And Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. picked the fowl to make a point to a group of Shanghai Normal University students Friday. Utahns, the governor told the students, no longer can eat birds caught on the Great Salt Lake because they are full of mercury.

"Where is the mercury coming from?" he asked. "Neighboring states? Local industry? No, the mercury is blowing in from Asia."

Utah scientists are still trying to pin down the origin of the mercury and China's coal plants are thought to be one possible source. But so are gold mines in Nevada.

Huntsman selected the iconic Chinese food for shock value. In a speech titled "Maintaining the Bridge," the governor argued that China and the United States are inextricably linked - politically, economically and, through the ducks, physically. It will be up to the next generation - today's students - to shore up the bridge.

"Even though the Pacific Ocean is a vast divide, we must work harder to understand each other's hearts and minds," Huntsman said.

Quoting President Reagan's speech at a nearby university 22 years ago, Huntsman said the former president's analysis of Sino-American relations and interdependence was "almost prophetic."

China and the United States must band together to promote peace, bolster business prosperity, fight poverty worldwide, cure diseases such as AIDS and malaria, protect the environment and, most immediately, resolve the North Korea nuclear testing crisis, Huntsman said.

"The issue of North Korea will test the resolve of our strategic relationship in ways we haven't seen," he said. "Our bilateral relationship will be challenged. But our shared interests must be solid enough to weather those storms.

"Our history and traditions are very different, but they must allow us to arrive at similar solutions on the challenges of the day," he added.

At the end of a week-long trade mission to China, Utah's governor was invited to speak to the group of Chinese students in suburban Shanghai. They were joined by about 40 Westminster College MBA students on a 10-day trip to China.

Huntsman used the occasion to make a case for student exchanges.

In the end, he said, the partnership between the two countries will be strengthened as Americans and Chinese start to think of each other as human first. And the best way to do that is to exchange people, the governor said.

He signed a $20,000 scholarship sponsored by Zions Bank that will pay for one student from the University of Utah and one student from the Shanghai university to study for one semester at the other school.

Utah Valley State College Vice President Val Hale has traveled through China this week, hoping to increase the number of Chinese students at his Orem campus.

Among its 24,000 student population, UVSC has eight students from China, compared to 80 at Brigham Young University. Hale said the school had 24 students apply for visas, many of whom were turned down.

The Chinese government often is leery of granting visas for fear a student may not return.

Along with House Speaker Greg Curtis, Hale met with officials from China's Ministry of Education and the China Scholarship Council to try to "break the logjam."

But, Hale said, another obstacle to getting visas for Chinese students is his school's lower status as a college. In China, "college" is the word for high school.

"This is a classic example of why we need to be a university. It's a perception problem," Hale said. "The term 'college' just doesn't carry any prestige. A lot of kids hear it and they immediately dismiss it."

Like business leaders along on the trip, Hale's motivation is economic. With enrollment at Utah colleges and universities flat or declining for the next few years, those institutions are going to start feeling the pinch, he said.

Every non-resident student pays more than three times the tuition a resident student does - about $40,000.

Add to that the visits from family and friends, buying a car, purchasing insurance and the economic impact is tangible.

"The multiplier effect is enormous," said Manny Menendez, a consultant on China advising Hale this week. For example, Menendez said, Australia has 400,000 foreign students studying at its universities. About one-fourth are from China. Education-related expenses account for $200 million in annual revenue - the fourth-largest source of income for that country.

Now, with Chinese students returning home in greater numbers to take advantage of their country's booming economy, Menendez said the time is ripe for Utah colleges to act to recruit - through CSC - some of China's 8 million high school graduates.

Hale hopes lawmakers will take note of the potential. A consultant estimated the Utah County college needed an investment of $10 million to become a university - most of that to hire full-time professors.

"This is a recruiting/lobbying trip," Hale said.

walsh@sltrib.com