S.C. Commerce Department secretary Bob Faith and three other agency officials leave today for a trade mission to China.

Gov. Mark Sanford leaves Monday to join them in Beijing.

In addition to Faith, leaving today are:

• ; Clarke Thompson, senior manager for international trade

• ; Clare Morris, communications director

• ; John Ling, manager, international trade-Asia.

They will visit companies in Guangzhou, Qingdao, Tainjin, Shanghai and Beijing.

Qingdao is home to the Haier Group, which has a 300-worker plant near Camden that makes refrigerators.

South Carolina companies sold $236 million in goods to China during 2002, according to federal data. It is the state’s eighth-largest recipient of exported goods.

The trip comes amid growing criticism of Chinese trade practices.

Faith said he and Sanford want to tell the Chinese: “You have been the obvious beneficiary of free trade, but you need to step up your efforts of investing in the U.S. to show that it goes both ways. And what better place than South Carolina to try and make a dramatic initiative?”

After the China trip, the delegation travels to Japan for the annual meeting of the Southeast U.S./Japan Association.

— From Staff Reports