Atlanta connection to China starting to flourish

Stronger ties are being established between China and Atlanta, Georgia, one of the US South's major cities.

"China remains our top investor here in the metro Atlanta area, and it continues to grow," John Woodward, senior director of Foreign Investment at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, said on Wednesday.

One of the Chinese business leaders looking at Atlanta, Youjiang Duan, chairman of Linyi Huimin Breakfast, is looking to integrate Chinese food into the American lifestyle in the Georgia capital.

"Atlanta is a city with great potential," Duan said. "It's like China's Shenzhen 10 years ago.

"Chinese investment in Atlanta is heating up. China has been developing at a drastic speed, and the US needs us to be here to create opportunities," Duan said.

As air traffic become busier between Chinese cities and Atlanta, Delta Air Lines is looking at running a direct flight from Atlanta to Shanghai, according to Chris Jones, director of International Specialty Sales at Delta Air Lines.

"We continue to evaluate it. It's definitely in our planning," Jones said on Thursday. "In 2018, hopefully we'll be doing something like that."

In 2016, Delta became the first US airline to invest in a Chinese carrier by purchasing 3.5 percent of China Eastern Airlines for $450 million.

"Chinese will be key strategic partners for us. We see a very bright future and a lot of opportunities," Jones said. "We want to make sure the connections between China and the US are strong and continue to be strong."

Also based in Atlanta is the Carter Center, which has a China program dedicated to advancing US-China relations by building synergies between China and the US.

"There are many opportunities for the US and China to cooperate. We at the Carter Center have been working (on that) for more than three years, looking at ways of trying to tease out some of those areas where the US and China could collaborate," said Jordan Ryan, vice-president for peace programs at the Carter Center.

"President Carter and President Xi Jinping had met and discussed the work at the Carter Center, and President Xi Jinping wants the Carter Center to focus on finding ways for the US and China to be friends, to collaborate, to work together," Ryan said.

Ryan said China and the US could collaborate on health, peace and security issues in Africa.

"I think there will be opportunities for the new administration of the US and for the administration of China to look for the positives, where we can actually find that we don't need to clash with each other, that we can cooperate with each other," Ryan said.

leshuodong@chinadailyusa.com