visits to potential US sites, Ni said.