Chinese money looks to invest in US

By Wang Chao and Tan Yingzi (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-22 10:15

Nick Damjanovich, construction superintendent of SANY America, stands at a construction site in the Peachtree City Industrial Park, Georgia, US. [Photo by Tan Yingzi/China Daily]

BEIJING/WASHINGTON - Chinese companies are making their way into the United States, and their influence can be felt in all facets of life.

When you walk into a new convenience store, it may be run by a Chinese couple speaking broken English; when you enter a furniture store, the manager greeting you might be Chinese and he may own five other stores nearby; even when the gas company comes to change your meter, you may notice that the new meter has Chinese characters on it.

On Nov 1, 2010, the Ministry of Commerce issued a report showing China's outbound direct investment in 2009 reached $56.5 billion, the fifth largest in the world. From 2002 to 2009, China's outbound direct investment grew by 54 percent annually.

While some of the investment came from State-owned companies, the majority came from the private sector.

Chinese investments come into the US in several ways: mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures with domestic companies, buying small businesses and building new factories.

"Opportunities for investment (into the US) will last for a long time, perhaps 30 to 50 years," said Lin Shunjie, deputy secretary-general of the China Chamber of International Commerce.

Lin said what private enterprises do is surprisingly diversified. While State-owned companies might not want to invest in areas with limited returns, private companies seem willing to invest in projects that bring them consistent returns.

SANY Group Co Ltd, the largest construction equipment manufacturer in China and one of the top 10 in the world, is not too dissimilar from many other ambitious Chinese companies.

"After the company went public in 2003 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, we entered a new phase of development that required us to explore more resources worldwide," Tang Jianguo, president of SANY America, told China Daily.

"The US is home to the leading heavy equipment manufacturers and it has the best technology, talent and market, and I believe the company can benefit from investments in the US."

Based on an agreement with the Georgia state government in 2006, the company established a factory on 92 hectares and will invest more than $100 million over the next few years. Company managers said they expect to create about 600 jobs in the state.

The China Chamber of International Commerce said 70 to 80 percent of its 300 members have overseas investments, with 20 to 30 percent of them investing in the US.

One main reason for the investments is that with the onset of the global financial crisis, Chinese companies, especially exporters, are finding it harder to export to the US. As the yuan appreciates, the dollars they accumulated from exports are losing their value, pushing companies to find an outlet for their money. The US is an optimal destination.

"The US is desperately in need of investments, which are what Chinese enterprises possess," said Chen Yongjun, deputy director of the business school at Renmin University of China in Beijing. "It is the best time for Chinese companies to invest in the US. Previously, US companies were worried that their technology would be stolen when they brought their technology into China. But if we invest in the US, we become stakeholders and will protect our intellectual property rights, creating less concerns for US partners."

Lin said it is also a good opportunity to rebuild Chinese brands. "For decades, Chinese products have been synonymous with being cheap and of low quality, just like Japanese products were in the 1970s. It was the only message conveyed to American consumers. If we let it be, it will also take us 30 years, like the Japanese, to eliminate that and rebuild brands. Through manufacturing in the US, we might rebuild our brands in 20 years."

To many private enterprises, investing in the US is a wise move since they will become part of a local company and can label their products "made in the USA". And since labor is much more expensive in the US than in China, most investments go to technology-intensive industries, rather than consumer products.

"We don't advise all types of Chinese companies to invest in the US since many of them may not survive. Companies should alter their production models and add value to their products first before they consider investing overseas," Lin said.

China Daily

Japan's rocket carrying cargo for space station blasts off

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-22 17:03

TOKYO - A Japanese rocket carrying an unmanned cargo transporter to the International Space Station (ISS) blasted off Saturday, said reports from Tanegashima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAEA) has announced that the launch was a success and the cargo unit separated from the rocket as scheduled.

The H-2B rocket, originally scheduled to lift off on Thursday, was launched at 2:37 pm (0537 GMT) at Tanegashima Space Center after a two-day delay due to adverse weather conditions.

According to the JAEA, the rocket carries the HTV2 transporter, which is expected to connect with the ISS on Friday.

Also included in the cargo are equipment for use in Japan's Kibo laboratory module, food and drinking water for astronauts.

Malaysia holds 7 Somali pirates after saving ship

Updated: 2011-01-22 17:25

(Agencies)

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's navy was holding seven Somali pirates Saturday after thwarting an attempt to hijack a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden, authorities said.

The Royal Malaysian Navy said its commandos injured three pirates in a gunbattle and rescued the 23 crew members of the Malaysian-flagged MT Bunga Laurel early Friday, less than two hours after the assailants stormed the vessel with pistols and assault rifles.

The navy sent a ship and a helicopter, which were then 14 miles (22 kilometers) from the Bunga Laurel, after crew members locked themselves in a safe room and activated a distress call, it said in a statement late Friday.

Elite security forces managed to board the ship and overpower the pirates after an exchange of gunfire, the statement said. No one among the rescue team or Bunga Laurel's crew was injured.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was informed that seven pirates were captured. Authorities were considering whether they should be brought to Malaysia to face trial for the hijack attempt, Najib told a news conference.

"I am proud of our (navy), which acted with full efficiency and demonstrated courage," Najib said.

The naval ship was in the Gulf of Aden to escort vessels with Malaysian interests. The attack occurred only two hours after the ship had left the Bunga Laurel after accompanying it to what was considered relatively safe waters in the Gulf of Aden, about 300 miles (500 kilometers) east off the coast of Oman, the navy statement said.

The navy did not provide details of the crew members' nationalities. Representatives of the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation, which was operating the Bunga Laurel, could not immediately be reached.

Other countries' special forces have also launched raids to save ships boarded by Somali pirates within hours of the attacks in recent months, after being assured the crew was locked in safe rooms, commonly referred to as "citadels."

In another successful but riskier rescue Friday, South Korean special forces stormed a freighter in the Arabian Sea that had been hijacked a week earlier. They freed 21 crew members and killed eight Somali pirates.

Hu maps road ahead for Sino-US ties

Updated: 2011-01-22 08:11

By Tan Yingzi and Wu Jiao (China Daily)

President Hu Jintao (L) visits the Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, which houses a Confucius Institute, in Chicago, during the final day of his US visit, Jan 21, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Chinese president suggests route to take "sound and steady" links with the US forward

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO - President Hu Jintao reaffirmed on Thursday in the United States that China will continue to deepen its reform and opening-up and adhere to peaceful development while he also urged Washington to be mindful of Beijing's "core interests" in Taiwan and Tibet.

Before leaving for Chicago on the final stop in his four-day state visit to the US, Hu delivered a speech at a luncheon in Washington where he explained China's approach to maintaining a cooperative partnership with the US.

Related readings: Hu sees broader basis for Sino-US co-op Hu's visit shifts direction in ties Highlights of Hu's activities in US Hu confident in bilateral relations Hu initiates proposal to advance Sino-US ties

About 500 US business and political leaders attended the event that was hosted by the US-China Business Council and the National Committee on US-China Relations, along with several cooperating organizations.

The two countries issued a 41-item joint statement on Wednesday laying out the foundations for future China-US relations that emphasized their common interests and recognized differences.

During his speech, Hu identified the broad common interests and responsibilities that are the basis of China-US relations and proposed several steps to take the "sound and steady" relationship into a new decade.

He said both nations are committed to upholding world peace and stability and reforming the international system as well as developing the Asia-Pacific region and building stronger bilateral ties in all fields to benefit the people of both countries.

In addition to expanding strategic and economic cooperation, the Chinese president urged the US to treat China with respect and as an equal and to handle major and sensitive issues in an appropriate manner.

"Taiwan- and Tibet-related questions concern China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and they represent China's core interests," he said.

"They touch upon the national sentiment of 1.3 billion Chinese people. We hope that the US will honor its commitments and work with us to preserve the hard-won progress of our relations."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Beijing firmly opposes leaders or government officials from any country meeting with the Dalai Lama in any form, and also firmly opposes any country using the Dalai Lama issue to interfere in Tibet-related issues, which are China's internal affairs.

US President Barack Obama met the Dalai Lama in Washington in February, despite China's strong opposition, an event that worsened bilateral relations that were already disturbed by an earlier US arms sale to Taiwan.

Beijing broke off military ties with the US after the arms sales and the military-to-military relationship did not start to warm back up until the end of last year.

At the end of his speech, Hu assured his US hosts that China - still a developing country - will continue to "deepen reform and opening-up, advance economic, political, cultural and social restructuring in an all-round way, and improve the socialist market economy."

To address growing concerns about China's military modernization, Hu reaffirmed that China will remain committed to peaceful development and strive for a peaceful international environment.

"We do not engage in the arms race or pose a military threat to any country," he said. "China will never seek hegemony or pursue an expansionist policy."

Before the luncheon, Hu held talks with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, during which he called upon Congress to continue helping the countries boost their relations.

While addressing a gathering of business leaders at a welcome banquet in Chicago held by Mayor Richard M. Daley, Hu said Chicago had played an important role in advancing trade and cultural ties with China.

And he pledged to further elevate bilateral trade and cultural ties, and called for fair treatment from the US on such issues as Washington's control of high-tech exports to China. He also called for a level playing field for Chinese companies wanting to invest in the US.

Several hundred Chinese Americans gathered on the streets in Chicago to welcome the Chinese leader.

In eager anticipation of what they expect will be new economic opportunities thanks to closer links between China and Chicago, local Chinese American leaders had been posting welcome signs throughout the city's Chinatown.

Daley said the city's long-range goal is to make Chicago the most "China-friendly" city in the United States and establish it as China's "Gateway to America".

Hong Liu, president of the Chinese American Association of Greater Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune that local "residents should be honored that Chicago is the only city outside Washington DC that he selected to visit".

Analysts said Hu's visit to the US was a success.

Sun Zhe, director of the Center for US-China Relations at Tsinghua University, said the win-win partnership in business highlighted during the visit was a major improvement on talk of "economic cooperation and helping with the global revival" stressed in 2009 when Obama visited Beijing.

He said, in the post-crisis era, the partnership will help ensure comprehensive business cooperation between the world's top two economies.

Fan Jishe, an expert on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was interested in why Hu decided to visit Chicago instead of cities with large Chinese American populations such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, or financial centers such as New York.

"I think Beijing wants to convey the message that the economic surge of China is not a burden but a benefit for the US," he said.

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said on Wednesday: "They can call this summit a success, not because it has solved every problem but because it has sought the way by which the problems can and will be solved."

Nicholas Berry, director of Foreign Policy Forum, told China Daily the US treated China as a partner.

"The state visit is staged as a celebration of China's rise - a message from Obama to both the American people and the Chinese that the United States does not consider China a 'strategic competitor', that is, a military threat. Instead, China is now a major power that the US will treat as such."

John Frisbie, US-China Business Council president, said: "Most simply, the visit by President Hu is a reminder of the importance of the relationship - seen by many as the most important bilateral relationship for both sides in the 21st century.

"This is a relationship in transition, and this visit is an important part of navigating that transition."

Kelly Chung Dawson in New York and Li Xiaokun in Beijing contributed to this story.

15 people die in Uganda bus crash, baby survives

• AP foreign, Saturday January 22 2011

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A Ugandan police spokeswoman says 15 people have died in western Uganda after a bus lost control when it hit a cow on the road and rammed into an oncoming truck.

Zura Ganyana says an 8-month-old baby whose mother died in the accident early Saturday is among 30 survivors from the bus crash admitted to the hospital in serious condition. Others were treated and discharged.

The bus was carrying 65 passengers traveling to the capital Kampala.

Ganyana says 10 people died at the scene of the accident at Kiryandongo while others died as they were being taken to Mulago hospital in the capital nearly 140 miles (220 kilometers) from the accident site. She says all three people in the truck died.

According to Ugandan police at least 2000 people die from road accidents every year.

Tony Blair's promise to George Bush: count on us on Iraq war

Blair feared marring relations with ally – and looked beyond legal warnings against invasion, Chilcot inquiry is told

Tony Blair leaves the Chilcot inquiry at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

Tony Blair today admitted to brushing aside warnings that invading Iraq would be unlawful and made clear his overriding priority, even at the expense of opposition and secrecy at home, was to maintain a close relationship with the US president.

In four hours of testimony to the Chilcot inquiry, ending with expressions of regret for lives lost that provoked jeers from relatives of the dead, Blair disclosed that he privately told George Bush he could "count on us" in helping get rid of Saddam Hussein, an aim, he said, for which his government should be "gung-ho".

A move from Britain to back off after the UN refused to support military action, would have had "disastrous consequences for a tough stance on WMD and its proliferation – and for our strategic relationship with the US, our key ally", Blair said.

He acknowledged the cabinet might not have seen official papers about plans for war, but said ministers would have been aware of the plans from the media.

The former prime minister came to the Chilcot inquiry early this morning, perhaps to avoid an anticipated large number of protesters. Barely 50 were there. More arrived later but were almost outnumbered by a large police presence.

Throughout the hearings, and only occasionally subjected to sharp questioning, Blair described how he told Bush during a phone conversation in December 2001, well over a year before the invasion, that "if [regime change] became the only way of dealing with this issue, we were going to be up for that".

Inquiry documents show how government lawyers, including Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, repeatedly warned that regime change as an objective of military action would be unlawful.

Asked about letters he wrote to Bush, which the inquiry has seen but is prevented by Whitehall from disclosing, Blair said: "What I was saying to President Bush was very clear and simple: 'You can count on us. We are going to be with you in tackling this but here are the difficulties.' As you see, the rest of the note is actually about all the issues and difficulties."

The difficulties were spelt out in a memo, declassified today, sent by Blair to Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, shortly before he met George Bush at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002. "I do not have a proper worked-out strategy on how we would do it," Blair told Powell. After referring to the need for a "game plan", he added: "I will need a meeting on this with military folk."

Blair added: "The persuasion job on this seems very tough. My own side are worried. Public opinion is fragile ... Yet from a centre-left perspective, the case should be obvious. Saddam's regime is a brutal, oppressive military dictatorship."

He went on: "A political philosophy that does care about other nations – eg Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and is proud to change regimes on the merits, should be gung-ho on Saddam. So why isn't it? Because people believe we are only doing it to support the US, and they are only doing it to settle an old score. And the immediate WMD problems don't seem obviously worse than three years ago. So we have to reorder our story and message".

In a memo sent to Blair two months later and also released today, Powell wrote: "We need to establish a legal base ... We need to make the case ... We need to have the sort of Rolls-Royce information campaign we had at the end of Afghanistan before we start in Iraq." Blair wrote in the margin: "I agree with this entirely."

Blair, summoned back to the inquiry after apparent discrepancies in his evidence came to light, was questioned by Sir Roderic Lyne, a former ambassador and the most persistent member of Chilcot's five-member panel, about claims he made to the Commons about the legality of an invasion, and what he was told privately.

Goldsmith has told the inquiry that by telling MPs in January 2003 that a fresh UN resolution was not necessary before an invasion, the former prime minister was ignoring legal advice he had given. In exchanges yesterday, Blair told Lyne: "I was making basically a political point."

He continued: "I accept entirely that there was an inconsistency, but I was saying [that] not in a sense as a lawyer but politically." If he had revealed publicly that the government had doubts about whether fresh UN authority was needed before an invasion went ahead it would, he added, have been a "political catastrophe for us".

Blair made plain that in his view it was essential that no cracks should be seen in his alliance with Bush. He said that would have been the case had Goldsmith persisted in his view that an invasion without fresh UN approval would be unlawful.

However, when Goldsmith "saw the Americans it moved him over the line, to the position where he said, 'on balance it is lawful'," Blair told the inquiry, referring to the attorney general's visit a month before the invasion to see Bush's legal advisers.

Blair concluded by giving an impassioned warning about the threat from Iran: a threat, he said, that would have been compounded had Saddam survived.

Hostile murmurs in the hearing room met his warning that the west should end its "wretched posture of apology" towards Iran and, if necessary, use force to deal with the Tehran regime.

He called on western countries to deal with the "negative, destabilising" influence of Iranwith its support for terrorism and its nuclear programme. "This is a looming and coming challenge," he said.

"This is not because we have done something. At some point – and I say this to you with all the passion I possibly can – the west has got to get out of this wretched posture of apology for believing that we are responsible for what the Iranians are doing, or what these extremists are doing.

"We are not ... they are doing it because they disagree fundamentally with our way of life and they will carry on doing it unless they are met by the requisite determination and, if necessary, force."

Karzai looks to rebuild Soviet-era trade ties

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (right) has secured a Russian pledge to revive Soviet-era infrastructure projects in Afghanistan and invited his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev (left), to visit the country.

By News Wires (text)

REUTERS - Afghan President Hamid Karzai invited Russia on Friday to rebuild Soviet-era facilities in Afghanistan, courting a nation eager to expand its influence decades after the Soviet Union's costly war there.

"We want to give a new start to vital projects that were begun very long ago," Karzai, on his second visit to Moscow in six months, said at a news conference with President Dmitry Medvedev after their talks in the Kremlin.

The leaders issued a joint declaration in which Russia expressed its readiness to participate in "priority economic projects" in Afghanistan, some dating back to the Soviet era.

The projects included the Salang Tunnel in the Hindu Kush mountains, hydroelectric power facilities in Kabul and Baglan provinces, a customs terminal and a university in Kabul.

Neither the declaration nor the leaders mentioned the cost or potential terms. Russia has said it would rebuild Soviet-era infrastructure in Afghanistan provided the international community underwrote the cost.

The declaration expressed support for Russian involvement in a proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan, subject to other countries' approval.

Ex-Soviet Turkmenistan, eager to lessen reliance on long-dominant gas buyer Russia, has been cool toward Russian participation.

Russia is seeking to increase its influence in Afghanistan, where Soviet forces fought a nearly decade-long war in the 1980s.

Karzai, whose country is eyeing the eventual withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces after their own decade-long war against the Taliban, said he wants to step up ties with Moscow.

"Russia is a great power," Karzai said in a speech at Russia's Academy of Sciences. "For us, Russia is ... a teacher."

Moscow has ruled out sending troops to Afghanistan, where some 15,000 Soviet soldiers died fighting mujahideen insurgents before pulling out in 1989.

With the Afghan government expected to take the lead in security nationwide by the end of 2014, Medvedev said Moscow would continue to help train and equip Afghan forces and provide transit routes for NATO.

Russia will hold talks with the United States next month on plans for the sale of 21 Mi-17 helicopters for use in Afghanistan, Russian foreign ministry official Zamir Kabulov said on the sidelines of the Kremlin meetings.

In a separate meeting, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said his country would invest $500 million in the Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) 1000 electricity project if Russian utility Inter RAO is selected as its operator.

"If our company Inter RAO is granted the right to be the operator, we can join in the construction of the high-voltage CASA 1000 transmission line," Putin said.

The project is designed to transmit electricty from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to South Asia.