The Walt Disney Company has used the new Toy Story Land extension in the Shanghai Resort to highlight its deep China connections, despite worsening trade ties with Washington.

BOB WEIS PRESIDENT, WALT DISNEY IMAGINEERING "We're a local company. We design, we develop stories but then we work with the best talent here in China, so we work with the best contractors, the best architects, the best engineers. So we're really local in that sense, everything here is built locally, and in the case of this, you know you look at tinkertoys, or airplanes, everything here is built and made in China so we're really local in the way we source things."

He added that the "overwhelming majority" of artists and designers who built the Toy Story Land extension of the park are part of Disney's local Chinese team. This extension is the first of its kind since Disney opened the theme park in Shanghai two years ago. It is a joint venture, with 57 percent ownership stake belonging to the Shanghai Shendi Group, a China's state-owned company.