The demonstrators drew honks of support from passing motorists. A group trying to get Taiwan into the United Nations stood across the street from a group trying to get the United States out of it. Pickets ringed the hotel protesting trade with China, organ harvesting and even strictly U.S. issues such as motorcycle helmet laws. Wilson prodded him. Still, the overall theme of the day was economic cooperation.
China is California's sixth-largest trading partner, just behind Taiwan.
Unlike politicians along the Eastern Seaboard, many of whom shunned Jiang, California officials are alert to the commercial impact of China. ''The whole West Coast is more aware of what a huge part of the economy it is, I think,'' said one of Jiang's lunchtime listeners, Mayor Beverly O'Neill of Long Beach, which is trying to expand the presence of Chinese shipping in its port. O'Malley, who built a baseball field for a school in Tianjin, near Beijing, a decade ago, has sponsored coaching and sports-medicine exchanges between Chinese baseball clubs and their counterparts on the Dodgers. He ultimately hopes to build a baseball academy in China, where the sport is just beginning to become popular. I think that if you fail to meet with people, it is very hard to communicate,'' he said. Instead, first thing Sunday morning, the former electrical engineer headed for the headquarters of Hughes Electronics Corp. near Los Angeles International Airport and later to its manufacturing plant.