Chinese Investment: Danger or Opportunity?

Derek Scissors / July 27, 2010

Growing Chinese investment around the world is a major international economic development. In the U.S., the story is how limited Chinese investment is beyond government bonds.

Limitations on Chinese investment in the U.S. are not imposed by the PRC. Other than bonds, the PRC invests primarily in natural resources, and the U.S. has such resources. The U.S. is the largest natural gas producer, may top the world in coal reserves, and even has high-cost oil reserves China has shown interest in elsewhere. The U.S. also has various metal ore deposits and the world’s largest amount of arable land.

China doesn’t invest widely in the U.S due to political interference here. For understandable reasons, Chinese investment in technology has been blocked. For less understandable reasons, the U.S. does not seem to have a consistent policy regarding Chinese investment in resources or, for that matter, manufacturing. (more…)