Clark said critics who have questioned spending tax dollars on the trip need to wait and see what it produces. "I'm familiar with farming. You plant seeds in the spring. You harvest in the fall," he said. "Measure us a year from now whether we've been productive or not."

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, who is not going on the trip, said the Chinese "have a culture that requires government-to-government discussion to go to the next step, business-to-business discussion."

Officials from the Liaoning province have already come to Utah several times and a provincial information technology representative, Taowen Le, is a professor of information systems and technologies at Weber State University.

In a posting on the state Senate Web site, Le describes the province as the most industrialized in China and home to 42 million people. He cited pollution control and environmental protection as areas where Utah business could make inroads.

Both Bramble and Clark said there could be more trips by Utah lawmakers to the area in the future.

"Over a period of years, Utah is going to need a relationship with China," Bramble said. "It's important to establish those lines of communication."

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