It has become de rigeur for Chinese companies investing overseas to make all kinds of promises to defuse host community anxieties, to smooth the deal approval process, and to win government investment incentives. For instance, in 2010, when Chinese bus maker BYD Motors, Inc. entered California (USA), it won almost...
Archives: Blog entries
July 4, 2016
June 15, 2016
In mid-May, Nissan Motor Co. surprised Japan when it announced it would invest $2.2 billion in Mitsubishi Motors to gain effective control of the latter. The surprise was twofold. First, the announcement’s speed and timing astounded many. After all, it came only three weeks after Mitsubishi publicly acknowledged it had...
June 14, 2016
Many political observers predicted that in the aftermath of the Iran nuclear deal and the subsequent lifting of a multitude of economic sanctions imposed on the country we would witness a diminishment of bilateral links between China and Iran, especially on the economic front. The logic was as follows: No...
May 28, 2016
Record Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the US has spurred great excitement about its job creation potential. There is good reason for optimism. For instance, Wanxiang’s 2013 purchase of A123 Systems and TDC Cutting Tools’s 2009 purchase of Greenfield Industries reportedly saved around 750 jobs. According to one...
March 21, 2016
For once, American and Chinese pundits seem to think alike: There is a budding Great Wall, reinforced by hostile political sentiments in the United States (US) and, above all, the sinister Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), that is raising increasingly high obstacles to Chinese foreign direct...
February 19, 2016
For some judging the current state of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (COFDI) negativity is the “new normal.” Rejected in Myanmar due to domestic politics, whipsawed in Sri Lanka by shifts in administrations, and hamstrung by the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) national security review...
January 6, 2016
China has created two of the largest sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the world and has declared the Arab World is going to be one of its SWFs’ major investment destinations. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which already hosts more than 4200 Chinese companies, is poised to receive an additional...
December 22, 2015
As part of Abenomics, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo proposed to boost Japanese infrastructure exports and set a goal of tripling the current volume to thirty trillion yen (US $250 billion) by 2020. Energy, transportation, water, telecommunication, medical and construction industries were targeted as growth areas. There are four major hurdles...
December 13, 2015
In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI). His ambitious scheme seeks to connect China to Europe through a package of ports, logistics facilities, railways and roads, power grids, and other infrastructure spanning from East China through the South China Sea, the Indian...
November 3, 2015
Tech firms dealing with China have long had to find ways to please the latter to ensure they have had permission to invest in or sell to China, to enjoy preferential polices afforded foreign investors, or to bid on government contracts. Among other things, they have partnered with local businesses,...
