Honolulu not a good example for Chinese

Mayor Chen Demming of Suzhou, China, has turned to our very own Mayor Jeremy Harris for advice. The two have discussed such issues as information technology, hotel management, tourism, wastewater treatment, and Chinese tourism to Hawai`i.

While the economic potential of such a union is apparent, there is an alarming lack of logic in the relationship.

Suzhou is a city of over 5.7 million people. Honolulu, on the other hand, has significantly less than 1 million. The problems associated with running a city of nearly 6 million people are much larger than the problems facing the mayor of Honolulu.

The sheer size of Suzhou along should dictate that, at best, Harris' advice to Demming would be limited if centered only around his experience in running Honolulu.

Hawai`i is not, by any stretch, a hub of expertise in the arena of information technology. Nor is Honolulu the place to come for advice on managing the waste of 6 million people.