Our president may be talking about building walls, shutting out immigrants, and generally pursuing a program of economic nationalism not seen since the destructive Smoot-Hawley Tariff brought on the Great Depression. And yet investors in China don't have to be sold on America and specifically on Arkansas, where the statewide newspaper carried a front-page story last week proclaiming "Chinese plan jobs in state, up to 800/Yarn plant to use Arkansas cotton."
For it turns out that, even with all the industrial growth in this state of late, cotton is still king in some parts of it. Governor and promoter-in-chief Asa Hutchinson was on hand Wednesday to welcome Yafu Qiu, chairman of Shandong Ruyi Technology Group in still nominally communist China to the state for a joint press conference to celebrate the good news for both countries. and particularly for a part of the state that has been trying to fight its way out of the economic doldrums for years with all kinds of government-sponsored programs that haven't done the trick. But one private investor, whether in this country or abroad, is worth more than any number of official economic-development programs that somehow fail to develop the economy. And the Chinese plan to spend $410 million to renovate this old abandoned plant at Forrest City and get it humming again.
However one says Welcome in Mandarin, please consider it said. It turns out that trade, like water, has a way of seeking its own level. If it's time for the Chinese to brush up on their Shakespeare, it's time for us wide-eyed barbarians to dust off our copy of Confucius' sayings. Free trade in ideas as well as business benefits all.
Editorial on 05/15/2017