James / fellow Americans -
Before everyone gets on the "bash China" bandwagon like the rest of
America seems to be regarding CNOOC's bid for Union Oil, (and whatever
else the Chinese are interested in buying like MG-Rover), I have an
interesting statistic for you:
In the last 10 years:
1) The United States has poured over $350 billion in direct investment
into China
2) China has put less that $2 billion in direct investment into the
US. Of this, most of the investment was Lenovo's very recent $1.2
billion purchase of IBM's laptop business.
My first comment on the Union Oil issue is ... if the US was genuinely
worried about US strategic interests, they should first worry about
point #1 above and the fact that China now holds over $100 billion in
US Treasury Bonds. Union Oil is a pimple in the grand scheme of
things.
As someone who is old enough to have watched China grow from an
isolated, militant and sometimes belligerent country to essentially a
semi-open society (albeit with political restrictions - that being
said you can say whatever you want in the street... the gov't doesn't
care as long as you don't publish it in the paper) where... in just 15
years... it has wholeheartedly embraced capitalism.... it concerns me
when those of us from the west seem to be so shocked and fearful that
the "Chinese" want to buy some good businesses in the west.
This is a very good thing my friends. Integrated economies = peaceful
relations and mutual understanding. Case and point... there is little
integration between the West and the Middle East (other than buying
oil from the area, a commodity) and look at the grief we get for this.
My father spent his whole life literally fighting the communists in
Asia (from 1949 - 1974) for the USA, and he would be the first to tell
you that if the Chinese want to embrace capitalist ideals and buy a
few American companies, this is basically what he fought for. In
addition, I think most Americans wouldn't care if the Germans, or
Polish, or Greeks for that matter wanted to buy some of these assets,
but it appears racist to me this issue comes up every time an Asian
country wants to buy something in the US. Remember the hysteria about
"Japanese" buying Pebble Beach and half of NYC? Now it seems there's
the same yellow hysteria about the "Chinese" buying this or that.
I have never hear this concern about people from any European or South
American Country buying anything in the US.
Please don't take offense at this... this is just the way it looks to me.
Best Regards,
Alan
'53 BN1 '64 BJ8
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