Newark's Trading Connections With China: Profitable and Preserving the Peace

Newark’s relationship with China – yes, China – is one that goes back far into the histories of both locales. Though Newark was founded as a quiet and pious Puritan town in the 1600’s, by the early 1800’s the Brick City was becoming increasingly involved with that faraway land. In the first half of the 1800’s, the city sent numerous Christian activists, travelers and merchants to what local papers termed the “Celestial Kingdom.” Newark even developed a Chinatown of its own that was located (until the 1950’s) in the Central Ward, in the area between City Hall and the new Prudential Center. The neighborhood was so prosperous that fundraisers came from as far as China itself to raise money for Nationalist Party of China in the first decades of the 20th century.

With the overthrow of the Nationalist Party of China in 1949, and the rise of the Communists, Newark’s vibrant cultural, religious and economic relations with China came to a sudden halt. A land that was once smiled upon as a source of wealth and religious fulfillment for many in Newark had been devoured by the Communist Enemy. Between the late 1940’s and most of 1980, from the perspective of any person in the Brick City, Mainland China might as well have fallen off the map.

During the mid-20th century that great nation devoured millions of its own at the command of one of history’s most fanatical and ruthless dictators, Mao Zedong. Mao cut the nation off from the rest of the world and drove the Chinese economy and all of its ancient trading relationships into the ground. But then something wonderful happened, and most Chinese scholars of any stripe would probably agree with me. In 1977, Mao took his last breath and died. (But don’t worry…you can still visit his preserved, moldy, displayed remains in his Beijing mausoleum today). After a short power struggle within the Communist Party, by the late 1970’s Mainland China had decided to rejoin the world. Now led by a more capitalist-oriented clique (within the Communist Party), Red China focused on economic development and sought to renew its former trading connections. And what where was one of its first stops going to be? Yes, Newark...

And so began the modern, trillion dollar trading relationship between Communist China and the Brick City that continues to this day. The actual start – and I believe future historians will regard the date as one of the city’s most important – was December 26, 1980. It was on that chilly day that the Fei Chui Hai slid into Port Newark. It wasn’t much of a ship, just a large bulky hull intent on importing Newark’s abundant scrap and crap metal between North America and Asia. It wasn’t particularly majestic. It wasn’t even originally built in China, but rather, sold to the Communist Chinese by a British firm a few years earlier. But it was a beginning; it was the first vessel from Communist China to ever dock at a U.S. East Coast port.

Newark’s residents were delighted to see the ship and the once-menacing flag of Red China flying from it. Longshoremen – port workers – greeted its sailors with courtesy and optimism. While Americans were not in love with the Communist regime, here were people that had come to do business, and only business. The ship’s crewmen were given a generous amount of shore leave. Many took the time to visit Newark and Manhattan and surely marveled at skyscrapers that would be regarded as stunted by any present resident of Shanghai. In any case, the ship’s visit went smoothly. Nobody defected. Nobody got arrested. There were no “international incidents” to speak of. Upon departure the Chinese government informed officials at Port Newark that they could expect many more ships in the near future. Their promise was quickly fulfilled.

Today you can see gigantic container ships from all over the world, but especially China, routinely pass in and out of Port Newark, dropping off every conceivable good. This trade has deeply impacted the Brick City in countless ways, for both good and ill. Positively, the trade enables the port to employ thousands of Americans in hundreds of different jobs. The taxes paid on the imports help to fund our national treasury. Negatively, the cheaper manufactured goods have all but decimated the city’s factory sector that used to be one its largest employers. But you can’t totally blame the Chinese, as this trend was already operating globally in the late 1960’s throughout the so-called industrialized world. Interestingly enough, China’s present-day leaders worry that the same companies that left America for China will depart China for cheaper wage markets in places like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

But perhaps, and I discuss with frequently with my Arts High students frequently, we’re missing the major point here. With the intensification of trade, easily visible at Port Newark (right off the New Jersey Turnpike) on any given day, the possibility of war between the world’s sole remaining superpower and the only rising one has remained small. Yes, we do have disagreements with Communist China. We’re not exactly allies…but we’re not enemies either. We’re each other’s best customers, and it makes sense not to kill your customers…from any perspective. So we have to give credit where its due…Newark’s great port, and its renewal of ties with the economic behemoth of Asia, keeps an important, mutually profitable global peace. Hopefully that peace will continue as Mainland China grows and becomes more empowered in the near future. Hopefully the ships will keep coming and going, as they have since that brisk day in December of 1980.