Among the several reasons this site has been slow recently is that I’ve had a glut of work. Yesterday, I covered Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s trip to China. The story appears in Tuesday’s Boston Globe business section.

Gov. Patrick pushes state trade ties with China

By Graham Webster
Globe Correspondent
December 3, 2007

BEIJING — On his first foreign trade mission, Governor Deval L. Patrick today told a Beijing audience that Massachusetts and China have had a “special trade relationship” that spans more than two centuries. Patrick noted that the first United States merchant ship to sail for China — in 1784 — had Boston owners.

The governor and a delegation of about a dozen business executives, and academic and state government officials are meeting with their Chinese counterparts to discuss biotech and clean energy. They are not expected to strike any business deals before heading home on Friday, after traveling to Shanghai for more ceremonies and meetings.

Members of the delegation will also meet with executives of China’s Hainan Airlines in hopes of establishing direct flights between Boston and Beijing, possibly to begin in 2009, according to Massachusetts Port Authority chief executive Thomas Kinton, who said talks have been underway for two years. [full story]