Irony Overload: Is the US is about to be Neocolonialised by China?

[Junkdrawer]

If you’re fuzzy about how the World Bank and US construction firms have used IMF loans and infrastructure projects to gain control of resources around the world, I’d recommend “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins. (I believe our own The Magistrate would be happy to recommend more advanced treatments if you care to pursue the subject).

Well, due to a death in the family, I’ve been in touch with some of my more conservative relatives in North Carolina including my step mom’s husband who owns a civil engineering firm. His knickers were in a twist because it seems that China has bought a large bridge near Salisbury NC and is in the middle of major repairs – using only Chinese engineering firms.

Intrigued, I started Googling and came across this:

China May Invest in U.S. Infrastructure

China says the U.S. government should make its policies on foreign investment more transparent

BEIJING, Dec 2 (Reuters) — China may channel part of its huge pool of foreign exchange reserves into investment in U.S. infrastructure, including rail and transportation networks, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Friday.

"China is unwilling to take on too much U.S. government debt. We are willing to turn that money into investment," he told U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke and U.S. businessmen.

Chen did not elaborate on how China might channel some of the country's war chest of $3.2 trillion foreign currency reserves to invest in U.S. infrastructure, such as rail and transportation systems.

"U.S. infrastructure in some areas needs rebuilding, for example its electricity grid, railways and transportation networks," he said.
…

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/12/02/china-may-invest-in-us-infrastructure

I guess it could be more ironic, but I just don't see how.

[snagglepuss]

1. “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins. I'm putting that on my must read list

thanks for posting

[geardaddy]

2. I for one welcome our new Chinese overlords.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Duzy...

[Zalatix]

4. Tell your stepmom's husband that it was Republican policies on free trade

that got us in this mess. With plenty of cooperation from Democrats, mind you, but it started with the Republicans.

[Junkdrawer]

7. Funny, because those were my exact words....

I said "H_____, we made a huge mistake giving up our industrial base with Free Trade policies. Every other nation protects its vital industries."

He agreed, although I haven't known him long enough to know if this is, as it were, a death-bed change of heart.

[Zalatix]

8. And I must add, my condolances for your loss!

[dmallind]

5. Would be a long run

If they invested every dime of that $3.2T in the US they would still be several hundred billion behind the US in direct foreign investment abroad.

Incidentally for all the bemoaning of US companies offshoring, we are also by far the world leader already in foreign companies investing here with $2.9T worth of direct foreign investment at home. Yep - many times more than China's 700-odd billion, which doesn't even rank in the top 5.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2198rank.html?countryName=China&countryCode=ch®ionCode=eas&rank=7#ch

And no that doesn't include foreign ownership of US debt - it's real investment in output. Foreign direct investment, in its classic definition, is defined as a company from one country making a physical investment into building a factory in another country. The direct investment in buildings, machinery and equipment is in contrast with making a portfolio investment, which is considered an indirect investment. In recent years, given rapid growth and change in global investment patterns, the definition has been broadened to include the acquisition of a lasting management interest in a company or enterprise outside the investing firm’s home country. As such, it may take many forms, such as a direct acquisition of a foreign firm, construction of a facility, or investment in a joint venture or strategic alliance with a local firm with attendant input of technology.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The point of no return probably was

One of the major bridges in the San Fran bay, it's going to be fixed using Chinese Steele. Guess what we don't produce in enough quantity apparently.

Oh and I forgot, we must all thank St. Reagan for starting the ball rolling.

And my condolensces on your loss.

[hunter]

9. Chinese steel? The bridge is Chinese.

Made in China and assembled in the U.S.A..

The U.S.A. no longer has the capacity to fabricate such a thing.

Even though controversial, authorities decided to allow bids to include major components and materials not made in the United States. This was partially due to the cost of materials, but more substantially, required by the lack of suitable fabrication facilities within this country, or even within the western hemisphere. Since such facilities would have to be built anew and the prospects of additional work would be uncertain, the cost of fabrication would be much higher. As acceptance of Federal Highway funds generally come with "Made in America" restrictions, the bridge is being built without such funds, for which it would otherwise qualify owing to its carriage of Interstate 80.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_span_replacement_of_the_San_Francisco_–_Oakland_Bay_Bridge
(I wish DU wouldn't mangle these links, and I wish Wikipedia editors weren't so anal about em dashes vs. ascii hyphens.)

[Zalatix]

11. The U.S.A. no longer has the capacity? That's a lie propagated by

free trade propagandists.

Ever seen our Navy? We've got plenty of materials to upkeep that. We can build bridges and cities. The Plutocrats just want to do it with cheap labor.

[hunter]

12. If the boss says we can't do it, we can't do it.

Until We the People throw the plutocrats out, the only capacity we have is to do what they tell us.

We're pretty docile as a nation. We don't say "no" when the plutocrats screw us.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Actually our industrial capacity is bellow per wwII

It's been creative destruction of our industrial capacity. I remember Paul Kennedy warning in editorials when it started in the 1980s...

We can still turn it around, but it needs to have some serious changes that our leaders really do not want to enact, partly, they will partially do when labor rights are back to about 1850, as well as environmental protections. I suspect tere will be an uprising well before that point, or occupy will start to force peaceful changes.

But the chinese have taken steel furnaces in crates...on the bright side, there is one. We will have to rebuild, that means newer cleaner tech.

[Zalatix]

16. Then how is the military keeping itself maintained?

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Where do you think the chips for our smart weapons come from?

Which poses a huge national security risk. Yup, they come from the far east, not Texas... Think about that one for a second and how easy will be for oh China...to stop us on tracks if we go to war with one of their allies, let alone a worst case scenario, and it is them.

We still produce steel, why we can still lay the keel for a carrier, but if we needed to build the equivalent of a liberty ship a day all of a sudden ( cheap, easy I bet plans exist in DOD) we could not. It took three years between after Sept 1st, 1939 for us to do. A lot of the arsenal for democracy to support the Brits before we officially entered the war was the building of that capacity. FDR got it, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor the US became a command economy a la USSR with war time production target points. These ranged from planes and cheap carriers, to butter, grains and meat, most of which went to feed an armed force. This force went from in the tens of thousands to eleven million by 1945.

At one time, oh before 1980, US Presidents got it. There are some industries you coddle and protect, not just for the sake of American Jobs, but strategic reasons.

As to the US Military maintaining itself, we have not built a main battle tank in a while. It's cheaper to fix them. But if we get into a war where the other side has oh T-90s and capable crews, we will not be able to fix them fast enough at a single facility in the Midwest.

This is but one example on how the military has been transformed into a light mobile, overextended force.

On the bright side, if we had to grow a navy fast, if we have six months, the moth fleets will be busy, and if I know this, so do our enemies, I call those ports strategic targets.

Why when Republicans crow over how strong we are on defense, aka the daddy party, I laugh in their faces.

Oh we have plenty of fancy, very expensive, slow to produce toys...F-35 comes to mind... I am reminded of another army that fielded very technologically advanced, slow to produce gear...we changed our doctrine, the Russians didn't.

If we are ever in a high intensity conflict, IMO because of these reasons, we will be in trouble. Especially since the tempo these days is that much faster. Iraq and Afghanistan were not high intensity conflicts. In some ways the last one to sort of qualify was Korea. And yes Nam has a lot in common with the pace with Afghanistan.

[Zalatix]

19. Chips, from China? I never knew any country could be that stupid.

I wish I hadn't asked.....

Edited to add: well wait, if China was able to ramp up, we should be able to ramp back up. What you said shows that we need a swift kick in the ass to rebuild our heavy industries.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. The question is whether we will have the time to do so

it took weeks to cross the Atlantic... ten days if you were on a fast convoy in 1942... it takes how long to fly from New York to London?

I remember Kennedy warning of this in Editorials. His book, Rise and Fall of Great Powers, is a must read.

Oh and he is not related to the Kennedy family either.

[bahrbearian]

10. That explains the increasing # of toll booths

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. A large contingent of Chinese "invetors" is coming to our little southern town ( pop. 6,000)

this week.
the Business Development Association here is a making a HUGE deal about it,
with pages of news in our weekly rag,
and guess what?
Accompanying them will be...Zbigniew Brzezinski, Nouriel Roubini lots of "other big name" people
whose names, apparently, were not big enough to print in the paper.

I posted about it here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1008144

knowing that where ever Brzezinski shows up, it is not good.

[Junkdrawer]

15. Tell them we should get at least a 50" LCD TV for everyone in exchange for Glacier National Park....

But we could settle for iPad 3s for the Everglades....

[Junkdrawer]

17. Could China's long term goal be the relocation of its more polluting industries?

Given the environmental catastrophe that is Modern China, it may not be a bad guess.

[Canuckistanian]

20. The food would be better

Other than that, I don't think there'd be much difference.