INTERNATIONAL TRADE

China Venture: Mulcahy Sports Group of Newport Beach thinks it may be the first U.S. sports marketing company to win contracts to line up sponsors for the largest sporting events in China.

Mulcahy was able to line up a Chinese mineral-oil maker for the First East Asia Games, which were just completed. Various Asian nations, including Taiwan and North and South Korea, competed in sporting events in 22 venues around Shanghai.

Now Mulcahy is looking for sponsors for the 7th China Games, another international sporting event scheduled for Beijing in September. More than 9,000 athletes are expected to compete in Olympic sports there.

Patrick Mulcahy, president of Mulcahy Sports Group, said that he has lined up three potential sponsors but has yet to formalize the agreements. Two of the sponsors are U.S. companies, he said, and the third is the Tokyo office of a popular credit-card company. He would not be more specific.

China is vying to host the Olympic Games in the year 2000 and to extend its most-favored nation trading status with the United Sates for another year, which has “put us in the middle of the dialogue between the two nations,” Mulcahy said. “I truly believe we can make better friends by trading with (the Chinese) than by rejecting them.”