Ex-governor is working to connect US heartland, China

In different stages of his career — political and beyond — former Missouri governor Bob Holden has been consistently devoted to one thing — facilitating the subnational relationship between China and the US, something that he said is "at the core level of relationship-building".

"It lays the foundation for future cooperation," Holden told China Daily while attending the fifth China-US Governors Forum held in Kentucky on May 23.

One of Holden's latest contribution to such a relationship is co-founding the United States Heartland China Association (USHCA), an organization serving 20 US states and devoted to connecting China and the US heartland. He serves as its chairman and CEO.

Holden's engagement with China started many years ago, when he served as the state treasurer of Missouri in the 1990s and was elected the state's governor in 2000.

He witnessed the automotive industry leaving the state and the Midwest region. Holden identified China, which "nobody at that time was spending a lot of discussion time talking about", as potentially the next best opportunity for business with the state, and opened up Missouri's first trade office in China.

For Holden, the connection between people and culture is always the root of relations between the two countries.

"My thought process is that if we build the right foundation among our two cultures, if we develop the educational connections that I think are important for our future, then business will follow and we will be successful," he said.

He was impressed by the Chinese culture since his first visit to the country in 2004. When he visited a class in a local elementary school, every one of the students coincidentally learned it was his son's birthday, presented a gift to him.

"I turned to my wife, [saying] that I can work with these people because those cultural values are very, very important in determining who you are, what you are, and what you're passing on to your children," he said, and from that experience "the world kind of fell into place."

Later when Holden taught at Webster University after his governor's term, he brought the first Confucius Institute to Missouri . He also has been facilitating educational exchanges between the two countries, such as bringing Chinese students to the American Legion Boys State and Girls State program in Missouri — an educational program in which students become part of the operation of local, county and state government — and taking American participants of the programs to China.

Students from both sides would then meet business leaders, political leaders and the ambassador, and learn about the other nation's governmental structure.

"It was very, very successful in terms of the response we got from the students that came from China to Missouri and from our Missouri students that went to China," said Holden, who plans to extend such exchanges to other states in the USHCA.

Another incident that left Holden inspired and impressed took place at Webster University, where one of Holden's students from China told him ,"I will not go back to China the same person that came to America."

"What better relations-building can you have?" Holden said.

A foreign education experience enables students to "have a different perception of what foreign cultures are all about, and I think that's very, very important for our long-term economic health as a nation," he added.

Holden believes it is human nature to relate to and get comfortable with people they know.

"If you've got a problem with someone you know who you can relate to and you communicate with, you'll try to figure out how to solve the problem," he said. When the young people from China and the US start to build that mutual understanding from an early age, it will make "potentially a much safer world for all of us", said Holden.

Holden believes that the Chinese people's understanding of the heartland region, which includes states such as Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Texas and Oklahoma, is "not well defined in minds of most people in China".

The heartland states play an important part in the US economy, especially in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. According to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, USHCA members contributed more than 35 percent to the total US GDP in 2018.

Some of the states, like Texas, also were leaders in GDP growth rate in the fourth quarter.

"To understand this country, you have to understand the heartland being a part of it," said Holden, whereas the region was "viewed as, in many circles, the 'flyover region' of the country — you fly from Washington DC and New York to California, and never really relate to the Midwest".

Holden thus co-founded the USHCA in the hope of deepening the connection between the region and China. The association covers 12 areas, including agriculture, manufacturing, energy and environment, technology, tourism, finance and education.

"We ought to be working together as a region, not as individual states," said Holden.

The association has been reaching out to former elected officials to join as strategic advisers.

"Our job is to help businesses in China and businesses in our heartland region find each other. If they are comfortable working together, then that relationship starts, and we go from there," he said.

"By building these relationships now, when hopefully we get a more stable relationship nationally going forward, we can build off of what we've been doing at the grassroots level of our country," he said.

Holden said that agricultural and manufacturing, two key pillars in the heartland region economy, are challenged by the current US-China trade dispute on the national level, they are "looking for other avenues to communicate the relationships".

Holden believes that states and cities that see opportunities to advance relations with China and seize on them could "truly be the beneficiaries" in the future.

"Honestly, both countries need each other. We need to be able to sell products in China; the Chinese population is wanting the goods that we can produce here," said Holden.

Having been to China some 15 times, Holden said that while changes have happened, the people and the culture remain the same, which is also the case in the US.

"At the end of the day, that will win out," said Holden of the interpersonal connections between the two countries. He is positive about the future of China-US relationship as the two countries enter the 40th year of bilateral diplomatic ties.

"I believe that good people in good positions will prevail in the long run — doesn't mean it's always going to be easy, doesn't mean it's always going to be smooth, but I think in the long run we will prevail in that attitude," he said. "There are advantages and opportunity on both sides if we can get people to sit down and really look at how do we put these pieces together."

Holden identified areas where opportunities exist for bilateral cooperation.

With the US infrastructure in need of investment, Holden said USCHA has been putting together programs that attract both American and Chinese money to rebuild.

Education, culture and business exchanges — especially between small or mid-sized businesses — are also areas with potential.

"The important part is not just to expand the relationship already there, but define a new relationship so that we can open up the economic opportunity for a much larger audience both in the US and in China," said Holden.

"I think the more opportunities we have to get to know each other, the better opportunity we'll have to find a solution to the difficult issues facing us as countries," he said.