China trip grows business

We'll admit it. Getting cozy with China feels kind of like inviting rattlesnakes into your sleeping bag.

It is a Communist nation. It is infamous for its human rights violations. It is potentially as great a military threat to the U.S. as any on the planet. And maybe most annoying to Americans, we owe China one hell of a lot of money.

But China also is in transition. Its economic scales are tipping toward capitalism. Its culture is increasingly embracing westernism. And many Americans are slowly coming to the realization that China, the world's most populous nation and third largest by landmass, would make a much better friend than enemy.

Next month, a contingent of several hundred North Idahoans will travel to China as part of a group tour organized by CEO Todd Christensen of the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce. Contrary to what some locals suspect, this is not a trip intended to ship local jobs overseas. It is a learning tour that will enhance understanding of a vital international trading partner. If anything, some local businesspeople will be exploring ways in which locally produced products can be shipped overseas, which would improve the North Idaho employment landscape, not reduce it.

There are side benefits to this program that will help local businesses further.

The trip will help generate revenue for all the participating chambers, including Post Falls and Sandpoint. That ultimately keeps chamber membership more affordable and the organizations more able to support and expand business locally.

We also fully support any activity that pulls our region's chambers together. While each has its own specific membership to serve, the region as a whole benefits from cooperation between chambers. Much as this trip symbolizes the strengthening of relationships between two nations with adversarial histories, so too does the cooperative effort among sometimes competing chambers strengthen them all.

We see tremendous opportunities with the emerging Chinese economy, from tourism to North Idaho to products sold to the Chinese. We applaud Christensen and chamber leadership for not being afraid to reach around this shrinking world to improve the quality of life here and abroad.