EDITOR'S NOTE: ‘Mat-Su? Is that a city in China?’

A chuckle ran across the line of Chinese businesspeople sitting across the table as Lindsey Whitt, external affairs manager with the Alaska-based shipping company Matson, said in gracious, diplomatic tone that her recent trip to China was ‘life-changing.’

There was an awkward moment of silence. One’s first assumption had to be that something was lost in translation, but as it turned out, not so much.

Sui Jin Kon, sharp-as-a-tack Director of China-based Global Alliances for WTC Harbin, cleared up the confusion somewhat by explaining, “you said, life-changing,” to which Whitt asserted, that yes, seeing the Great Wall and other such landmarks was life-changing for her.

The meaning of the chuckle, it seemed, was meant to be at the expense of stereotypical American tourist of life, who can’t even go on vacation without having some earth-shaking epiphany.

An even funnier line at the meeting between Alaskan business leaders and members of the Chinese real estate group came moments later when Whitt regained her diplomatic speaking tone and spoke of the great connections she made with fellow Alaskan businesspeople on their trip with Gov. Bill Walker to China last month. Whitt noted one such entrepreneur looking to ship timber from the Mat-Su, which prompted Steven Lo, Group Executive Director of the Huahong Group, who was translating the exchanges to Group Chairman Zhang Hongshan, to interject, “Mat-Su? Is that a city in China?”

For whatever reason, nobody but me laughed.

And in that second moment of awkwardness within the minute, it occurred to me that the 2018 Alaska gubernatorial campaign has little to do with the Alaska recession, rising crime, the PFD or a referendum on Gov. Walker’s job performance. Election 2018 is a referendum on China.

Immediately, when Democrat Mark Begich entered the race at the 11th hour, it forced Walker, the nation’s only Independent governor, into an even more independent corner.

The early logic suggested this meant a sure path to victory for Republican frontrunner Mike Dunleavy, who brings more of an isolationist, Tea Party-esque vibe to the table. Needless to say, the big backers of Republican politics in Alaska come mostly from big oil and are none-too-enamored with the idea of pouring money into the campaign of a former Valley senator who doesn’t seem to believe in the potential of LNG exploration, or the power of international trade.

Enter former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, a globetrotting venture capitalist who is also the outgoing President of Commonwealth North, an Alaska-centric think tank that builds its base in the oil and gas industry.

All of a sudden, with a crowded, 3-party field, this race is no longer a referendum on Walker’s body of work, it’s a referendum on international trade, in general, and trade with China in particular.

At the gubernatorial debate held two weeks ago to cap off the Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference, held less than 24 hours before Treadwell and Begich threw their hats in the ring, one question from the audience asked candidates whether they thought China was a rival.

Dunleavy expressed severe distrust in the Chinese and went beyond calling them a rival to calling them a threat.

Walker, on the other hand, was completely nonchalant and a little annoyed by the question. He pointed to the billions of dollars worth of Alaskan seafood the Chinese purchase each year, and how much more they would like to consume. Transporting seafood — and especially fresh seafood — on direct flights from Alaska to China was the dominant interest of the Huahong Group in the meeting in the Peterson Tower, hosted by the Anchorage Economic Development Council that kicked off their weeklong visit, and long history of foreign investment in Alaska.

Walker, whose candidacy and statesmanship was once based on an almost white whale obsession with the development of a gas pipeline, has clearly pivoted his legacy to a burgeoning trade relationship with the Far East, and particularly China.

The Huahong Group does business with other states in the United States, but probably never one that represents his state as though it were a nation unto itself quite like Walker does.

“I would think that having the government set the stage for business connections obviously helps — it helps us to meet with all of you (media),” Sui said after the AEDC meeting. “It also enables government support from our side. The governor and the mayor of Harbin are excited to get an exchange going.”

Alaska business communities appear to be backing Walker’s trade mission, too.

“I want to thank the Governor (Bill Walker) for all he’s done for my group,” Whitt said. “Between Alaska and China there are energy opportunities with LNG, business opportunities, building opportunities and, of course, shipping opportunities, which I am very interested in.”

Fears of those who share Dunleavy’s position contend that much of the economic development and job creation that comes as a result of Chinese investment would result in jobs for Chinese people, not Americans, and certainly not Alaskans.

It’s a point of view that sounds more than a little brittle-spirited and flat Earth in nature, but on the other hand, who’ll be laughing should the day come that the Mat-Su really is a city in China?