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The euphoria over the birth of the NDB (New Development Bank) at the 6th BRICS Summit overshadowed the invitation extended by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the APEC Leaders meeting in China in November. Mr. Modi’s presence at the meeting would significantly improve India’s prospects of joining the APEC. President Xi’s invite reflects the possibility of China supporting India’s entry. This would enhance the strategic backing India enjoys from other major APEC members like Australia, Japan, Indonesia and the USA.

The Libya uprising in 2011 cost Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) billions. Now, the story seems poised to repeat itself, albeit this time in Iraq where Sunni radicals belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) now control large portions of western and northern Iraq. While ISIL has yet to endanger Iraq’s most valuable oil fields, its onslaught still poses multiple threats to Chinese interests. These include higher oil prices, disruptions of oil shipments from Iraq (no small matter given Iraq is China’s fifth largest oil supplier), damage to multi-billion dollar investments by Chinese MNCs such as CNPC and Sinohydro, harm to Chinese nationals, and the validation of radical Islam.

The China car market assumed great salience in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis, which pummeled auto demand elsewhere, Beijing’s successful use of stimulus measures to speed economic and sectoral growth, and the rapid expansion of China’s car culture. In response, many foreign firms accelerated their China investment plans, greased local relationships, and expanded the local sourcing of parts. China, now the world’s largest market, has become vital to global car companies’ sales revenues, licensing and royalty fees, and profits.

Foreign firms have now found themselves confronting a challenging operating environment in Vietnam tied to violent demonstrations that involved thousands of protestors venting their displeasure with China’s deployment of an oil rig near the disputed Paracel/Xisha Islands, claimed by both China and Vietnam. Although protestors targeted “Chinese” firms, they also lashed out at plants owned or operated by firms from Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. Indeed, factories with “any Chinese writing or names became targets of destruction.” Foreign companies suffered millions in losses from arson, looting, and vandalism, shutdowns, and damage to support facilities.

At the beginning of April, Japanese pharmaceutical giant Daiichi Sankyo dumped its multi-billion US dollar investment in India’s Ranbaxy, losing billions of its US $4.7 billion investment in this prominent Indian generics firm, not to mention lost management time. Daiichi made its original investment because it saw the deal as a way to broaden its distribution channels, to gain new products, and to tap into the Indian market. Signs were abundant soon after transaction was announced, however, that the deal might encounter serious problems.