Mike Jones – part of St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley’s core leadership team – has opened a business office in Beijing. What gives?
It’s not Jones’ personal business office, but rather an office for the Midwest China Hub Commission, which he chairs.
Again, what gives? What is a black man from St. Louis doing chairing a commission that aims to establish significant new business connections between China and the Midwest of the United States?
Mike Jones can explain.
He can explain that the Chinese character for “crisis” (which must appear often in Chinese news reports about the U.S. these days) is also the Chinese word for “opportunity.”
In meetings with senior Chinese government officials, he also can explain to them how, in their negotiations for the Midwest China hub, what they are looking for is “a unity of theory and practice.” When they smile, he knows they are smiling because they recognize a favorite idea of Chairman Mao.
Jones can explain these things because he was, of all things, an Asian history major. At age 60, he also has worked in economic development in St. Louis for half of his life. He is manifestly the right man for this job.
He can explain that “China would love to have access to Latin America by air, but it’s not practical to fly from Latin America to China. But it’s real practical to fly from Latin America to North America to China.”
And there is St. Louis sitting in the middle of North America.
He also can explain that “half of the Fortune 500 companies, 80 percent of the agriculture and 80 percent of the meat produced all come from the 20 or so states between the Alleghenies and the Rocky Mountains.”
And there sits the St. Louis region, right between the Alleghenies and the Rocky Mountains, with two underutilized airports – one on either side of the Mississippi River, both at a nexus point in the interstate highway system.
“Synergy is where deals get done,” Jones said.
And, if Jones and others on the commission can get a deal done, he thinks it will radically transform a slumping region.
“People will have a reason to come here and be here. We will be a primary access point to the world’s largest nation and the fastest-growing economy,” Jones said.
“The face of St. Louis is going to change. The growth it is going to create in the long term is unimaginable to me. If you come back in 30 years, this place will not be the same place then if we don’t pull it off.”
Jones also can explain why economic growth would make other factors crippling the region – like racism and economic disparities based on race – easier to address.
“We spend a lot of time around here rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, because this is a region in decline. That’s the reality, civic boosterism notwithstanding,” Jones said.
“We need a game-changer. We need a paradigm shift vis-a-vis how we position ourselves in the national and world economies. If we can pull that off, with economic growth a lot of these other issues that seem intractable – race, class – become more manageable problems.”
Jones also can explain that he is not the principal game-changer behind this potentially game-changing play.
That role belongs to Stephen Perry, managing director of London Export Corporation, whose building in Beijing houses the Midwest Hub Commission office there. Perry also is chairman of the 48 Group Club, an independent business network “committed to promoting positive relations with China” and the son of Jack Perry, who in the early 1950s did much to open up trade between China and Western Europe.
“Stephen Perry is the playmaker,” Jones said.
“His father is a legend in China, but Stephen has his own portfolio. The Perry family has almost 60 years of history with the Chinese commercial interests and a tremendous amount of credibility with senior Chinese leadership. Because of his credibility, we had initial discussions at the highest levels, which made all of the difference in the world. That’s why we are on the very, very fast track.”
Jones also said the Missouri Congressional delegation – in particular, Senators Bond and McCaskill – had shown crucial, aggressive early support.
The connection between the Perry family and St. Louis comes from a cousin, local attorney Steve Stone, who was instrumental in the formation of the Midwest China hub concept.
Jones also can explain – with the City of St. Louis’ prematurely announced deals for Ballpark Village and the new downtown location of Centene recent memories – that it isn’t a deal until it’s a deal.
“It ain’t a deal,” Jones said of the Midwest China Hub concept.
“We are still meeting with very senior officials, narrowing down which issues we need to address.”
One major issue: the “backhaul.”
“China knows what it can bring here. It’s always about what is going back,” Jones said.
“What is going back and why it would leave from St. Louis. Right now, it’s not flying to China or it’s flying from somewhere else.”
The idea of a new “backhaul” – of the U.S. producing and exporting new goods to China, rather than the other way around – is attractive to China at the highest policy levels, Jones said.
“Currently, the U.S. spends like a drunken sailor, then turns to China to borrow more money. This is not a healthy long-term relationship,” Jones said.
“So this project has major foreign policy implications as a means of balancing and managing the trade imbalance.”
