Utah's trade mission to China is over and its participants, as they cope with jet lag, are congratulating themselves on a mission accomplished.

The mission, headed by Gov. Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to Singapore and U.S. trade representative with Asia, was a chance to introduce Utah businesses to China and encourage economic contacts between the state and the world's largest group of consumers.

Lew Cramer, president of the state's World Trade Center, declared the mission a success for introducing Utahns to senior-level Chinese government officials. Cramer said Wencor, a Springville aircraft part manufacturer, finalized a deal it had in the works with China, while other business representatives followed up on previous negotiations.

China is an economic force that one ignores at his own peril. Part of the recent spike in gasoline prices has been driven by Chinese consumers using more petroleum products. As consumerism takes root in China, it will prove highly profitable for companies that can get into the market.

Along with being the fourth-largest importer of American goods, China is the sixth-largest buyer of Utah products, behind the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Japan and Belgium. Cramer, of Utah's World Trade Center, said Utah trade with China totals more than $300 million.

Currently, computers and electronics are the major Utah items on China's shopping list, along with food, scrap material and chemicals. State economic experts predict that China will eventually surpass Japan as Utah's largest Asian market.

Some could argue that it is providential to have Huntsman as governor at a time when China is becoming an even-bigger economic player. The governor's past experience in Asia as a diplomat, coupled with his fluency in Mandarin Chinese, probably opens more Chinese doors for Utah businesses than former Gov. Mike Leavitt's aw-shucks cowboy charisma ever could.

The cost to the state was minimal, as the participants generally paid their own way. The only real expense were the salaries of Huntsman and his aides, but the state would have paid those anyway.

But China's human rights record is among the worst in the world. It has record of abusing civil liberties, from its occupation of Tibet to the brutal handling of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananamen Square and the current persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. There is a certain irony in seeing a state founded by people who sought religious liberty now courting trade with a notorious human rights abuser.

One might argue, of course, that economic relations could lead to reforms. By doing business with the Western world, the Chinese become exposed to our ideals and, over time, may forsake their totalitarian system.

Time will tell what effect Utah's trade mission has on both the state and China.

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This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A6.