By Agence France-Presse U.S. technology firms announced Jan. 13 they had secured contracts with Chinese firms worth a total $2.3 billion, nearly half going to Motorola Inc. "This is a monumental event that represents further strengthening of U.S.-China trade relations," U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans said. "Our trade with China is very important to the United States. The $2.3 billion in purchases underscores the importance of China's high-tech market to our U.S. companies." U.S.-based firms Motorola, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Ericsson, Intel and Cisco shared in the deals. Under one contract valued at $556 million with wireless operator China Unicom, Motorola is to expand and upgrade the mobile telephone network in Beijing and 12 provinces. The other contract with China Mobile Communication Corp., worth $510 million dollars, calls on Motorola to expand its Global System for Mobile (GSM) network in Beijing and 13 provinces of China, the company said. Telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies also announced a series of agreements with China Unicom and China Telecom with total contract values of more than $350 million. The deals coincide with rising tensions over trade with China. The U.S. trade deficit with China ballooned to a record $13.57 billion in October and is expected to hit $130 billion in 2003. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004
