When Chicago-area businessman and gospel television personality Willie Wilson went to China last August to sign a joint-venture agreement, his traveling companions included Rep. Danny Davis.
The West Side Democrat, a friend of Wilson’s for 20 years, flew to Beijing and journeyed by bus to Inner Mongolia for the contract signing, with his expenses paid by Wilson’s Matteson, Ill.-based Omar Medical Supplies.
This month Davis plans to return with Wilson to China for a ribbon-cutting at the factory Omar Medical built with its Chinese partners. The factory manufactures vinyl medical and industrial gloves that Omar Medical distributes, Wilson said.
Privately financed travel by members of Congress is less common than it once was, but it’s still routine. What is less routine — but permissible — is for individual companies to pay for such trips.
In this case, Davis said, “It makes good sense to do it” to promote global trade. Wilson said he built his business despite getting only a 7th-grade education and wants his success to serve as an example for minority youths. He said he invited Davis to travel with him primarily to help spread that word.
“The fact is,” Wilson said, “that he went and witnessed something that was very rare: to have an African-American have a business relationship with the Chinese, just like white corporate America does.”
Wilson also is executive producer and lead singer on “Singsation!” a half-hour gospel show syndicated nationally and broadcast in Chicago on WGN-TV.
The details of Davis’ trip last August were spelled out in documents submitted to the House Ethics Committee.
The journey could hardly be considered a luxury junket — unless one enjoys a six-hour ride by chartered bus from Beijing to the factory site and a 12-hour return trip due to traffic congestion.
