California Treasurer John Chiang is hoping to pull off an upset. The Torrance resident is taking on some of California’s most recognizable political figures in the state’s 2018 gubernatorial race, in which he is considered a longshot to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown. While Chiang, 54, has spent much of the past decade in Sacramento (he spent eight years as California’s controller before being elected treasurer in 2014), the Georgetown law grad has deep ties to Los Angeles, where he began his career as a tax law specialist for the IRS. Southern California also gave him his start in politics when he was appointed a member of the state Board of Equalization for the 4th District. The Business Journal caught up with Chiang at downtown’s Jonathan Club after he spoke to a small private audience of high-net-worth CTBC Bank clients about philanthropy in the Asian American community.

California is a hub for goods and trade from Asia, especially China; how can the state deal with the incoming administration’s trade policy over the next several years?

It’s about building relationships. They’ll be a lot of education and understanding that needs to grow dramatically over the next four years. But what we’ve seen over the past few weeks, I think that has presented (China) with a lot of questions that they’ll want addressed. And frankly, the president and his administration will have to provide clearer answers to many of them.

Are you optimistic?

People had certain expectations ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s election, especially in China. There were great concerns about Hillary Clinton. They understood her and on many different fronts thought she would demand a lot. So some of the expectations I heard from others were that Trump’s presidency would be easier because he would be more focused or strictly engage on business and not human rights or some of the environmental issues – even though China’s made dramatic progress and in some aspects has taken an international leadership role.

You’ve been dubbed a moderate Democrat. What are some ways you break with the traditional Democratic power structure in Sacramento?

I’m not really a moderate. I’m a progressive who supports a balanced budget. People started calling me moderate or conservative, but as I make my case to my friends who are progressive, I tell them that we provide no service to the kids of California, the homeless of California, those with special needs, those who are trying to create jobs and build infrastructure if we don’t have the means and resources to pay for those promises. We do a real disservice and frankly a great injustice to people by making promises we don’t keep.

Speaking of infrastructure, are there places where the state can find common ground with the Trump administration on such projects?

Yeah, I think that it’s a fantastic opportunity. It’s a need in California and a deep need for the rest of the United States. There’s been no sense of how the federal government is going to finance interstate highways. It’s been piecemeal. So if we had a clear sense of what the federal government was going to do, that would give us an enhanced bargaining position.

Are there particular infrastructure projects that need to be addressed?

We don’t have a centralized inventory of the state’s assets. That’s crazy. We should be able to say these are all our assets and do an evaluation. Who does it serve, what is the condition, what is the useful life, what’s the cost of maintenance or repair or upgrade, what is the best financing tool to address these needs?

Recreational marijuana has been approved in California, but cannabis businesses still don’t have access to the banking system, something you’ve said is an issue. How are you addressing it?

There are extraordinary complexities at so many different levels, at so many different agencies, so we’re convening a taskforce of 16 different individuals who have expertise in their respective jurisdictions to share (ideas) and make sure there’s a public platform to discuss how the legalization of recreational cannabis impacts all of them. We want to start listening to the public and start to fashion a list of what questions need to be resolved by the federal agencies so that we can move forward with some clarity and try to create a legal (banking structure), which is absolutely critical.

The challenges?

You want to prevent money laundering, you want to prevent tax evasion, you want to prevent the underground economy, you want to make sure those monies are appropriated for the services that help people should there be major addiction issues.