Cautious optimism for Chinese investment in US

By Zhang Lulu in Atlanta

China.org.cn, April 23, 2016

The Symposium on Asia-USA Partnership Opportunities (SAUPO) was held in Atlanta, Georgia on April 22. ?

Dan Ponder, a mayor of the city of Donalsonville, Georgia in the United States, has just come back from his first China tour on the night of April 21. Sitting on a panel during an Asia-US investment networking meeting the very next day, he is eager to share with others his experience of the world's second largest economy.

The small town of Donalsonville has partnered with Chinese telecommunications equipment and services provider Huawei. The Chinese company will provide the rural U.S. city with eLTE Systems, which will increase the local internet speed to ten times that of the current speed, said Ponder during the Symposium on Asia-USA Partnership Opportunities (SAUPO) in Atlanta. SAUPO is an annual conference organized by an Asian studies program at Kennesaw State University.

The city of Donalsonville is just one example of a slew of investment destinations for Chinese companies. Chinese investment in the U.S. hit a record US$15 billion in 2015 and is set to reach twice that this year, according to a report recently released by the National Committee on Sino-US Relations and the research firm Rhodium Group.

Wang Shengqi, a partner of the Tianchenghuashang Overseas Real Estate Investment Fund, is one of the enthusiastic investors from China. Making his fortune in the real estate sector, a majority of Wang's assets are now invested outside China, with about 20 percent in U.S. cites including Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta.

Wang lists three reasons why his company and other Chinese investors are eyeing the American property market. The Chinese government has been talking about "destocking,"or reducing its domestic property inventory, while there are stable returns in the American property market (a 15 percent annualized rate of return) and transparent and standard laws in the U.S.

Despite the enthusiasm of Chinese investors, some in the U.S. have raised questions concerning what's been called a "shopping spree" for Chinese investors, citing various concerns -- especially those of national security –regarding some of the prospective deals.

In the eyes of Dan Ponder, mayor of Donalsonville, security concerns did not make his city turn down Huawei, despite the latter being one of the most scrutinized Chinese companies in the U.S. The local government has been transparent throughout the deal and continued debating with and educating its citizens about what's going on with the partnership, Ponder said. He is convinced the cooperation will benefit the local citizens.

Apart from government and corporate transparency on the U.S. side, Chinese companies also need to play a more proactive role in telling their stories, said Brett O'Brien, the managing director of the Glover Park Group, a strategic communications firm in the U.S.

He mentioned the high-profile takeover bid of the Chinese insurance company Anbang of Starwood Hotels, which made business headlines in both China and the U.S. in March but was eventually dropped by the Chinese company. O'Brien said that Anbang did not do a good job in educating the public about what they do and what the benefits were in the tentative deal.

O'Brien cited a recent poll by the American Security Project which found that 66 percent were uncomfortable with a foreign company buying a U.S. company, especially those from China, the Middle East and Russia.

He believed that Chinese companies have encountered misperceptions and stereotypes when trying to invest in America. "You should come to the U.S. with a story to define yourself before others define you," he said.