Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been criticized for traveling around the country on a stealth campaign for president, but there are no early primaries in the places he's visiting this week: China and Japan.

The governor is leading a trade delegation to Shanghai, China, and Tokyo, Japan; the 60-member group leaves Thursday and returns Sept. 18.

They'll have "meetings with business leaders and government officials, presentations by market and industry leaders, networking events and business site visits. The delegation also will visit Shaanxi Province in China, sister-state to Minnesota since 1982," says the state Trade Office.

Among those on the trip with the governor will be William Mitchell College of Law Professor Ken Port, who's going to recruit students to Mitchell and its new LL.M. Program, which introduces foreign law graduates to the legal system of the United States.

"I’m excited that Gov. Pawlenty would include William Mitchell on this itinerary and give us an opportunity to make the case for Mitchell to students and lawyers in China and Japan," said Port, who is the director of Mitchell’s Intellectual Property Institute. "We look forward to increasing our success in educating Japanese and Chinese students in American law."

The governor had an earlier trade trip to China in November 2005.