12:15PM
The irony: as America executes "strategic pivot" to contain Chinese military, the US economy continues to open up to Chinese FDI
Friday, August 24, 2012 at 12:15PM FT p. 1 story: "US opens up to Chinese takeovers with record figures for M&A deals."
Almost $8b of deals announced so far for this year. Biggest is Dalian Wanda buying my favorite movie theater chain from my college years - AMC Entertainment. Next is a Sinopec purchase of a stake in Devon Energy.
Best year of Chinese FDI to date is $8.9b, so 2012 likely to set new record.
Why this matters: the more China buys into the US economy, the harder it gets for Washington to treat it as the military "other," because stakeholders accumulate inside the US - in addition to all those who export to China. All these jobs add up.
Reader Comments (4)
Let´s see if China is shifting ist own pivot towards the Greater Middle East as a countermeasure as the USA wants to shift its pivot to Asia.Interesting news of today: Egypt´s new Muslöimbrotherhood-president Morsi makes his first state vistit in a non-Muslim country. But not to the USA,not to Europe, but to China.For rich China it would be easy to replace the 1,5 billion US military aid to Egypt.Egypt could replace Syria after the fall of Assad and China would --with Egypt--have access to the Suez Channel and the Mediterean Sea.Let´s see how the sitaution ecloves.
8.9 billions Chinese FDI in the USA is next to nothing compared to other countries. Compare it to the future US investments in Airseabattle or Joint Operational Access Concepts.I guess the new ASB-fighter Waverider X-51 A will cost what the Chinese are totally investing in the US economy.
Clearly a sneaky plot by those nefarious capitalists over there. What will they think of next?
8.9 billions dollar Chinese FDI--this are just 4-5 B-2 stealth bombers.As long as America´s Military Industrial Complex is so big and the US economy is so incompetitive, the protectionist mainstream will prevail and the USA will try to compensate economic weakness by military strength.Otherwise they already would have revived APEC, the Doha Round or pick up initiatives by Tom Barnett as the Transpacific Energy Forum.A friend of mine in the German foreign ministery agreed with Tom Barnett´s propoasal for a big reform in the US educational system and economic system.The best way to revive the USA would be an Agenda 2030. However, it looks like as the two big parties in the USA are stuck in a stagnation of ideas.
But to be fair: China could also start some initiatives--I haven´t heard much from Beijing in these affaurs.