China not out to sabotage the US

Some petty-minded people see China, by selling more to the US, as being cunning or pursuing the strategic goal of eventually undoing the US. They say the US, which sells less merchandise to China, is being robbed of its jobs and claim its economy is being raped. They refuse to see that every year China buys a lot more services from the US, Chinese parents pay huge amounts to educate their children in US colleges and that in more recent years, Chinese companies have begun investing more and more in US companies.

In 2016, say law firm Baker & McKenzie and research company Rhodium, China’s direct investment into the US and Europe more than doubled, to a record $94.2bn, even after almost $75bn worth of deals were cancelled for reasons that included US government objections.

They also point out that in 2015, when China’s total outbound investments hit a record high of $145bn and it overtook Japan as the world’s second-biggest cross-border investor after the US, China’s investment was $15bn in the US and $23bn in Europe. A mere decade ago, when China was the world champion for receiving foreign direct investment, Chinese companies’ outbound investments were minimal.

Facts speak louder than words and money speaks for itself. No one can reasonably think, as the US trade war fanatics claim, that by committing its hard-earned dollar bills back to the US as capital investment, what China wants is only the latter’s demise. In fact, the broader picture of China’s outbound direct (nonfinancial) investment is that, according to Chinese sources, Chinese investors made a total commitment of $170bn to about 8,000 companies in 160 countries and regions in 2016, showing a year-on-year growth of more than 40%.

Rational people can’t call any of the above small numbers, or think they are of small use only in creating new jobs. Beijing, February 8.