THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411240256
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
THEY'RE BRIGHT, WELL-EDUCATED and poised for success.
They're a new generation of Chinese immigrants come to America - and to Portsmouth.
``You could say we are a third generation of immigrants,'' China Market USA business manager Bill (nee Shaozhou) Ma said last week. ``The first were laborers. The second were shopkeepers. Now there are us.''
This generation lives in a world of E-mail, direct dialing and jet flights around the world.
Their business is big bucks. They dream of million-dollar markets.
So do the entrepreneurs who say they have invested more than $6 million in China Market USA, a new idea housed in an old Robert Hall Village building on Airline Boulevard near Greenwood Drive.
Although they eventually hope to have about 300 Chinese manufacturer's representatives marketing their products from the remodeled building, they have only 15 companies in residence for an official opening Monday.
A total of 40 businesses have leased spaces and about 100 have signed contracts.
Some are having trouble getting their papers cleared to come to this country.
``The visa process now has become long-term,'' Wenson (nee Weiguo) Ge, vice president of China Market, said in a recent interview. ``Because of the illegal immigrants, they tightened up on all of us.''
China Market Inc. hired a Richmond law firm to work with the U.S. Immigration offices to help secure visas for company representatives. Ping Ping, a woman who holds a master's from Beijing University, travels between here and China to help the companies with their visas.
The notion of China Market grew out of the high cost of using middlemen in Hong Kong to market to U.S. companies. It was the brainchild of W. W. Gilman, an Atlanta waterfront developer; Shui Ho Wong, a Chinese native who owns Jing Far Enterprises Hong Kong Ltd.; and Peter Chu, whose family moved to Canada from China when he was a small boy.
Since the project was announced a year ago, the 144,000-square-foot first floor has been divided into 300 office-showroom spaces. The Chinese companies will display their wares and meet with potential wholesale customers there.
In addition, some of the companies will purchase products from United States manufacturers to sell in China.
By the year 2000, Ge said, China will be importing at least $50 billion in foreign goods. The country also expects to export as much.
China Market USA is the first business in this country designed to take advantage of that anticipated economiv activity, Ge said.
Ge, who came to this country nine years ago, said no one could have imagined China Market happening a decade ago.
One of the China Market tenants, a company called SAF, already has begun to buy coin-operated video games to market in China. To date, the company has spent $500,000 on the games.
Another company that sells disposable plastic medical devices is buying advanced-technology medical equipment to sell back home.
Harry Zhong of Linkups Invest and Trade Co. said his company will be importing and exporting a large variety of items.
Qiang (now John) Chen, the 31-year-old president of Monkey King Welding Co., hasn't been loafing during the nine months he waited for China Market to open.
``We made a transaction with a Tennessee paper company for more than 100 tons of paper boxes,'' Chen said. ``Next time I think we will buy 1,000 tons.''
Chen's operation is a subsidiary of the Monkey King Group, the largest manufacturer of welding supplies in China.
Chen Mai, manager of Fu Xin Trade Ltd., has lived in Portsmouth nine months. She still has not learned to speak English. She spoke to a reporter through an intepreter who works for China Market USA, Huimen Shen. Mai will be selling jewelry, arts and crafts and tiles.
The variety of items offered by the companies already in residence is amazing.
Feng Mei represents Xianfeng Machine Tool Works. A huge $700,000 tooling machine sitting in one corner of the market is his display.
Mei, who has been here one month, already has sold one of the big machines.
His company will do more than buy and sell. They will have five technicians in residence to offer machinery repair of all sorts.
Most of the representatives at China Market live in Portsmouth, Bill Ma said.
``A large group live in Churchland and some live across Airline Boulevard,'' he said.
Ma came to California five years ago as an exchange student at the University of California at San Diego. He transferred to Old Dominion University and received a degree in international studies.
President Clinton's recent visit to the East should have some fallout for China Market, Ma and Ge said.
``The better the trade, the better for us,'' Ma said.
Mulling over the relationship between the United States and China, Ge added, ``The relationship between the countries depends on economy and politics.''
The China Market staff would like to entice some United States vendors to space in the building.
``If we are only selling, we can't survive,'' he said. ``We are looking for people who want to meet the changing consumer ways in China.''
When Ma left China five years ago, an assistant professor in an university was earning $10 per month. Now that same person is earning $150, or 15 times as much, per month.
Families now want televisions, radios, air-conditioners and washing machines, he said, and many are beginning to be able to afford them.
Ge and Ma both talk about China Market being ``a good idea at a good time.''
``We see it as an import/export center,'' Ge said. ``We have created an environment to do business. The whole purpose is to increase trade between out countries.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
CHINA MARKET
[Color Photo]
Feng Mei markets a $700,000 grinding machine out of the China Market
USA.
Wenson Ge is the vice president of China Market USA.
Photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Qiang (now John) Chen, president of Monkey King Welding Co., will
market welding wire and other supplies out of China Market.
Chen Mai, manager of Fu Xin Trade Ltd., will be selling jewelry,
arts and crafts material and tiles.
Harry Zhong, Dennis Lu and Liu Liu, from left, carry goods into the
China Market, located on Airline Boulevard.
by CNB