“It has been said that there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One way is by using the sword, and the other is by using debt. Fortunately, America is not in danger of being conquered by the sword right now, but America is being conquered by debt.
"The borrower is the servant of the lender, and today we owe China more than a trillion dollars. By running a gigantic trade deficit with us, China has been able to become incredibly wealthy. Now China is gobbling up US real estate at an astounding pace,” reports Micheal Snyder. (1)
San Francisco is rapidly becoming the 'premier gateway' for mainland Chinese investment says Peter Navarro. (2) To date, under the leadership of both its previous and current mayors, no fewer than five Chinese solar companies have set up shop on San Francisco soil. This has occurred even as Bay Area solar manufacturers have either filed for bankruptcy (NovaSolar); shrunk in value to a mere shadow of their former selves (NanoSolar); or, in the unkindest cut of all, been sold off to China (MiaSole).
Also in the Bay Area is Solyndra, where US taxpayers lost around $535 million in the Solyndra federal loan guarantee by the Department of Energy. In fact, the loss could be as high as $849 million, more than 50 percent higher. After Solyndra went bankrupt in August of 2011, the US Department of Energy approved a deal to attract more private investment to the company. Part of the deal was that the private creditors could write-off more than $350 million in taxes, making the total loss to American taxpayers for Solyndra as much as $849 million. (3)
San Francisco is not the only city welcoming the very Chinese companies that are so busily putting so many Americans out of work, A poster child for this mind-numbing myopia is Toledo, Ohio, where the mayor has been busily selling off some of the city's prime waterfront property to Chinese investors. In March 2011, Chinese investors paid $2.15 million cash for a restaurant complex on the Maumee river in Toledo. Soon after they put down another $3.8 million on 69 acres of newly decontaminated land in the city's Marina District, promising to invest $200 million in a new residential-commercial development. Another Chinese firm spent $3 million for an aging hotel across a nearby bridge with a view of the minor league ballpark. The investors have framed their purchases as a gateway for further investment opportunities in the Midwest. The newly sold hotel is about an hour's drive from the Detroit airport, and on its website, the hotel's purchaser, Five Lakes Global Group, advertises Toledo as a '5-star logistics region,' with access to Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Chicago and Detroit. (4)
Toledo's mayor is not alone: many mayors and other local officials have traveled to China to meet with potential investors. Chinese investors are 'snapping up luxury apartments' and are planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial and residential projects like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. Chinese companies also have signed major leases at the Empire State Building and at 1 World Trade Center. (5)
In addition to real estate, the Chinese are also buying up businesses and natural resources all over the United States. For example, the Dalian Wanda Group recently bought US movie theater chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion. (1)
Where else are the Chinese investing in the US? Angela Daidone reports:
Treasuries- While the rest of the world was wringing its hands over global debt woes this summer, China dipped deep into its pockets and purchased $5.7 billion in US Treasury Bonds in June, increasing its holdings to $1,170 billion.
Fuel- After a thwarted effort several years ago to buy into a California-based energy company, state-owned Chinese energy giant CNOOC bought a multi-billion-dollar stake in Chesapeake Energy (CHK) last year.
Construction- As the Chinese continue to expand their real estate holdings, construction companies are winning contracts for major projects in and around those sites. In 2010 alone, Chinese construction companies signed $1.04 billion worth of contracts with various US business partners and completed $836 million worth of projects in multiple states. (5)
China's super-rich have good reason to diversify their holdings. In China the possibility of a real estate bubble and uncertainty about the banking system can make US real estate, even away from the metropolis, an appealing bet. There is another reason some investors would turn to the US. Foreign investors who put at least $1 million into a US business and meet other requirements can be eligible to apply for a green card. The minimum investment in high-unemployment areas, such as East Toledo, is $500.000. (4)
References
Michael Snyder, “Will Toledo, Ohio be the first major American city to be owned by China?”,Economic Collapse Blog, June 21, 2012
Peter Navarro, “Why reward China's cheating?”. San Francisco Chronicle, October 24, 2012
Institute of Energy Research, “From bad to worse: US taxpayers keep losing money on Solyndra,” Canada Free Press, October 25, 2012
Graham Webster, “Why are the Chinese investing in Toledo?”, Fortune, June 20, 2012
Angela Daidone, “What's China buying in the US?”, Forbes, September 15, 2012
Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.
