A journalist must often learn about things outside of his or her field, and from time to time encounters situations that require the assumption of ancillary roles. The latter was the case at the recent China Commercial Expo, when I took on the role of interpreter.

I was talking with Liu Yao-xu and Wang Gang, the sales representatives of the Northern Intenational Holding Tinajin Foodstuffs Import & Export Company. They were paying their first visit to Panama, and to Latin America, in search of distributors for their company's Greatwall brand corned beef and spam, cookies, dough mixes, rice noodles, red dates, fermented cabbage and liquors. Liu speaks English reasonably well, and Wang a little bit, but neither of them speaks or understands Spanish. Up strolled two women, one a Customs officer, the other an agricultural quarantine official. The two Panamanian public servants, neither of whom spoke English or any of the Chinese dialects, demanded to know how the samples displayed in Liu's and Wang's booth got into Panama. I passed the question on to the Chinese merchants, who told me that they brought their samples with them when the entered Panama through Tocumen Airport, where they were waved through without much of a search. I relayed their English-language answer to the two women in Spanish.

(Did my press pass limit my role as interpreter? The two women hemmed and hawed between themselves, but didn't ask me to tell the two salesmen "No se puede," let alone pass on a demand for a payment.)

The competition between Taiwan and China relegates the latter to an out-of-the-way upstairs end of the ATLAPA convention center during Panama's main trade fair, the annual EXPOCOMER, at which Taiwan occupies the center of the main hall. Never mind that at this year's EPOCOMER, China had more exhibitors, or that by any measure China's business ties with Panama are bigger than Taiwan's. This exposition, however, is China's alone, and their businesses took up the main hall to show what they have to offer Panama and Latin America.

Outside the hall, to either side of the red stage and the boquets sent by many of Panama's Chinese community organizations, there was a large backlit photographic display depicting China as its government and people want us to see it. There were the Great Wall, the Beijing Opera and idyllic rural scenes to attract the tourists, but more than anything China presented itself as a bustling, technologically advanced, up-and-coming world industrial power.

Inside the hall there was evidence of the light industry for which China has long been known, with a few samples of heavy industrial products with which the Middle Kingdom is challenging the more developed competition. Largely absent was the high-tech stuff --- China isn't a serious threat to Taiwan's Acer, let alone the Japanese or the Americans, in computers and sophisticated electronics just yet.

By size and ambition the biggest Chinese offering was by the Liaoning Huanghai Automobile Company, which was selling some large and attractive buses.

Not far away, three different companies were selling an assortment of motorcycles, scooters and ATVs. One of these enterprises, the Zhejiang Leike Machinery Industry Company, was selling a model that at first glance bore a resemblance to Harley Davidson's products. It doesn't appear that the Hell's Angels are ready to trade their hogs for Chinese products, and my inquiries about outlaw bikers in China drew blank stares of incomprehension from the exhibitors.

Also in the heavy industrial sector, the Tianjin Huayi Company was selling fully automated packaging machines.

Mostly, however, this exposition had China's light industrial products on display. There were a lot of textile and toy manufacturers there. You could get valve, faucets, lighting fixtures or decorations for a home or business. There were car seats, cribs, playpens and strollers for the babies, and school supplies for older kids. There were lots of things to wear.

The one product that most interested me, and during this rainy season ought to most interest Panamanians, looked at first glance exactly like what I was wearing on my feet that day --- inexpensive flip-flops with rainbow-colored thongs. Ah, but vendor Felix Chen, a China native who was partly educated in the United States and is a long-time Panama resident, turned the Good Fine Shoes Factory Ltd. product upside-down to show me the difference. These chancletas have non-slip soles, which would make walking in the rain so much safer and easier than what I was wearing, which function something like waterskis on certain wet surfaces.

But might it be unseemly for a reporter to work in such informal footwear? (Not for this old hippie, at this particular event.) I could have been far more finely shod with what was on display. Chen was only one of several vendors showing off shoes, for men, women and children, in formal and casual styles. I sure do hope that he finds a way to get his client's no-slip rainbow flips onto the Panamanian retail market. I will buy them if he does.

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