SHANGHAI, China–Landing here a week ago, he hit the ground running.

Yesterday he bolted to the airport in a blur, travelling at 440 kilometres per hour onboard Shanghai's sleek, ultra-modern Maglev rail link.

Toronto Mayor David Miller wound up his seven-day trade mission to China yesterday, in the very same way he began – at high speed.

While others on his staff will stay on today, Miller decided to return a day early, rather than run the risk of getting grounded by an approaching typhoon.

With a possible TTC strike looming, Miller wants to be sure he's back by tomorrow.

"It's just prudent," he said yesterday.

Toronto's trade mission here began last week on a note of controversy over its timing in the wake of the Tibet crisis.

But Miller seemed to turn what could have been a negative on the mission into a plus.

He took citizens' concern about human rights and Tibet right to the Politburo, the Communist Party's most powerful body, addressing the issue in a meeting with Politburo member Bo Xilai.

Then he got down to business.

Was the trip worth it?

"Tremendously worth it," said Miller during an interview on the 54th floor of Shanghai's Grand Hyatt Hotel, overlooking the vast expanse of skyscrapers that dominate China's most modern city.

"Given the importance China will have over the next 20 to 50 years, it's very clear – once you've been here a couple of days – that it's going to have tremendous influence over our future.

"We've got to engage. The longer we wait, the more disadvantaged Toronto and Canada will be."

Miller said it was "very important to see it with my own eyes. There is just no substitute."

The mayor said he was confident that a series of letters of agreement between private businesses and government-to-government between Toronto and Chongqing would lead to cross-country investment and job creation.

A Chongqing mission will be visiting Toronto next month, he added.

The 22-year-old sister-city relationship Toronto shares with Chongqing – the fastest growing city in the world – is something he intends to nurture, Miller said.

York University professor David Lumsden, an anthropologist who is finishing up a sabbatical in Chong-qing, dismissed skeptics who question the value of trade missions and sister-city relationships.

"It's not about junkets and never has been about junkets," Lumsden said. "It's about talking to each other, learning from each other and bringing home tangible results.

"Do you value international understanding? Do you believe that China is important to the future of the world?

"If you do, then of course these missions are worth it."

Miller, on his first trip to China, said he was "surprised" by the pace of China's development, by its enormity – an official said Beijing has 1.4 billion square feet of construction on the go – and by how modern and efficient the best factories are.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

"I don't believe that we in Canada really know how modern China is," Miller said.

"It was an eye-opener."

Touring a series of motorcycle parts and assembly factories in Chongqing, which supply both BMW in Germany and Harley Davidson in the U.S., Miller said he was impressed by the quality of production.

"I toured an Italian-Chinese joint venture too that had the most modern equipment I've ever seen in a factory," he said.

The mayor said he was also impressed by the tremendous sense of "energy" in China, and its ability to draw up plans and get things done.

"The Chinese don't wait," he said. "They act."

That ability to act, especially in China's four major centres of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin, is because of a minimum of red tape and an abundance of money – the kind of which that Miller can only dream.

Each city not only has a high degree of autonomy, reporting only to the central government, but each also receives nearly 50 per cent of all tax revenues raised in its jurisdictions.

By comparison, Toronto directly receives just 6 per cent.

"Once a decision is made here," Miller mused, "the city has both the power and money to act."

It would be fantasy to think that Ottawa would adopt a similar approach, Miller said. But it could act as a spur for Ottawa to think of innovative ways to help Canadian cities compete in an increasingly competitive world.

Miller noted he was overwhelmed by the generosity and warm welcome his mission received here.

Last week, national carrier Air China extended a greeting to him over the in-flight public announcement system while en route to Chongqing.

But yesterday, flying into Shanghai, Air China went one step further: they turned the public address system over to the mayor allowing him to extend his greetings to everyone on board.





Read more about: