China-US relations impact local business

Tulsans with ties to China are keeping a close eye on the developments. KOTV's Jenny McNeill shows us what effect the political conflict is having on them. Eric Zhang moved to Tulsa from China less

Friday, April 6th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Tulsans with ties to China are keeping a close eye on the developments. KOTV's Jenny McNeill shows us what effect the political conflict is having on them. Eric Zhang moved to Tulsa from China less than a year ago. He and his family are watching the US and China conflict unfold, but say they aren't too concerned. "I am confident this will be solved soon as I said previously that the nature this is not that serious." He says he hates what is happening, but thinks the two countries' reliance on each other will drive them to a compromise." If you go to Walmart you see how many things made in China if you go back to Beijing you can see American brands like General Motors, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken." In fact, when they came to America, his son felt right at home. "You see a McDonalds on almost every corner in Beijing and Shanghai." The pies at Shanghai's McDonald's are made by a Tulsa company that's also concerned with Chinese relations. The Bama Pie Companies has a plant in Beijing that makes the pies for McDonald's stores in Asia. Bama Pie's Brenda Rice says, "one is a potato curry pie which is actually served at breakfast which is curry with chunks of potato and carrot and to go with that they also ask for a pizza pie to be served at breakfast because McDonalds is an all American icon." Bama says it has a good relationship with the Chinese government and has since it moved there in 1991. "We don't anticipate it effecting us at this point. There's only one area that something of this nature could have an impact that's with the granting of visas for folks coming into the US traveling in the company and vise-a-versa." The company is just hoping political leaders will work out their differences before that becomes a problem.