Gov. Jerry Brown heads to China to boost trade and investment

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Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is greeted by California Governor Jerry Brown as Commerce Secretary John Bryson looks on at the JW Marriott hotel before attending the 2012 US-China Economy and Trade Cooperation Forum in Los Angeles. Photo by Robert Gauthier/LA Times.

Gov. Jerry Brown is heading to China this week to promote California to Chinese investors and expand our economic ties.

On the agenda for the six-day trip is the opening of a California trade and investment office in Shanghai, the first since the state closed its two Chinese trade offices a decade ago.

Brown and his entourage will also visit electric car-maker BYD in the southern city of Shenzhen, and Brown will also use the trip to ride China’s advanced high-speed rail system and promote California’s plans for a bullet train.

The trip is being funded with private money by a group of business leaders from the Bay area and Silicon Valley.

For more on China’s economic ties with California, KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis spoke with Clayton Dube, head of the UC-China Institute at the University of Southern California.