Tit-for-Tat With China

U.S. negotiators are working to convince China to bring down the barriers to American direct investment into industries such as telecommunications and financial services... We know that cross-border free-market capitalism can be huge for both countries...

Now if we could only get Chinese companies to make a few U.S. acquisitions, like Japan (who currently employs 700,000 Americans with an annual $50 billion payroll) has over the years... Seriously, wouldn't it be great if they would do something other than lend all those U.S. dollars to the U.S. government?

I have great news! According to this excerpt from yesterday's Wall Street Journal article America Gains From Chinese Investment, that's precisely what they intend to do:

"In 2010 alone, Chinese firms spent more than $5 billion in America on a combination of 25 "greenfield" projects built from scratch and 34 acquisitions of existing companies. While China still accounts for only a tiny share of total foreign direct investment in the U.S., Chinese firms are today invested in at least 35 of 50 states and an upward trend is clearly underway."

And of course China growing businesses and creating American jobs, as opposed to American government debt, is music to the ears of all the pundits and politicians who worry over our foreign obligations, right?

Well it ought to be, but of course it isn't. According to WSJ there's a political firestorm a brewing:

"Recent controversies have flared around various investments by telecommunications equipment supplier Huawei, as well as steelmaker Anshan in a Mississippi rebar plant, and the acquisition of small aircraft maker Cirrus by a Chinese state-owned company."

I'm telling you folks, tit-for-tat when it comes to foreign direct investment would be a very destructive game to play... Chinese companies need to set up shop abroad, and they will. If not here, trust me, Canada, Mexico, etc. will welcome all that job creation with open arms...