GREENVILLE, S.C. - With South Carolina losing manufacturing jobs to China and lawmakers pushing for trade protection, Gov. Mark Sanford and state Commerce Secretary Bob Faith plan a visit to China next month for a trade mission.

Faith said he wants Chinese officials to understand that concern is rising in the U.S. about the loss of manufacturing jobs to China.

"We want to tell them, 'Look, you have been the obvious beneficiary of free trade here, but you need to step up your efforts of investing in the U.S. in order to show that it goes both ways. And what better place than South Carolina to try and make a dramatic initiative?'" he said.

China's manufacturing dominance has grown in recent years, while the United States has lost manufacturing jobs. Now U.S. textile interests are demanding caps on Chinese imports, and the National Association of Manufacturers is accusing China of gaining an unfair trade advantage through currency manipulation.

Faith said China is "an enormous potential economy, and they're just beginning to engage in the global economy. They're going to be a force, and so we in South Carolina have got to be pro-active in figuring out how we deal with this sleeping giant."

Faith hopes the trip, which is scheduled for the second half of October, also will help South Carolina companies sell into the Chinese market.

Will Lacey, director of the Business Solutions division at the Commerce Department, said the delegation will stop in Qingdao to meet with executives of the Haier Group, whose 300-worker refrigerator plant in Camden is the most-significant Chinese investment in South Carolina to date.

The trip also will include stops in Tainjin, Shanghai and Beijing, Lacey said. Sanford plans only a visit to Beijing, he said.

Greenville businessman and China native Peter Kwan, who is helping arrange the trip, said the delegation also will visit executives of the Foshan Plastic Group in Guangzhou. The company, which makes plastic film, is mulling a $15 million, 60-worker plant in the United States.

Kwan and his sister, Greenville developer Vivian Wong, launched Pacific Gateway Capital Group LLC two years ago to capitalize on growing trade between China and the United States. The company is the master franchisee in China for the Medicine Shoppe, a U.S. pharmacy chain, and is developing a 75-acre industrial park in Tainjin, China, for U.S. manufacturers.

While it's true the current political climate may create new trade opportunities for South Carolina with China, Faith needs to make his pitch delicately, Kwan said.

"I don't think that any Chinese leader would like to be seen as caving in to U.S. pressure," he said.