Is China developing a beachhead inside the borders of America?

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China poised to play debt card – for U.S. land
Communist nation could control American soil as 'development zones'

Published: 20 hours ago

by Jerome R. Corsi Email | Archive

Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Where's the REAL Birth Certificate?"More ↓




EDITOR’S NOTE: Barack Obama’s involvement in the DeMar Second Amendment case was previously reported in Chapter 7 of Jerome R. Corsi’s “America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty.”

NEW YORK – Could real estate on American soil owned by China be set up as “development zones” in which the communist nation could establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work?

That’s part of an evolving proposal Beijing has been developing quietly since 2009 to convert more than $1 trillion of U.S debt it owns into equity.

Under the plan, China would own U.S. businesses, U.S. infrastructure and U.S. high-value land, all with a U.S. government guarantee against loss.

Yu Qiao, a professor of economics in the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsighua University in Beijing, proposed in 2009 a plan for the U.S. government to guarantee foreign investments in the United States.

WND has reliable information that the Bank of China, China’s central bank, has continued to advance the plan to convert China’s holdings of U.S. debt into equity owned by China in the U.S.

The Obama administration, under the plan, would grant a financial guarantee as an inducement for China to convert U.S. debt into Chinese direct equity investment. China would take ownership of successful U.S. corporations, potentially profitable infrastructure projects and high-value U.S. real estate.

The plan would be designed to induce China to resume lending to the U.S. on a nearly zero-interest basis.

However, converting Chinese debt to equity investments in the United States could easily add another $1 trillion to outstanding Obama administration guarantees issued in the current economic crisis.

As of November 2012, China owned $1.17 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities, according to U.S. Department of Treasury and Federal Reserve Board calculations published Jan. 16.

Concerned about the unrestrained growth in U.S. debt under the Obama administration, China has reduced by 97 percent its holdings in short-term U.S. Treasury bills. China’s holding of $573.7 billion in August 2008, prior to the massive bank bailouts and stimulus programs triggered by the collapse in the U.S. mortgage market, dwindled to $5.96 billion by March 2011.

Treasury bills are short-term debt that matures in one year or less, sold to finance U.S. debt. Holdings of Treasury bills are included in the $1.17 trillion of total Treasury securities owned by China as of November 2012.

In addition to a national debt in excess of $16 trillion, the U.S. government in 2010 faced over $70 trillion in unfunded obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits scheduled to be paid retiring baby boomer retirees in the coming decades, with unfunded obligations showing no sign of being reduced with Congress at a deadlock over reducing federal government spending.

Yu Qiao observed that if the U.S. dollar collapsed under the weight of proposed Obama administration trillion-dollar budget deficits into the foreseeable future, holders of U.S. debt would face substantial losses that the Financial Times estimated “would devastate Asians’ hard-earned wealth and terminate economic globalization.”

“The basic idea is to turn Asian savings, China’s in particular, into real business interests rather than let them be used to support U.S. over-consumption,” Yu Qiao wrote, reflecting themes commonly suggested by Chinese government officials. “While fixed-income securities are vulnerable to any fall in the value of the dollar, equity claims on sound corporations and infrastructure projects are at less risk from a currency default,” he continued.

The problem is that, in a struggling U.S. economy, China does not want to trade its investment in U.S. Treasury debt securities, with their inherent risk of dollar devaluation, for equally risky investments in U.S. corporations and infrastructure projects.

“But Asians do not want to bear the risk of this investment because of market turbulence and a lack of knowledge of cultural, legal and regulatory issues in U.S. businesses,” he stressed. “However if a guarantee scheme were created, Asian savers could be willing to invest directly in capital-hungry U.S. industries.”

Yu Qiao’s plan included four components:

1. China would negotiate with the U.S. government to create a “crisis relief facility,” or CRF. The CRF “would be used alongside U.S. federal efforts to stabilize the banking system and to invest in capital-intensive infrastructure projects such as high-speed railroad from Boston to Washington, D.C.
2. China would pool a portion of its holdings of Treasury bonds under the CFR umbrella to convert sovereign debt into equity. Any CFR funds that were designated for investment in U.S. corporations would still be owned and managed by U.S. equity holders, with the Asians holding minority equity shares “that would, like preferred stock, be convertible.”
3. The U.S. government would act as a guarantor, “providing a sovereign guarantee scheme to assure the investment principal of the CRF against possible default of targeted companies or projects”.
4. The Federal Reserve would set up a special account to supply the liquidity the CRF would require to swap sovereign debt into industrial investment in the United States.

“The CRF would lessen Asians’ concern about implicit default of sovereign debts caused by a collapsing dollar,” Yu Qiao concluded.

“It would cost little and help the U.S. by channeling funds to business investment.”

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Companion Article and Thread:

• Obama and the Chinese infiltration
• China is Stirring: Why Now?

Obama lets Chinese own U.S. energy resources

Beijing acquiring major ownership in oil, natural gas across nation

Published: 4 days ago



by Jerome R. Corsi Email | Archive Subscribe to feed
Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Where's the REAL Birth Certificate?"More ↓




NEW YORK – The Obama administration is quietly allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the U.S.

The decision to allow China to compete for U.S. oil and natural gas resources appears to stem from a need to keep Beijing economically interested in lending to the U.S. The Obama administration has run $1-trillion-plus annual federal budget deficits since taking office that likely will continue in the second term.

Allowing China to have equity interests in U.S. energy production is a reversal of the Bush administration’s policy. In 2005, the Bush administration blocked China on grounds of national security from an $18.4 billion deal to purchase California-based Unocal Corp.
As WND reported Monday, Beijing has been developing a proposal in which real estate on American soil owned by China would be set up as “development zones” to establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work.

China leased first oil rights in Texas

China’s first major move into the U.S. oil and natural gas market can be traced to October 2009, when the state-owned Chinese energy giant CNOOC bought a multi-million dollar stake in 600,000 acres of South Texas oil and gas fields.

Jerome Corsi exposes the globalists’ plan to put America on the chopping block in “America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty,” available at WND’s Superstore.
Reporting the story, Monica Hatcher of the Houston Chronicle suggested China was “testing the political waters for further energy expansion into U.S. energy reserves.”

China’s purchase of U.S. oil and natural gas rights will strike millions of Americans as paradoxical, since the U.S. continues to be a net importer of approximately 60 percent of the oil consumed in the U.S.

The Chronicle reported China paid $2.2 billion for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy assets, with CNOCC laying a claim to a share of energy resources in South Texas that could produce up to half a million barrels of oil per day.

The Houston paper reported that as part of the deal, CNOCC agreed to pay approximately $1.1 billion for a share of Chesapeake’s assets in the Eagle Ford, a broad oil and gas formation that runs southwest of San Antonio to the Mexican border.

The Chronicle also reported that the deal with China could create as many as 20,000 jobs in the U.S. and provide the capital Chesapeake needs to increase its rig count in South Texas from 10 to 42 by the end of 2012.

China’s oil interests

Along with CNOOC, which is 100-percent owned by the communist Chinese government, Sinopec Group also is purchasing energy interests in the U.S.

Sinopec Group is the largest shareholder of Sinopac Corporation, a state-owned investment company incorporated in 1998 largely to acquire and operate oil and natural gas interests worldwide.

The Wall Street Journal recently compileda state-by-state list of the $17 billion in oil and natural gas equity interests CNOOC and Sinopec have acquired in the U.S. and Canada since 2010.

• Colorado: CNOOC gained a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southwest Wyoming in a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
• Louisiana: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 265,000 acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale after a broader $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.
• Michigan: Sinopec gained a one-third interest in 350,000 acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.
• Ohio: Sinopec acquired a one-third interest in Devon Energy’s 235,000 Utica Shale acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal.
• Oklahoma: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 215,000 acres in a broader $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.
• Texas: CNOOC acquired a one-third interest in Chesapeake Energy’s 600,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in a $2.16-billion deal.
• Wyoming: CNOOC has a one-third stake in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming after a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy. Sinopec gained a one-third interest in Devon Energy’s 320,000 acres as part of a larger $2.5 billion deal.

The Wall Street Journal reported China’s strategy – implemented since 2010 by Fu Chengyu, who has served as chairman of both CNOOC and Sniopec – is to “seek minority stakes, play a passive role, and, in a nod to U.S. regulators, keep Chinese personnel at arm’s length from advanced U.S. technology.”

China moving into Gulf of Mexico

After a difficult political struggle, China received permission last month from the Canadian government to make its largest overseas acquisition of oil and natural gas interests outside China, acquiring Canadian energy producer Nexen Inc. for $15.5 billion. In the process, China acquired Nexen oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico in U.S. waters.

Although the deal still requires approval from CIFUS, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, the acquisition of Nexen’s high-tech ultra-deepwater drilling resources in the Gulf of Mexico was a major reason China sought to acquire the company. CNOOC, a company that derives nearly all its domestic capacity from shallow waters, has announced a goal of producing 1 million barrels of oil per day from ultra-deepwater oil and natural gas facilities by 2020, more than doubling current capacity.

In 2010, China passed the U.S. to become the world’s largest energy consumer, according to the International Energy Agency. China consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2009, approximately 4 percent more than the U.S.

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Does China Plan To Establish Chinese Cities And Special Economic Zones All Over America?


January 22nd, 2013
39 26 2 3 386

By Michael



What in the world is China up to?

Over the past several years, the Chinese government and large Chinese corporations (which are often at least partially owned by the government) have been systematically buying up businesses, homes, farmland, real estate, infrastructure and natural resources all over America. In some cases, China appears to be attempting to purchase entire communities in one fell swoop. So why is this happening? Is this some form of “economic colonization” that is taking place?

Some have speculated that China may be intending to establish “special economic zones” inside the United States modeled after the very successful Chinese city of Shenzhen. Back in the 1970s, Shenzhen was just a very small fishing village, but now it is a sprawling metropolis of over 14 million people.

Initially, these “special economic zones” were only established within China, but now the Chinese government has been buying huge tracts of land in foreign countries such as Nigeria and establishing special economic zones in those nations. So could such a thing actually happen in America? Well, according to Dr. Jerome Corsi, a plan being pushed by the Chinese Central Bank would set up “development zones” in the United States that would allow China to “establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work.” Under the plan, some of the $1.17 trillion that the U.S. owes China would be converted from debt to “equity”. As a result, “China would own U.S. businesses, U.S. infrastructure and U.S. high-value land, all with a U.S. government guarantee against loss.” Does all of this sound far-fetched? Well, it isn’t. In fact, the economic colonization of America is already far more advanced than most Americans would dare to imagine.

So how in the world did we get to this point? A few decades ago, the United States was the unchallenged economic powerhouse of the world and China was essentially a third world country.

So what happened?

Well, we entered into a whole bunch of extremely unfavorable “free trade” agreements, and countries such as China began to aggressively use “free trade” as an economic weapon against us.

Over the past decade, we have lost tens of thousands of businesses and millions of jobs to China. When the final numbers for 2012 come out, our trade deficit with China for the year will be well over 300 billion dollars, and that will be the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the world.

Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with China over the past decade that comes to more than 2.3 trillion dollars. That 2.3 trillion dollars could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers, and in turn taxes would have been paid on all of that money. But instead, all of that money went to China.

Rather than just sitting on all of that money, China has been lending much of it back to us – at interest. We now owe China more than a trillion dollars, and our politicians are constantly pleading with China to lend more money to us so that we can finance our exploding debt.

Today, the U.S. government pays China approximately 100 million dollars a day in interest on the debt that we owe them. Those that say that the U.S. debt “does not matter” are being incredibly foolish.

So thanks to our massive trade deficit and our exploding national debt, China is systematically getting wealthier and the United States is systematically getting poorer.

And now China is starting to use a lot of that wealth to aggressively expand their power and influence around the globe.
But isn’t it more than a bit far-fetched to suggest that China may be planning to establish Chinese cities and special economic zones in America?
Not really.

Just look at what has already happened up in Canada. It is well-known that the Chinese population of Vancouver, Canada has absolutely exploded in recent years. In fact, the Vancouver suburb of Richmond is now approximately half Chinese. The following is an excerpt from a BBC article…

Richmond is North America’s most Asian city – 50% of residents here identify themselves as Chinese. But it’s not just here that the Chinese community in British Columbia (BC) – some 407,000 strong – has left its mark. All across Vancouver, Chinese-Canadians have helped shape the local landscape.

A similar thing is happening in many communities along the west coast of the United States. In fact, Chinese citizens purchased one out of every ten homes that were sold in the state of California in 2011.

But in other areas of the United States, the Chinese are approaching things much more systematically.

For example, as I have written about previously, a Chinese group identified as “Sino-Michigan Properties LLC” has purchased 200 acres of land near the town of Milan, Michigan. Their stated goal is to build a “China City” that has artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.

In other instances, large chunks of real estate in major U.S. cities that are down on their luck are being snapped up by Chinese investors. Just check out what a Fortune article from a while back says has been happening over in Toledo, Ohio…

In March 2011, Chinese investors paid $2.15 million cash for a restaurant complex on the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. Soon they put down another $3.8 million on 69 acres of newly decontaminated land in the city’s Marina District, promising to invest $200 million in a new residential-commercial development. That September, another Chinese firm spent $3 million for an aging hotel across a nearby bridge with a view of the minor league ballpark.

Toledo is being promoted to Chinese investors as a “5-star logistics region“. From Toledo it is very easy to get to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Indianapolis…

With a population of 287,000, Toledo is only the fourth largest city in Ohio, but it lies at the junction of two important highways — I-75 and I-80/90. “My vision is to make Toledo a true international city,” Toledo’s Mayor Mike Bell told the Toledo Blade.

But some of these deals appear to be about far more than just making “investments”. According to the Idaho Statesman, a Chinese company known as Sinomach (which is actually controlled by the Chinese government) was actually interested in developing a 50 square mile self-sustaining “technology zone” south of the Boise airport…

A Chinese national company is interested in developing a 10,000- to 30,000-acre technology zone for industry, retail centers and homes south of the Boise Airport.

Officials of the China National Machinery Industry Corp. have broached the idea — based on a concept popular in China today — to city and state leaders.

The article suggested that this “technology zone” would be modeled after similar projects that already exist in China, and that Chinese officials were conducting similar negotiations with other U.S. states as well…

Sinomach is not looking only at Idaho.

The company sent delegations to Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania this year to talk about setting up research and development bases and industrial parks. It has an interest in electric transmission projects and alternative energy as well.

The technology zone proposal follows a model of science, technology and industrial parks in China — often fully contained cities with all services included.

Thankfully the deal in Idaho appears to be stalled for now, but could we soon see China establish special economic zones in other communities all around America?

The Chinese certainly do seem to be laying the groundwork for something. They have been voraciously gobbling up important infrastructure all over the country. The following comes from a recentAmerican Free Press article…

In addition to already owning vital ports in Long Beach, Calif. and Boston, Mass., the China Ocean Shipping Company is eyeing major ports on the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. China also owns access to ports at the entry and exit points of the Panama Canal.

And due to fiscal woes plaguing many American cities and states, U.S. legislators have been actively seeking out Chinese investors. In one of the worst cases, Baton Rouge, La., Mayor Kip Holden offered the Chinese government ownership and operating rights to a new toll way system if the Chinese would provide the funding to build it.

Does it make sense for the Chinese to own some of our most important ports?

Isn’t there a national security risk?

Sadly, there isn’t much of anything that our politicians won’t sell these days as long as someone is willing to flash a lot of cash.

The Chinese have also been busy buying up important real estate on the east coast as a recent Forbes article explained….

According to a recent report in the New York Times, investors from China are “snapping up luxury apartments” and are planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial and residential projects like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. Chinese companies also have signed major leases at the Empire State Building and at 1 World Trade Center, the report said.

But it is not only just land and infrastructure that the Chinese have been buying up.

They have also been purchasing rights to vital oil and natural gas deposits all over the United States.

There have been two Chinese companies that have been primarily involved in this effort.

The first is the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). According to Wikipedia, CNOOC is 100 percent owned by the Chinese government…

CNOOC Group is a state-owned oil company, fully owned by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) performs the rights and obligations of shareholder on behalf of the government.

The second is Sinopec Corporation. Sinopec Group is the largest shareholder (approx. 75% ownership) in Sinopec Corporation. And asthe Sinopec website tells us, Sinopec Group is fully owned by the Chinese government…

Sinopec Group, the largest shareholder of Sinopec Corp., is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical group incorporated by the State in 1998 based on the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Funded by the State, it is a State authorized investment arm and State-owned controlling company.

So whenever you see CNOOC or Sinopec, you can replace those names with the Chinese government. The Chinese government essentially runs both of those companies.

And as you can see from the following list compiled by the Wall Street Journal, those two companies have been extremely aggressive in buying up rights to oil and natural gas all over the nation…

Colorado: Cnooc gained a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming in a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Louisiana: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 265,000 acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale after a broader $2.5-billion deal with Devon Energy.

Michigan: Sinopec gained a one-third interest in 350,000 acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.

Ohio: Sinopec acquired a one-third stake in Devon Energy’s 235,000 Utica Shale acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal.

Oklahoma: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 215,000 acres in a broader $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.

Texas: Cnooc acquired a one-third interest in Chesapeake Energy’s 600,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in a $2.16-billion deal.

Wyoming: Cnooc has a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming after a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy. Sinopec gained a one-third interest in Devon Energy’s 320,000 acres as part of a larger $2.5 billion deal.

Gulf of Mexico: Cnooc Ltd. separately acquired minority stakes in some of Statoil ASA’s leases as well as six of Nexen Inc.’s deep-water wells.

So why is the U.S. government allowing this?

That is a very good question.

For a nation that purports to be pursuing “energy independence”, we sure do have a funny way of going about things.

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that China is absolutely mopping the floor with the United States on the global economic stage. China is rising and America is in an advanced state of decline. Global economic power has shifted dramatically and most Americans still don’t understand what has happened.

The following are 44 more signs of how dominant the economy of China has become…

1. A Chinese firm recently made a $2.6 billion offer to buy movie theater chain AMC.

2. A different Chinese firm made a $1.8 billion offer to buy aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft.

3. In December it was announced that a Chinese group would be purchasing AIG’s plane leasing unit for $4.23 billion.

4. It was recently announced that the Federal Reserve will now allow Chinese banks to buy up American banks.

5. A $190 million bridge project up in Alaska was awarded to a Chinese firm.

6. A $400 million contract to renovate the Alexander Hamilton bridge in New York was awarded to a Chinese firm.

7. A $7.2 billion contract to construct a new bridge between San Francisco and Oakland was awarded to a Chinese firm.

8. The uniforms for the U.S. Olympic team were made in China.

9. 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

10. The new World Trade Center tower is going to include glass that has been imported from China.

11. The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall was made in China.

12. In 2001, American consumers spent 102 billion dollars on products made in China. In 2011, American consumers spent 399 billion dollarson products made in China.

13. The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

14. According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

15. The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.

16. The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

17. The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

18. Overall, the United States has lost a total of more than 56,000manufacturing facilities since 2001.

19. According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

20. Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.

21. In 2010, China produced more than twice as many automobiles as the United States did.

22. Since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles have been built outside the United States.

23. After being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, General Motors is currently involved in 11 joint ventures with companies owned by the Chinese government.

The price for entering into many of these “joint ventures” was a transfer of “state of the art technology” from General Motors to the communist Chinese.

24. Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.

25. The United States has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.

26. China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment.

27. The number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”.

28. The U.S. trade deficit with China is now more than 28 times largerthan it was back in 1990.

29. Back in 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was just 6 million dollars for the entire year. For the month of November 2012 alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 28.9 billion dollars.

30. China now consumes more energy than the United States does.

31. China is now the leading manufacturer of goods in the entire world.

32. China uses more cement than the rest of the world combined.

33. China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.

34. Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.

35. Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.

36. China now produces 11 times as much steel as the United States does.

37. China produces more than 90 percent of the global supply of rare earth elements.

38. China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.

39. A recent investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services found more than one million counterfeit Chinese parts in the Department of Defense supply chain.

40. 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles. But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.

41. China now awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.

42. According to one study, the Chinese economy already has roughly the same amount of purchasing power as the U.S. economy does.

43. According to the IMF, China will pass the United States and will become the largest economy in the world in 2016.

44. Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.

Without the “globalization” of the world economy, none of this would have ever happened. But instead of admitting our mistakes and fixing them, our politicians continue to press for even more “free trade” and even more integration with communist nations such as China.

In fact, according to Dr. Jerome Corsi, the U.S. government has already set up 257 “foreign trade zones” all over America. These “foreign trade zones” are apparently given “special U.S. customs treatment” and are used to promote “free trade”…

Corsi noted that the U.S. government has created 257 foreign trade zones, or FTZs, throughout the United States, designed to extend special U.S. customs treatment to U.S. plants engaged in international-trade-related activities.

The FTZs tend to be located near airports, with easy access into the continental NAFTA and WTO multi-modal transportation systems being created to move free-trade goods cheaply, quickly and efficiently throughout the continent of North America.

“There is nothing in the U.S. government’s description of FTZs that would prevent a foreign government, like China, from operating a shell U.S. company that is in reality owned and financed by the Chinese government and operated through a Chinese government-owned corporation,” Corsi wrote.

Sadly, we are probably going to see a whole lot more of this in the years ahead.

According to Corsi, a professor of economics at Tsighua University in Beijing named Yu Qiao has suggested the following plan as a way to transform the debt that the United States owes China into something more “tangible”…

1. China would negotiate with the U.S. government to create a “crisis relief facility,” or CRF. The CRF “would be used alongside U.S. federal efforts to stabilize the banking system and to invest in capital-intensive infrastructure projects such as high-speed railroad from Boston to Washington, D.C.
2. China would pool a portion of its holdings of Treasury bonds under the CFR umbrella to convert sovereign debt into equity. Any CFR funds that were designated for investment in U.S. corporations would still be owned and managed by U.S. equity holders, with the Asians holding minority equity shares “that would, like preferred stock, be convertible.”
3. The U.S. government would act as a guarantor, “providing a sovereign guarantee scheme to assure the investment principal of the CRF against possible default of targeted companies or projects”.
4. The Federal Reserve would set up a special account to supply the liquidity the CRF would require to swap sovereign debt into industrial investment in the United States.

Apparently the Bank of China really likes this plan and would like to see something like this implemented.

In the years ahead, perhaps many of you will end up working in a “special economic zone” for a Chinese company on a project that is being financially guaranteed by the U.S. government.

If that sounds like a form of slavery to you, the truth is that you are probably not too far off the mark.

The borrower is the servant of the lender, and we should have never allowed ourselves to get into so much debt.

Now we will pay the price.

To get an idea of how much the world has changed in recent years, just check out this incredible photo which contrasts the decline of Detroit over the years with the amazing rise of Shanghai, China.

Things did not have to turn out this way. Unfortunately, we made decades of incredibly foolish decisions and we wrecked the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen.

Now the future for America looks really bleak.

Or could it be that I am being too pessimistic? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below…

[Ryan Ruck]

Does China Plan To Establish Chinese Cities And Special Economic Zones All Over America?


January 22nd, 2013
39 26 2 3 386

By Michael

This was the Alliance flag in Firefly...

[American Patriot]

More conspiracy in the movies?

lol

[Ryan Ruck]

LOL. That picture just made me think of it.

[American Patriot]

Its pretty damned coincidental the flags are the same though hahaha

[vector7]

Companion Rumor Post: The Administration requesting help from the Russians: A Warning And The Report From Moscow

The rumor is the Administration is working with China and letting them infiltrate at some level the United States of America.

The questions at what level.

How far and deep are they working with them?

At what point does ignorance become negligence and collusion become treason?

This is shelving material to keep an eye on but would not be shouting from the house tops...yet.

I was hesitant to post this interview coming from AJ with Jerome Corsi.

The author in the above posts is discussing his article in more depth about Chinese infiltration inside America.

Some of the information presented could be alleged rumors and some facts.

This is study material on a troubling subject.

Recap:

- Obama is the perfect tool for the globalists to bring America into one-world government - a "reverse" colonization by the globalists

- Obama is a Marxist and the globalists know how to use capitalism for their benefit (Obama gets what he wants and the globalists get what they want)

- The globalists are defined as the central bankers, China and Saudi Arabia, all working together to control the world

- Obama is using a Soviet style (the Cloward Piven) method to impoverish America, aka spend us into impoverishment.

- He has no intention of paying back the debt (it can't be paid back), and China (our main debtor) knows it. So China's central bank has told Obama they want assets as repayment.

- The Obama administration is quietly allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the U.S.

- Beijing has been developing a proposal in which real estate on American soil owned by China would be set up as "development zones" to establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work

- China also wants control of our ports

- The Administration is being complicit with China's plans to colonize the U.S., China has been vocal about Obama needing to implement a "Protracted War" even at considerable political cost. They are need America disarmed in order to do so and the main reason behind Obama's gun grab.

- Corsi says NOW is the time for our Second Amendment to come into play

- it is for this time of massive tyranny that our founding fathers placed it in the Constitution

Published on Jan 25, 2013
On today's worldwide broadcast, Alex talks with author and journalist Jerome Corsi in-studio. Alex and Mr. Corsi will talk about Obama's second term agenda and Dr. Jim Garrow's claim that Obama is using a "litmus test" to determine who in the military will fire on U.S. citizens. Corsi is the author of numerous books including, America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty and Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President.

The Obama administration is quietly allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the U.S.

The decision to allow China to compete for U.S. oil and natural gas resources appears to stem from a need to keep Beijing economically interested in lending to the U.S. The Obama administration has run $1-trillion-plus annual federal budget deficits since taking office that likely will continue in the second term.

Ads by Google Oil Industry ItConquer Energy Project Management Challenges w/ EMC. Free Reports emc-poweringtransformation.com Dinar RevaluationNew World Currency Order Imminent. Three Ways To Take Advantage! WallStreetDaily.com/dinar

Allowing China to have equity interests in U.S. energy production is a reversal of the Bush administration's policy. In 2005, the Bush administration blocked China on grounds of national security from an $18.4 billion deal to purchase California-based Unocal Corp.

As WND reported Monday, Beijing has been developing a proposal in which real estate on American soil owned by China would be set up as "development zones" to establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/obama-lets-chinese-own-u-s-energy-resources/#GH38d...

Obama's Soviet Style Plan to Destroy America Revealed

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Chinese bid for Smithfield latest in line of heavily scrutinised China-US deals

Takeover will be examined by committee on foreign investments in the United States as many other deals have been

• US pork giant Smithfield sold to Chinese firm for $4.7bn
•Dominic Rushe in New York

• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 May 2013 16.09 EDT
• Jump to comments (1)

Chinese companies have spent more on US deals in the last 15 months than they have in the previous 11 years. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/ AFP/ Getty

China's bid to get its hands on the US's largest pork producer comes at an awkward moment for Sino-American business relations. President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with president Xi Jinping in California next week where he is reportedly preparing to address alleged hacking undertaken by the Chinese. The Obama administration has just been sued by a Chinese firm blocked from investing in the US.

The takeover of Smithfield Foods by Shuanghui will be scrutinized by the committee on foreign investments in the United States (CFIUS) and would not be the first big China-US deal to run into trouble with the US authorities. Several other high-profile transactions have fallen foul of US concerns.

• State-controlled Chinese oil company CNOOC scrapped an $18.5bn bid for US oil producer Unocal Corp in 2005 in the face of opposition from US politicians worried about Chinese interference in the US energy market.

• Chinese telephone-equipment maker Huawei Technologies and Bain Capital dropped a $2.2bn bid to buy computer-equipment maker 3Com in 2008. There was fierce political opposition to the transaction, prompted by concerns the Chinese would use 3Com to hack US institutions.

• Ralls, a Chinese turbine manufacturer, unsuccessfully sued the Obama administration last year after it was blocked from buying wind farms near a US navy base in Oregon. The proposed takeover was blocked after the CFIUS concluded the deal threatened national security.

While a number of big deals have been blocked, however, other less controversial takeovers – like that of AMC Theaters by Dalian Wanda – have been allowed, and China's investment in the US keeps growing at a phenomenal rate. At the end of April research group Rhodium noted that Chinese companies have spent more on US deals in the last 15 months than they have in the previous 11 years.

[American Patriot]

The Smithfield thing was making news big time yesterday. I just ignored it....

[Ryan Ruck]

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take our BACON!"

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Companion Thread:

• Be Prepared To Learn Chinese

Meet Your New Boss: Buying Large Employers Will Enable China To Dominate 1000s Of U.S. Communities

06 June 2013

By Michael, on June 6th, 2013



Are you ready for a future where China will employ millions of American workers and dominate thousands of small communities all over the United States? Such a future would be unimaginable to many Americans, but the truth is that it is already starting to happen. Chinese acquisition of U.S. businesses set a new all-time record last year, and it is on pace to absolutely shatter that record this year. Meanwhile, China is voraciously gobbling up real estate and is establishing economic beachheads all over America. If China continues to build economic power inside the United States, it will eventually become the dominant economic force in thousands of small communities all over the nation. Just think about what the Smithfield Foods acquisition alone will mean. Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor in the world. It has facilities in 26 U.S. states and it employs tens of thousands of Americans. It directly owns 460 farms and has contracts with approximately 2,100 others. But now a Chinese company has bought it for $4.7 billion, and that means that the Chinese will now be the most important employer in dozens of rural communities all over America. If you don't think that this is important, you haven't been paying much attention to what has been going on in the world. Thanks in part to our massively bloated trade deficit with China, the Chinese have trillions of dollars to spend. They are only just starting to exercise their economic muscles.

And it is important to keep in mind that there is often not much of a difference between "the Chinese government" and "Chinese corporations". In 2011, 43 percent of all profits in China were produced by companies that the Chinese government had a controlling interest in. Americans are accustomed to thinking of "government" and "business" as being separate things, but in China they are often one and the same. Even when there is a separation in ownership, the reality is that no major Chinese corporation is going to go against the authority and guidance of the Chinese government. The relationship between government and business in China is much different than it is in the United States.

Over the past several years, Chinese companies have become increasingly aggressive. Last year a Chinese company spent $2.6 billion to purchase AMC entertainment - one of the largest movie theater chains in the United States. Now that Chinese company controls more movie ticket sales than anyone else in the world. At the time, that was the largest acquisition of a U.S. firm by a Chinese company, but now the Smithfield Foods deal has greatly surpassed that.
But China is not just relying on acquisitions to expand its economic power. The truth is that "economic beachheads" are being established all over America. For example, Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, Inc. recently broke ground on a $100 million plant in Thomasville, Alabama. I am sure that many of the residents of Thomasville, Alabama will be glad to have jobs, but it will also become yet another community that will now be heavily dependent on communist China.

And guess where else Chinese companies are putting down roots?

Detroit.

Yes, the poster child for the deindustrialization of America is being invaded by the Chinese. The following comes from a recent CNBC article...

Dozens of companies from China are putting down roots in Detroit, part of the country's steady push into the American auto industry.

Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology, selling everything from seat belts to shock absorbers in retail stores, and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.

If you recently purchased an "American-made vehicle", there is a really good chance that it has Chinese parts in it.

In fact, it is becoming harder and harder to get auto parts that are actually made in America by American companies. A lot of those companies are dying off. One example of this is a battery maker that had received $132 million from the federal government that was recently gobbled up by a huge Chinese corporation...

Industry analysts are hard-pressed to put a number on the Chinese suppliers operating in the United States. "We simply don't know how many there are," said David Andrea, an official with the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, a trade organization for auto parts makers.

In one of the more prominent deals, the Wanxiang Group bought most of the assetsof the battery maker A123 Systems, which filed for bankruptcy last year despite receiving $132 million of $249 million in federal grants to build two factories in Michigan.

Congressional Republicans criticized the deal, saying A123's technology could support military applications in China. Still, the buyout was approved this year by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal government panel.

China seems particularly interested in acquiring energy resources in the United States. For example, did you know that China is actually mining for coal in the mountains of Tennessee?

Guizhou Gouchuang Energy Holdings Group spent 616 million dollars to acquire Triple H Coal Co. in Jacksboro, Tennessee. At the time, that acquisition really didn't make much news, but now a group of conservatives in Tennessee is trying to stop the Chinese from blowing up their mountains and taking their coal. The following is from a Wall Street Journal article back in March...

The Tennessee Conservative Union began airing an ad Tuesday that says lawmakers have failed to protect the state's scenic mountains and are allowing the "Chinese to destroy our mountains and take our coal…the same folks who hold our debt."

But when it comes to our energy resources, China has been most interested in our oil and natural gas. It is a complete and total mystery why the federal government would allow China to buy up our precious domestic sources of energy, but it is happening. The following is a list of some of the oil and natural gas deals that China has been involved in during the last few years that was compiled by the Wall Street Journal...

Colorado: Cnooc gained a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming in a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Louisiana: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 265,000 acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale after a broader $2.5-billion deal with Devon Energy.

Michigan: Sinopec gained a one-third interest in 350,000 acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.

Ohio: Sinopec acquired a one-third stake in Devon Energy’s 235,000 Utica Shale acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal.

Oklahoma: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 215,000 acres in a broader $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.

Texas: Cnooc acquired a one-third interest in Chesapeake Energy’s 600,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in a $2.16-billion deal.

Wyoming: Cnooc has a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming after a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy. Sinopec gained a one-third interest in Devon Energy’s 320,000 acres as part of a larger $2.5 billion deal.

Gulf of Mexico: Cnooc Ltd. separately acquired minority stakes in some of Statoil ASA’s leases as well as six of Nexen Inc.’s deep-water wells.

How could we be so stupid?

Sadly, as our politicians endlessly bicker China just continues to aggressively push ahead.

And pretty soon China may want to build entire cities in the United States just like they have been doing in other countries. According to Bloomberg, right now China is actually building a city larger than Manhattan just outside of the capital of Belarus...

China is building an entire city in the forests near the Belarusian capital Minsk to create a manufacturing springboard between the European Union and Russia.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko allotted an area 40 percent larger than Manhattan around Minsk’s international airport for the $5 billion development, which will include enough housing to accommodate 155,000 people, according to Chinese and Belarusian officials.

And this is actually already happening on a much smaller scale in this country. For example, as I have written about previously, a Chinese company known as "Sino-Michigan Properties LLC" has purchased 200 acres of land near the little town of Milan, Michigan. Their stated goal is to construct a "China City" that has artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.

In other cases, large chunks of real estate in the middle of major U.S. cities are being gobbled up by Chinese "investors". Just check out what a Fortune article from a while back says has been happening in Toledo, Ohio...

In March 2011, Chinese investors paid $2.15 million cash for a restaurant complex on the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. Soon they put down another $3.8 million on 69 acres of newly decontaminated land in the city's Marina District, promising to invest $200 million in a new residential-commercial development. That September, another Chinese firm spent $3 million for an aging hotel across a nearby bridge with a view of the minor league ballpark.

Are you starting to get the picture?

China is on the rise and America is in decline. If you doubt this, just read the following list of facts which comes from one of my previous articles entitled "40 Ways That China Is Beating America"...

#1 As I mentioned above, when you total up all imports and exports of goods, China is now the number one trading nation on the entire planet.

#2 During 2012, we sold about 110 billion dollars worth of stuff to the Chinese, but they sold about 425 billion dollars worth of stuff to us. That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.

#3 Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with China over the past decade that comes to more than 2.3 trillion dollars.

#4 China now has the largest new car market in the entire world.

#5 China has more foreign currency reserves than anyone else on the planet.

#6 China is the number one gold producer in the world.

#7 China is also the number one gold importer in the world.

#8 The uniforms for the U.S. Olympic team were made in China.

#9 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

#10 The new World Trade Center tower is going to include glass that has been imported from China.

#11 The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall was made in China.

#12 One of the reasons it is so hard to export stuff to China is because of their tariffs. According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

#13 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.

#14 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#15 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#16 Overall, the United States has lost a total of more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

#17 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

#18 China now produces more than twice as many automobiles as the United States does.

#19 Since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles have been built outside the United States.

#20 After being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, General Motors is currently involved in 11 joint ventures with companies owned by the Chinese government. The price for entering into many of these “joint ventures” was a transfer of “state of the art technology” from General Motors to the communist Chinese.

#21 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.
#22 The United States has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.

#23 China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment, but the number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”.

#24 The U.S. trade deficit with China is now more than 30 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#25 China now consumes more energy than the United States does.

#26 China is now the leading manufacturer of goods in the entire world.

#27 China uses more cement than the rest of the world combined.

#28 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.

#29 There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.

#30 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.

#31 Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.

#33 China now produces 11 times as much steel as the United States does.

#34 China produces more than 90 percent of the global supply of rare earth elements.

#35 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.

#36 A recent investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services found more than one million counterfeit Chinese parts in the Department of Defense supply chain.

#37 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles. But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.

#38 China now awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.

#39 The average household debt load in the United States is 136% of average household income. In China, the average household debt load is 17% of average household income.

#40 The Chinese have begun to buy up huge amounts of U.S. real estate. In fact, Chinese citizens purchased one out of every ten homes that were sold in the state of California in 2011.

And what we have seen so far may just be the tip of the iceberg as far as Chinese "investment" in U.S. real estate is concerned. The following is a brief excerpt from a Bloomberg article that was posted just last week...

China is studying the possibility of investing a portion of its $3.4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves in U.S. real estate, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange began the study after seeing signs of a recovery in the U.S. property market, said the people, who asked not to be identified as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. China may acquire properties, invest in real estate funds or buy stakes in property companies, they said. The safety of the investments will be the top priority, said the people, who didn’t elaborate on a timetable or other details.

So what can we do about all of this?

Unfortunately, not a whole lot. Both major political parties seem to be fully convinced that merging our economy with the economy of communist China is a great idea. I would not expect major changes in our policies regarding China any time soon.

For now, I will just leave you with one piece of advice...

Learn to speak Chinese. You might need it someday.

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USDA trip moves U.S. closer to accepting Chinese chicken


USDA officials inspected poultry plants and prepared a report, expected to be favorable. | AP Photo

By BILL TOMSON and TARINI PARTI | 8/15/13 4:06 PM EDT

A chicken that was processed in China might soon be on your dinner plate.

Despite years of food safety scandals surrounding China and another recent bird flu outbreak there, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving closer to opening the U.S. market to Chinese-processed chicken by sending two of its senior food safety officials to Beijing next week for a bilateral meeting on the subject.

The meeting is a culmination of seven years of negotiations and could have an impact on the agriculture industry more broadly. U.S. industry officials hope a deal will soften tensions between the trading partners and convince China to lift restrictions on U.S. chicken, beef and other commodities. Representing the USDA, in Beijing, will be Al Almanza, administrator of USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, and Dan Englejohn, FSIS’ deputy assistant administrator.

“The relationship, if it is mutual, could allow the Chinese to look at our exports more favorably instead of stymieing them,” said National Chicken Council Senior Vice President Bill Roenigk. “It would be a breakthrough for other U.S. agriculture products that would like to come to China as well. It’s not that we look forward to more imports because that means more competition for us, but we understand that trade is a two-way street.”

USDA officials inspected some Chinese poultry plants in March, and prepared a report, which officials say has been sent to China for review.

The report — expected to be favorable — could pave the way for a handful of Chinese plants to be certified to process U.S. chicken.

Though the initial subject of conversation for the USDA officials, in Beijing, is to be the import of chickens that were grown in the U.S. and processed in China, the talks also are expected to cover the eventual U.S. import of poultry raised in China.

The U.S. and China have been locking horns for years over chicken trade.

China first began demanding in 2006 that the U.S. allow in Chinese chicken. In 2010, China claimed that the U.S. was unfairly selling its chicken in China at prices below market value before slapping steep tariffs on shipments. The tariffs – as high as 105.4 percent - cut off 80 percent of U.S. chicken exports to China and, in July, the World Trade Organization ruled the tariffs were unjustified. It remains unclear if China will abide by the ruling or appeal.

U.S. government and industry officials have long hoped if restrictions were lifted on chicken from China, the country would be more willing to buy U.S. beef.

“Progress on any front will hopefully spill over and provide some momentum toward resolving other issues. Clearly, our intent is restoring beef access to China, so our hope is China will look at that issue,” said Thad Lively, a vice president for the U.S. Meat Export Federation. “I do feel that any progress, removing any of these issues from the ledger – whether it’s a U.S. issue or Chinese issue – should contribute to an improved environment for trade relations.”

The U.S. hasn’t been able to sell beef to China since 2003 when the country erected a response to the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the U.S. Most other beef-importing countries have lifted restrictions on U.S. beef, but the Chinese market remains closed as the country’s demand for imports has risen.

“We have been dying to get into that market,” said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation said. China’s beef imports have skyrocketed recently, he said, and the country is buying from Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

Recent bird flu outbreak raises fears

But those who oppose processing chicken in China argue that the dangers of certifying Chinese plants outweigh the benefits of China possibly loosening restrictions on beef.

“The stories coming out of China we’re seeing say poultry employees have this flu that is more easily being transmitted,” said Tony Corbo, senior lobbyist for the food campaign at Food & Water Watch. “There’s been pressure on the USDA on making this happen. The big prize in their view has been for China to accept our beef.”

As of Aug. 11, 135 people in China have contracted bird flu this year and 44 of them have died, according to the World Health Organization. The disease can circulate in poultry and is transmissible to humans, but USDA officials have said the agency is only considering allowing imports of chicken that has been thoroughly cooked, which would kill any bird flu virus.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), one of the most vocal critics of allowing Chinese chicken in the U.S., said she remains skeptical even if the latest reports are positive.

“Previous USDA poultry inspections revealed conditions in China that could put American consumers at risk,” DeLauro said in a statement. “Even if a one-off visit shows an improved environment, there will be no U.S. inspector continually present when chicken is being processed for export to the U.S. I continue to remain deeply concerned that trade interests will trump public health at the end of this process.”



China to begin processing chicken for U.S. market



China will only be able to process chicken that's been slaughtered in certified countries. | Reuters

By BILL TOMSON and TARINI PARTI | 8/30/13 1:40 PM EDT

U.S. officials have given the thumbs-up to four Chinese poultry plants, paving the way for the country to send processed chicken to American markets, according to audit reports obtained by POLITICO.

The audit reports expected to be made public Friday show that the Chinese processing plants passed U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections performed in March and the positive results make it likely the foreign producers soon will become eligible to export to the U.S.

According to the audit, at first, China will only be able to process chicken that has been slaughtered in the U.S. or other certified countries.

“As all outstanding issues have been resolved, [China] may proceed with certifying a list of poultry processing establishments as meeting [Food Safety and Inspection Service] requirements,” says a letter signed by Andreas Keller, director of international equivalence staff.

The USDA’s efforts to clear China to ship chicken to the U.S. were put on hold for years by lawmakers worried about deadly bird flu outbreaks and other Chinese food safety issues. New outbreaks of bird flu have erupted this year in China, causing human illness and death.

(Also on POLITICO: USDA trip moves U.S. closer to accepting Chinese chicken)

The department also has rejected a food safety advocacy group’s petition to ban China from shipping any chicken to the U.S.
Food and Water Watch argued in the petition that Chinese food safety measures are not up to U.S. standards and that U.S. officials are influenced by desires to prod China into lifting restrictions on U.S. beef shipments, but the USDA rejected those charges in a letter dated Aug. 30.

Food and Water Watch’s petition, USDA said, “does not contain evidence to demonstrate that [China] should be removed from the list of countries eligible to export processed poultry products to the United States.”

(Also on POLITICO: Commerce slaps foreign shrimpers with taxes)

In a statement issued Friday, the group’s executive director Wenonah Hauter took a shot at USDA for posting the audit just before a holiday weekend and maintained that the audit was driven by opening up Chinese markets to U.S. beef.

“It’s common practice for government agencies to release information they hope to sneak past consumers on Friday afternoons before a holiday weekend,” she said.

“It has been no secret that China has wanted to export chicken to the U.S. in exchange for reopening its market for beef from the U.S. that has been closed since 2003 due to the diagnosis of a cow in Washington State with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease. Today’s audit report reveals yet again that USDA is willing to allow trade to trump food safety.”

China’s beef imports have skyrocketed in recent months, but the U.S. continues to be shut out of the market.

(Also on POLITICO: Anti-trade-pact ammunition: Vietnamese child labor)

China imported 134,901 metric tons of beef in the first half of this year, up 931 percent from the first half of last year, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. China is getting most of its beef imports from Australia and Uruguay, but New Zealand and Canada are also exporting to China.

“Beef prices in China are about 30 percent higher than a year ago and have increased 60 percent since July, 2011, indicating tight domestic supplies and a growing need for imported product,” according to a report compiled by the trade group.

The U.S. has been excluded from the Chinese beef market since 2003 when mad cow disease was first found in a cow in the U.S.
China also slapped steep tariffs on U.S. chicken shipments in 2010 after the country claimed that the U.S. was unfairly selling its chicken in China at prices below market value.

The tariffs cut off 80 percent of U.S. chicken exports to China. The World Trade Organization ruled in July that the tariffs were unjustified. It remains unclear if China will abide by the ruling or appeal.

(Also on POLITICO: Meat packers: Labels throw industry down ‘rabbit hole’)

The poultry industry was careful to not express a great deal of enthusiasm in response to Friday’s news.

“I’m cautiously optimistic this is good news for our industry,” said Toby Moore, a spokesman for the U.S.A. Poultry and Egg Export Council.

National Chicken Council Senior Vice President Bill Roenigk previously told POLITICO that USDA has repeatedly told the group it will ensure the Chinese-processed chicken will be safe.

“We have a concern about safety. But we’ve been assured and reassured by USDA that they will do 100 percent testing on poultry products from China,” he said.

“We have confidence that USDA will do that testing and do it in a good and adequate manner. Also, at least initially, the chicken that comes from China will actually be U.S. chicken. That’s the first stage in the approval process. Now whether the economics of that works or not that remains to be seen.”

But food-safety advocates aren’t comforted by USDA’s assurances. Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) called USDA’s decision to green light four plants “deeply worrisome to American consumers.”

“The audit released today erases neither the fact that past inspections revealed unsanitary conditions at China’s poultry processing plants nor the fact that U.S. inspectors will not be onsite at these plants going forward to ensure the exported products are safe…. Sadly, business interests, which are currently also attacking country-of-origin labeling so consumers do not even know where the meat they are consuming is coming from, are trumping the public interest,” De Lauro said in a statement.

[Ryan Ruck]

Awesome! Now we can import bird flu directly!

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China's Flag to Fly Over California



A California city has decided that for at least one day, the flag of communist China will get equal time with the “Star-Spangled Banner” flying “o’er the land of the free.”

Despite the objections of residents and human rights groups, the city council of San Leandro, Calif., decided in a 4-3 vote to fly the flag over its city hall Oct. 1 to honor “the formation of the sovereign state in 1949 by communist leader Mao Zedong,” the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Councilman Benny Lee explained he wanted to provide a sign of support for the city’s Chinese residents and signal that the city is open for Chinese business and investments.

Lee was joined in the vote by council members Ursula Reed, Diana Souza and Jim Prola.

“Raising the flag gives us the opportunity to show the openness to the people of China, the business people of China, to show that we welcome that investment and we welcome the prosperity,” Lee said, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

A number of Tibetan organizations opposed the vote, according to the San Jose paper, including Tashi Kungo of the Tibetan Association of Northern California, who charged the flag is “stained with the blood of Tibetans, Uyghurs and Chinese.”

Arlene Lum of the Asian Community Cultural Association, however, supported the council’s decision. She insisted it reflects a welcome to the Chinese population in San Leandro and an open door to Chinese money.

The San Leandro Patch reported that a petition is being promoted that condemns the plan.

The San Leandro school board showed its opposition to the council’s decision by voting to move its meeting away from city hall on the day the Chinese flag will fly there, according to KGO-TV in San Francisco.

The station reported flags from China already fly in San Francisco but said the decision to raise it over city hall in San Leandro for one day has riled human rights activists.

Blogger Greg Autry – a senior economist with the American Jobs Alliance and co-author of “Death by China?” – charged the city council has been “corrupted by the lure of Chinese money.”

He noted Oct. 1 “celebrates the conquest of China by Mao’s brutal communist forces in 1949 and the establishment of a regime that has killed more people than any other on Earth.”

“Apparently ‘partnering’ with these sort of criminals is what San Leandro wants to be known for,” Autry said.
He called for boycott of San Leandro and a demonstration there Oct. 1.

“Bring your own food and fill up your gas tank before you enter town. Never do any business in or with a San Leandro firm,” he said.

The Chinese flag, Autry argued, symbolizes the “inferior position” of the Chinese people, represented by the small stars, to the Communist Party and the “overall dominance of communism,” symbolized by the red background.

He said the decision insults Korean veterans who fought Chinese forces and Tibetans “who are watching their country be systematically dismantled and their people abused under Beijing’s colonial ambitions.”

Vietnamese Americans, he added, “had their country overrun and stolen by communist forces.

He also called it an insult to the members of the Falun Gong sect have been “executed so their organs and bodies could be sold for profit,” Christians “whose churches have been demolished and the millions of unemployed Americans whose jobs have been sucked up by the Chinese behemoth.”115

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Mysterious China-themed 'city' proposed in New York’s Catskills

By Cristina Corbin
Published December 04, 2013FoxNews.com

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U.S. immigration officials are considering a proposal from Chinese investors to create a multibillion-dollar development in New York’s Catskills called "China City" -- raising concerns among critics about the potential cost to U.S. taxpayers and, according to one analyst, the possibility it could be a "stalking horse" for the Beijing government.

A spokesman from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told FoxNews.com that the proposal for Thompson, N.Y., has not been approved but is under consideration.

The mysterious proposed development appears to be a step beyond the types of ethnic enclaves scattered throughout U.S. cities, like the Chinatown sections of New York City or San Francisco. The 600-acre "China City of America" is located far outside New York City in upstate New York's wetlands and is a meticulously planned project, calling for family housing, a college and student residences, among other structures. In addition to needing federal approval, it would likely need a host of state and local permits before ground could be broken.

"It's a perfect storm of problems."

- David North, Center for Immigration Studies

If approved, every province in China would have an office there and foreign investors funding the development would receive green cards for their $500,000 checks under the EB-5 program designed to lure foreign investment, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative organization staunchly opposed to the project.

A detailed report authored by David North, a fellow with the Washington-based group, claimed there is "a charge from within the Chinese community that China City is a stalking horse for the Chinese communist government in Beijing." He claimed he was told one group raised objections with the USCIS.

"It's a perfect storm of problems," North told FoxNews.com, citing what he called dubious job creation claims by the promoters as well as national security concerns. North noted that the developers claim 20 percent of the funding would come from U.S. taxpayers, which he said was a "pipe dream."

A review by FoxNews.com of the the China City Regional Center's website could not confirm such a claim involving U.S. taxpayer money, though there is little English on the site, which is affiliated with a Florida law firm. No one at the law firm could be reached for comment.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Wednesday it does not disclose details of pending applications.

"The [China City] Regional Center is not approved. An application has been filed and it's still pending. A decision has not been made on it yet," Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for USCIS, told FoxNews.com.

"With all cases of a request for an immigrations service or benefit, we rely on the information provided and the law to reach a decision on whether it can or cannot be approved," Bentley said.

Local officials did not respond to requests for comment. But a videotape of a public meeting held in Thompson in May, available on YouTube, addressed the proposal and underscored the controversy surrounding the development. Supporters of the project, in an economically depressed area of Sullivan County, say they believe it would offer both a financial and cultural boon to the region.

"Families who invest in EB-5 program are normally influential and wealthy families from China. A lot of them are successful business owners or enterprisers. Most of those investors are highly educated and skilled in different fields," wrote one poster.

"I believe this is a big projects that can creates thousands of job opportunities," wrote another. "Such a precious opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture and beauty."

[Ryan Ruck]

What Will China Buy? Beijing Goes Shopping In The U.S.

October 28, 2013

China is forecast to spend roughly $1 trillion over the next decade buying up foreign assets, including about $15 billion to $20 billion a year on U.S. investments, according to the Kiplinger Letter.

But what, exactly, are Chinese firms buying?

Kiplinger offers its best guess as to which sectors will be targeted, based on recent acquisitions:

1) Energy: With China relying on imported energy, it may seek assets here. Kiplinger cites state-owned Sinochem’s $1.7 billion purchase for a share of Texas shale formations owned by Pioneer Natural Resources Co.

2) Financial Services: Some Chinese interests may look for purchases that offer U.S. financial expertise, “as the Asian giant prepares for the more open financial markets that will come with a consumer economy,” the investment letter said.

3) Food Production: Here, the main impetus is securing food supplies not tainted with the litany of food-safety scandals that plague the Chinese market. Case in point: Shuanghui Group’s $4.8 billion deal for Smithfield Foods Inc. (Read Craig Stephen’s column of China’s food-safety ambitions.)

4) Real Estate: While the appetite for U.S. property among individual Chinese investors is well known, Kiplinger also sees more purchases ahead in the commercial real-estate space, along the lines of Fosun International Ltd. snagging One Chase Manhattan Plaza, or the Chinese consortium which bought the General Motors building, also in New York

5) Manufacturing: This front involves China seeking “to hang on to work that is, in some cases, moving back to the U.S.,” according to Kiplinger, citing a recent investment in a U.S. auto-parts plant by Chinese firm Yanfeng USA.

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The Detroit-China Connection

November 05 2012

Global Detroit invites you to a special event…



Join Global Detroit for an intimate conversation with Brian Connors, Chinese International Business Development Manager for the State of Michigan, to learn more about Governor Snyder’s recent trip to China and its potential impact on metropolitan Detroit’s economy.


Be part of the conversation on how Detroit can fit into the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s new global economic strategy and how our immigrant population can help implement that strategy.


Space is limited. RSVP: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dGdXZFVGOXhJeWM3WWN2V3pxM21hTEE6MA.

Questions? Contact Kate Brennan at thebrennangroup@comcast.net.

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China’s Newest City: We Call It “Detroit”

December 8, 2013 by Jack Blood
Filed under Economy

ED. Note: Foreigners are not allowed to purchase as many properties as they wish. … Foreigners buying property in China are required to have a Chinese name …

Manufacturing has been destroyed and shipped off to China, Mexico et al. Post depression, Detroit has been working to rebuild itself with Deflation of property being an excellent opportunity to create a new and better Motown! This effort has been blocked by the Federal and Local government tightening the noose of regulations, and compliance laws.

In other words, Detroit didn’t need this foreign cash influx…. But the Government enables the cause of the Chinese.

*Living in North Austin a few years back we witnessed a total change in the landscape. Chinese malls, and banks littered the main road, and homes were being snatched up at record speed by Chinese nationals. (One of the few areas in the USA where property is cheap and appreciating daily!) – Here in Atlanta the same game is running in N. Atlanta (Gwinnet Co.)

So why do we allow this in the US? Desperation, and corruption! It is also tough to get home loans if you are a middle class American without collateral. Banks are getting Quantitative easing (free money) at record setting pace. Remember all this when you buy more useless crap made in China! ~ JB


Forbes
Detroit, broke with almost no prospects for recovery, is the fourth most popular U.S. destination for Chinese real estate investors. In fact, it was bad news—the city’s July 18 bankruptcy filing—that triggered renewed interest. “While the bankruptcy is viewed as a bad thing elsewhere, it raised the exposure level of Detroit’s real estate market in China,” says Evonne Xu, a Michigan attorney catering to Chinese purchasers. Middle Kingdom, meet Motown.

Chinese shoppers can’t resist a bargain. Where else can you buy a two-story home in the U.S. for $39? China Central Television, the state broadcaster, in March reported that two houses in Detroit cost the same as a pair of leather shoes. No wonder a poster on Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like service, asked, “Seven-hundred thousand people, quiet, clean air, no pollution, democracy—what are you waiting for?”

Who says the Chinese are waiting? Dongdu International Group of Shanghai bought, sight unseen, two downtown icons, the David Stott building for $4.2 million and the Detroit Free Press building for $9.4 million, both at auction this September.

Moreover, Chinese purchasers are making bulk purchases of “inexpensive properties”—those selling for $25,000 or less—in the rings surrounding the city center. “They’re banking on the downtown resurgence spiraling out into those rings,” explains Kelly Sweeney of Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel. Mainland parties often buy at tax and foreclosure sales, hold their property, and patiently wait for appreciation.

The Chinese certainly have made an impact on the locals in Detroit. “I have people calling and saying, ‘I’m serious—I wanna buy 100, 200 properties,’ ” said Caroline Chen, a real estate broker in nearby Troy, Michigan, to Quartz.com. “They say ‘We don’t need to see them. Just pick the good ones.’ ” Chen reports that one of her colleagues sold 30 properties to a Chinese investor.

The Chinese are coming, but what are they doing? Dongdu International will make a big contribution to downtown by redeveloping the Detroit Free Press building, turning it into a retail and residential complex, but that ambitious plan appears to be the exception. China’s rich are investing in the Motor City like they invest in their own country, where they buy multiple units at a time. In China, like here, they often keep their acquisitions vacant, treating new properties like stores of value.

The Chinese buy-and-hold tactics in Detroit suggest patience, but that’s not the whole story. The bigger story is that the parking of wealth offshore indicates capital flight. The Chinese have only 13% of their wealth outside China, according to Oliver Williams of WealthInsight, while the global average is 20% to 30%, so some of transfers of wealth abroad are normal for a developing society.

But it’s not just money that is fleeing. A study conducted by Bank of China and Hurun found that more than half of China’s millionaires have taken steps to emigrate or are considering doing so. This statistic tells us the transfers of cash out of China are not just normal diversification.

There is substantial disagreement as to how much Chinese individuals have already stashed offshore. Boston Consulting Group estimates they hold $450 billion in assets outside their country, and WealthInsight believes the number to be $658 billion.

Yet everyone agrees that the figure, whatever it is, will go up fast. Boston Consulting, for instance, predicts offshore assets will double in three years. CNBC late last month called the movement of Chinese capital “one of the largest and most rapid wealth migrations of our time: hundreds of billions of dollars, and waves of millionaires flowing out of China to overseas destinations.”

So the Chinese buying up Detroit says less about the prospects of Motown than what they think of their own country. It’s not like the Motor City is a good place to invest. It has what is surely the worst housing market in the U.S. “I’ve been in the Detroit area for 35 years,” says Chen, the broker from Troy. “Thirty-five years ago downtown Detroit was like this, and it’s not getting better.”

She’s right. After all, who can love a city where the most powerful figure is a bankruptcy judge, the state has had to take over the local government, and creditors are about to cart off the art museum?

But as grim as the future is for Motown, it is evidently better than China’s, at least according to many Chinese. They are pouring their cash into Detroit.

Chinese To Spend Billions On American Real Estate

China poised to play debt card – for U.S. land

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Chinese investors buying up real estate in Detroit?

Reichle Klein Group Sales Associate Chaz Madrid, Howard & Howard attorney Evonne Xu and American Enterprise Institute’s Derek Scissors on the gr...

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Why China is stepping up its presence in Detroit auto industry

Detroit auto know-how, as well as the city's cheap real estate, is a draw to Chinese investment. The amount is relatively modest, and Chinese companies aren't talking yet about making cars here. But that could change.

By Mark Guarino, Staff writer / December 25, 2013


Two Detroit People Mover cars run on the elevated track in downtown Detroit in this Jan. 6, 2012, photo. Detroit's auto know-how and low property values are a draw to Chinese companies, which are opening plants and offices in the Detroit area.

While the US automotive industry continues to rebound after its near collapse from the financial crisis few years back, China is quietly expanding its presence in the Detroit-based market. Encouraged by the low price of real estate and the high level of advanced engineering talent, dozens of Chinese auto companies and suppliers are opening plants and offices in and around the Motor City, where they hope to one day sell cars to US buyers.

So far, the emphasis has been on the supply chain, but automotive experts and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) hope that continued investment in the area will lead to much more, and they envision Chinese companies playing a big role in helping the city flourish after it emerges from its Chapter 9 bankruptcy restructuring, which got under way this year.

“They [the Chinese firms] want to be more global over time, so they need to look at North America. And if they’re looking at North America, this is the place to come,” Governor Snyder told reporters earlier this year.

Snyder is opening the door wide to China. In September he made his third economic development trip there in three years to court investors in all sectors, but mostly automotive. To date, he said, Chinese companies have invested about $1 billion in his state, 95 percent of which is related to the auto industry. Michigan companies exported 22 percent more goods and materials to China in 2012 than in the previous year. Although not all of the activity from China is auto-related, Snyder says he expects to see more Chinese involvement in the auto sector.

“Detroit is the value place in the United States, in Michigan, and potentially the world in terms of a great value opportunity,” Snyder said. “Come in and invest now, because there’s going to be a great upside.”

The Big Three automakers in Detroit – General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler – are already investing heavily in China. According to a report released earlier this year by the University of Windsor’s Office of Automotive and Vehicle Research, about 60 percent of total global investments in new auto plants went to China, which is the world’s largest producer and consumer of new vehicles.

Much of this has to do with buying power: For the first 11 months of this year, auto sales in China totaled nearly 20 million units, an increase of almost 14 percent over the same period last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturing in Beijing. By comparison, US auto sales reached about 16 million units through November, a 3 percent increase.

So why are the Chinese in Detroit?

“This is where the action is in terms of automotive,” says Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst for Edmunds.com, an online resource for the automotive industry based in Santa Monica, Calif., with an office in Detroit. “This is where the heart of anything to do with automotive is in terms of development, research, and production. This is where it is.”

Besides access to global auto technology talent, which is essential for companies in mainland China to tap to be competitive, the Chinese firms also get affordability in Detroit. The city’s population drain, which left acres of vacant real estate, may look dire to most, but the Chinese see opportunity, says Tom Watkins, a US-China business consultant who serves on the University of Michigan Confucius Institute Board of Advisors in Ann Arbor. (The Chinese government has funded some 440 Confucius Institutes worldwide "to promote Chinese language and culture," according to the Confucius Institute headquarters.)

Not only does Detroit's inexpensive real estate market make investment an easy choice, but investors are also eligible for various local, state, and federal tax credits for redevelopment. Today, about 50,000 Chinese live in the metropolitan area, including more than 15,000 automotive engineers. Business networks, mostly related to the auto industry, are also growing. Even within Big Three companies, Chinese worker organizations are popping up; the Ford Chinese Association boasts 650 white-collar workers, for example, making it one of the largest of its kind at the company.

“When you put all of this together, Michigan, and Detroit in particular, becomes a very good place to grow and build your business,” says Mr. Watkins.

More than 100 Chinese auto-related companies are already in operation in the Detroit area. They include:

• - Nexteer Automotive in Saginaw, 100 miles outside Detroit. The company represents one of the largest US industrial investments by a Chinese company; it produces electronic steering systems for “virtually every manufacturer,” says Ms. Krebs. “That is a massive operation.”
• -A123 Systems in Livonia, a lithium battery developer and manufacturer just outside Detroit. In December, GM awarded the company a contract to provide batteries for future electric vehicles that GM plans to sell in markets outside the US.
• -Changan Automobile, which launched the first-ever Chinese-run research and development center in Michigan, will focus on chassis design and technologies for the company’s luxury class of vehicles sold in China.
• -Brilliance Auto in Lansing, which supplies lightweight engine mounts for GM vehicles.
• -Shanghai Automotive Industries, the largest Chinese automaker, opened new offices in Birmingham, a Detroit suburb, late last year, and said it plans to focus on purchasing, logistics and technology, and engineering.

Chrysler Jeep China. Guangzhou Automobile Group President Xiangdong Huang ...

Right now, these Chinese companies are tapping into the Detroit market to establish partnerships with the US Big Three and the area’s subsequent supply chain, and to capitalize on the advanced engineering talent pool this city attracts.

The endgame, experts say, is that the Chinese plan to build cars here and sell them to US consumers, following the guidebook of Korean and Japanese automakers, who now control roughly 40 percent of the US auto market.

So far, automotive exports from China are dim: down 7 percent to almost 900,000 units during the first 11 months of this year, compared with the same time last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. This represents a tiny percentage of vehicles produced there. To date, the cars that trickle outside China's borders are headed mostly to Africa and the Middle East.

However, Nigel Francis, who was appointed by Snyder in October to be Michigan's “auto czar” and who led an automotive-focused delegation to China that month, says the Chinese are in a “preparation phase” in developing relationships with all the key players – from the supply base to legislators – to eventually enter the North American market. They are also learning the engineering needs of the market to target what US consumers want and to shape an appealing brand.

“It’s unreasonable for anybody to think that the Chinese will not go international. They have the largest domestic market in the world, which means they’ll be making lots of cars,” Mr. Francis says.

Their primary challenge: regulation and politics. Unlike in mainland China, safety and environmental regulations are strict in North America and Europe. There is also the threat of political blowback: For example, Republicans in Congress complained last year that technology developed by A123 Systems could help support military applications back home.

Krebs says she does not expect any of China’s biggest companies in Michigan to build cars “anytime soon.”

“They’ve got a growing market in their own country and they’re trying to fill the need there. So there’s not a need to do that now, and North America is not going to grow nearly as much as China,” she says. “There are other ways to get into the auto industry here, and the car-making part is not the most lucrative.”