Minister Xie Feng

Amid a grinding U.S. economic crisis, leaders from the Chinese Embassy and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce came to town to tout local development opportunities derived from trade with China, which had 10.8 percent growth in gross domestic product last year.

Although Americans are punch drunk from a bevy of financial blows, the booming Chinese market offers new hope for domestic job creation, including here in the Midwest.

Minister Xie Feng, Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, and senior trade advisor Leslie M. Schweitzer of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce conveyed those rays of hope to a group of business leaders gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which already was humming with activity from the vice presidential debate.

Large St. Louis-area companies such as InBev/Anheuser-Busch and Peabody Energy Corp. already have established significant operations and presence in China. Area industries such as agriculture (especially soybeans) and biotech have increasing opportunity for growth.

But their message gets drowned out by deep economic problems and steadily worsening unemployment numbers in the United States. A gloomy mood overshadows the idea that there is room at the international trade table for local companies with special expertise, they said, not just products to be shipped.

Ms. Schweitzer cited a local architecture firm working to build the rapidly developing China and culinary expertise for new high-end restaurants. Intellectual capital and business smarts are needed in a country bursting with development. They are on a national tour of cities like St. Louis, which can leverage local business to expand their markets abroad and their own jobs domestically.

Rising unemployment nationally and locally creates hostility for foreign trade, which is blamed for sending jobs abroad and creating hardship for U.S. workers. The forces of economic globalization are indeed very painful here in the Midwest in some sectors, but they cannot be managed unilaterally by U.S. leadership.

While U.S. workers continue to struggle through a historic downturn, the message from the Chinese and U.S. government officials is that innovation and creativity can help to offset the out flow of jobs by creating new ones tied to international markets.

Daunted by the unfolding economic woes, people find it hard to embrace the long view. Reality needs to set in and they should recognize what globalization can mean in reverse. It’s painful and messy. Many lives are damaged by job dislocations and eliminations.

They had a poignant admonition: the shifting of workforce is beyond any one country’s control. Change will continue. And if the United States doesn’t seize the chance to expand in the developing parts of the world, other countries will fill the void and only exacerbate joblessness in the U.S. economy.