McDonalds Corp (MCD)

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Denver Opens Trade Office in Shanghai, China


SHANGHAI, China, Mar 31, 2001 (The Denver Post - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business
News via COMTEX) -- A block east of Denver's new trade office here, Alex Zhang,
28, inhaled from a cigarette at the McDonald's where he masterminds marketing.

Chinese consumers were entering in droves past a life-size plastic Ronald
McDonald clown and jockeying for "extra value" meals that Shanghai-born Zhang
offered at a discount. Like Coloradans bullish on China, Zhang said he's bullish
on economic benefits -- not Western ideals -- that come from American
connections.

"American people sometimes talk about freedom. But Chinese people just want to
earn more money."

On Friday, Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and a 47-member Colorado business
delegation, along with dozens of Chinese hosts and prospective partners,
celebrated these multiplying moneymaking connections. Up six floors from the
street where Zhang sells Big Macs and fries, Webb and crew ceremonially opened
Denver's office, the first U.S. city trade office in China. In a television
interview broadcast to 200 million Chinese viewers, Webb urged businesspeople
interested in America to "make sure that Colorado is one of the places you
visit." He then stood on a stage holding scissors and snipped a red ribbon held
by 14 girls in red dresses. He raised a glass of wine and toasted to closer
U.S.-Chinese relations. He publicly pitched a direct China-Denver flight that
city officials lobbied for this week.

Denver promotional videos flashed on reception hall television screens. Shanghai
Mayor Xu Kuangdi hosted Webb for dinner and an evening walk by brightly lit
office towers along the Yangtze River.

The purpose of all this was paving the way for Colorado companies to expand into
China -- selling goods and services here or enlisting low-wage workers like
Zhang. Webb says tapping China (population, 1.3 billion) will help ensure
economic growth in Denver.

And so far the mayor hasn't deviated from that theme to raise concerns with
Chinese leaders about what U.S. officials describe as China's worsening human
rights record.

"The federal government's got to do that," Webb said. "My goal is to enhance our
business relationships. That helps our local economy." But just as some
Coloradans question whether unbridled commercial expansion is healthy, so some
Chinese workers have doubts.

Those facing layoffs at former state-run factories demonstrate regularly. And
beyond the posh hotel lobbies and airport VIP chambers where business courtships
play out, you can glimpse a hard side of today's booming commerce.

Workers in uniforms weld, lift, shovel, and polish all around on emerging
shopping centers and skyscrapers. The workers sleep in crowded cement-block dorm
rooms in shadows of shiny new buildings and generally earn far less than the
$500 a month that McDonald's pays Zhang. No collective bargaining is allowed.
Security guards monitor workers on the job and in dorms.

China's minister of construction, Yu Zhengsheng, told Webb in a meeting this
week that China's widening rich-poor income gap is a problem. Yu spoke of
workers fleeing barren villages to seek work in cities who then "don't find
opportunities to work there either."

Yet the view of many here is that opening China to more business with companies
from cities such as Denver offers the best hope for everyone.

As Zhang sat smoking at McDonald's, he watched Denver businessman Jim Rivas, who
seeks asbestos-removal contracts in China, walking confidently toward the new
Denver office.

"They pay us," Zhang said of the foreigners. "We do some work for them. Why
not?" A thin man in a light blue uniform silently swept cigarette butts from the
walkway. True, this Chinese worker still can't afford regular "extra value"
McDonald's meals, Zhang acknowledged, "but his children may have a better life."
Dreams for the future

Zhang himself hopes to own a restaurant someday. Not a McDonald's. He envisions
a small, traditional Chinese place.

"Maybe in Denver," he suggested, assuming as many people there as here in
Shanghai would be interested in his restaurant.

"Maybe in 20 years, when I am 48."


By Bruce Finley
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(c) 2001, The Denver Post. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.