Chinese Vice President Signs Cotton Contracts in L.A.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping accepts a replica of a China Shipping Line vessel at the Port of Los Angeles.(Photo courtesy of the Port of Los Angeles)

Chinese Vice President Xin Jinping toured the Port of Los Angeles, held business meetings at the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, toured Walt Disney Concert Hall and even attended part of a Lakers basketball game during his whirlwind tour to Southern California.

All that was well-publicized, but not many media outlets reported that several important contracts with U.S. cotton companies were inked on Feb. 17 while the vice president was in Los Angeles.

China is the world's largest cotton importer, which would seem only rational because the country is basically the garment factory to the world.

When Xi and his entourage passed through Memphis, Tenn., on Feb. 16, they combined business with diplomacy. The group struck up a deal for nine U.S. cotton contracts totaling $500 million that were signed while the Chinese were in Los Angeles.

The contracts will send Chinese mills 220,000 tons of cotton supplied by companies such as Allensberg Cotton and Cargill Cotton of Memphis and Staplcotn of Greenwood, Miss.

All that business was faciliated with the swipe of a pen in our very own Los Angeles.