Indiana established a sister state/province relationship with Zhejiang Province in 1987 and has a remarkable 12 sister city pairs with China. In the past four years, Indiana’s exports of goods to China have doubled with 2021 marking the highest to date at $4.6 billion. Many Indiana-headquartered global corporations, such as Cummins and Eli Lilly, have benefited significantly from doing business in China. Chinese investments in Indiana are also slowly growing, such as Nanshan America, which invested more than $100 million in its Indiana aluminum extrusion facility. Chinese fashion retailer SHEIN is among the latest new arrivals. Indiana launched its first Global Economic Summit in 2022 to attract more foreign direct investment. Among the VIP guests invited by Governor Eric Holcomb was then-Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. QIN Gang, who spoke highly of Indiana as a partner. The America China Society of Indiana (ACSI), the local NGO supporting Indiana-China relations, also hosted a Chinese sub-national delegation for said summit. Yet geopolitical tension has chilled sub-national relations and political winds have shifted in recent years, as in 2021, the state introduced China-targeting House Bill 1549 (April 29th, 2021) followed by the closing of the Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University and state Senate Bill 388 (March 18th, 2022). 

Indiana established a sister state/province relationship with Zhejiang Province in 1987 and has a remarkable 12 sister city pairs with China. In the past four years, Indiana’s exports of goods to China have doubled with 2021 marking the highest to date at $4.6 billion. Many Indiana-headquartered global corporations, such as Cummins and Eli Lilly, have benefited significantly from doing business in China. Chinese investments in Indiana are also slowly growing, such as Nanshan America, which invested more than $100 million in its Indiana aluminum extrusion facility. Chinese fashion retailer SHEIN is among the latest new arrivals. Indiana launched its first Global Economic Summit in 2022 to attract more foreign direct investment. Among the VIP guests invited by Governor Eric Holcomb was then-Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. QIN Gang, who spoke highly of Indiana as a partner. The America China Society of Indiana (ACSI), the local NGO supporting Indiana-China relations, also hosted a Chinese sub-national delegation for said summit. Yet geopolitical tension has chilled sub-national relations and political winds have shifted in recent years, as in 2021, the state introduced China-targeting House Bill 1549 (April 29th, 2021) followed by the closing of the Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University and state Senate Bill 388 (March 18th, 2022). 

Indiana’s exporting of goods to China has been steadily rising over the past four years, having well over doubled in that time, such that 2021 marked Indiana’s highest goods exports to date growing by 17% and totaling at $4.6 billion in value, twice the 2008-2017 average of $2.3 billion. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, service exports from Indiana to China fell by -26%.

This is a significant jump from the past decade’s average of $2.4 billion from 2009-2019, and the recent low in 2018 of $2.2 billion as a consequence of the trade war, which saw Indiana’s exporting to China drop 29% from 2017 to 2018. As both a major agricultural and manufacturing state, Indiana was doubly hit. Indiana’s manufacturing companies suffer under tariffs forcing them to pay more for their component parts, with extra costs either falling on consumers or cutting into their profit margins. To further illustrate: Telamon Corp, a company which makes component parts for companies like Ford and AT&T had a 30% spike in Chinese component import prices at the time.

Each of Indiana’s top goods exports–pharmaceuticals and medicines, oilseeds and grains, medical equipment and supplies–experienced growth, at a respective 21%, 16%, and 15%. Indiana had the benefit of its primary exports to China all having a strong year in exporting, with growth across all industries in the Heartland states’ exporting to China. This is hardly surprising, given that China represents the world’s second-largest healthcare market, importing over $7 billion in pharmaceutical products in 2021.

Business with China continues apace in Indiana. At the 2022 Indiana Global Economic Summit, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Qin Gang spoke of Indiana as a major player in the production of agricultural, pharmaceutical, and automotives products, all of which China has an increasing need for. The America China Society of Indiana (ACSI), an organization which works to strengthen business ties as well as fostering cultural respect, has been active in 2022, hosting a Chinese sub-national delegation visiting Indiana for the previously mentioned Global Economic Summit. ACSI furthermore utilized the Indiana-Zhejiang sister city connection to host the 2022 US-China Virtual Business Exhibition: Huzhou City, with eight Huzhou-based companies presenting their U.S. business interests. Chinese fashion retailer SHEIN announced plans in April of 2021 to establish a 650,000-square-foot distribution center in Whitestown, making it the primary Midwestern hub. China-based food additive company Layn Corp invested $80 million to build Hemprise Inc.’s new CBD facility in Jeffersonville. Despite such promising efforts in trade and investments, turbulent rhetoric looms; recently, Indiana passed two bills relating to curbing Chinese involvement in the state. On April 29th 2021, House Bill 1549 was signed into law aimed at preventing Indiana universities from leaking classified information to China, this followed by the closing of The Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University after a civil investigation was launched to determine if it was “promoting communist propaganda”. Senate Bill 388 was signed into law on March 18th 2022, which prevents foreign business entities from acquiring agricultural land in the state. This bill comes amidst a wave of concern over China buying land in the U.S.; as of 2019, China, Russia, and Iran combined accounted for 0.7% of all foreign-owned agricultural land. In November 2022, 2 Indiana residents were arrested for allegedly conspiring to sell U.S. military secrets to China. Indiana’s Governor Eric Holcomb visited Taiwan in August 2022, stirring tensions.

China ranks as Indiana’s second leading place of origin for international students in 2022, dropping from first place in 2021, with an estimated 5,738 students in attendance. This marks an estimated -18% decrease in enrollment of Chinese students from 2021 to 2022, and a -33% decrease from 2020 to 2022. The Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University closed March 1^st, 2022.

This data and content is updated periodically. The most recent update was January 2023.