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Germany’s Chinese investment problem

politico.eu

31–40 of 120 posts

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#31
"help them secure access to the growing Chinese market" is a very euphemistic way of referring to China's refusal to let non-Chinese-owned businesses operate there. China, you see, does not actually believe in free trade and is really rather keen on protectionism when they're the ones doing it..

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#32
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think China is going to be greatest civilization... or that's their aim. And with their population and level of growth they may very well get there.

They will have to become more democratic and accountable to their population first. Up to now they have been able to buy off their middle classes with rising incomes, once that stops as it inevitably will those people will start calling for more representation.

Has anything really changed in China in the past 3 millenia, from the point of view of political dynamics?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_China

China has had a central government for a long time. Before Roman civilization was more than a bunch of farmers.

"people will start calling for more representation"

No, people seldom have started calling for more representation. Rather, a portion of the intelligentsia has yearned for a system with more representation, based either on ideals originating in philosophy (europe) or out of spite of colonial masters (americas).

Now, the question is - based on what philosophical framework would the intelligentsia base their request?

I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm just pointing out that a european or american view of history will skew the political intuition around a framework that can lack a basis once one leaves these spheres of influence.

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#33
post #4
post #3

"Oh woe is us. Who will save us from downing in all this Chinese money." There were exactly the same concerns about Japanese investment back in the 80s. Now doing business with Japanese firms and companies like Sony owning major American firms is just natural. They're not weird alien creatures from space anymore, they're our business partners and investors. It's normal. The same will happen with China.

I think China is going to be greatest civilization... or that's their aim. And with their population and level of growth they may very well get there.

What exactly does "greatest civilization" mean?

You mean the next super-power?

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#35
post #3

"Oh woe is us. Who will save us from downing in all this Chinese money." There were exactly the same concerns about Japanese investment back in the 80s. Now doing business with Japanese firms and companies like Sony owning major American firms is just natural. They're not weird alien creatures from space anymore, they're our business partners and investors. It's normal. The same will happen with China.

I hope so. But China is going to be a much larger thing to chew and swallow. Also Japan depended (and does) on "the West" for military protection. And military might ultimately sets the bounds for what you can get away with in trade.

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#36

China is practicing the economic equivalent of embrace (buy Western technology), extend (their own 3G standards for instance), and eventually extinguish (locking the West out of their market). As private individuals, we don't mind being bought out by Chinese. As members of societies, I believe it is important to know that there is a concerted plan by China that is at best neutral, and at worst, hostile to Western eco…

Let's not forget the China has acquired this position by providing the world with goods for 30 years, for a price that meant misery for their workers. It's not entierly undeserved that they are now able to execute whatever grand evil plan they imagined. We're free to prevent them from accessing our markets, as long as we reimport manufacturing into free-market countries, which would mean paying a bit more than $7 for a toy, clothes and electronics, or accepting a minimum wage under $10/day for our Western workers. Serious question. is our independence worth the effort?

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#37
post #3

"Oh woe is us. Who will save us from downing in all this Chinese money." There were exactly the same concerns about Japanese investment back in the 80s. Now doing business with Japanese firms and companies like Sony owning major American firms is just natural. They're not weird alien creatures from space anymore, they're our business partners and investors. It's normal. The same will happen with China.

This seems to ignore the main objection. It's not that Chinese companies are investing in European economies, it's that these companies are run by the Chinese state, and that China is not providing reciprocal access to its own market to Western companies. This is not natural free-market activity, it is a state-sponsored effort to take technology and expertise from European companies and feed it into state-owned Chine…

> The Chinese state will never be satisfied being one powerful economic actor amongst others, all playing by the rules of a global market. They will never accept being checked by laws of trade or other country's interests, any more than they will tolerate being checked by democratic accountability or rule of law.

The same could be said about the US i guess. It's the EU that looks like a naive child on the World Stage...

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#38
post #3

"Oh woe is us. Who will save us from downing in all this Chinese money." There were exactly the same concerns about Japanese investment back in the 80s. Now doing business with Japanese firms and companies like Sony owning major American firms is just natural. They're not weird alien creatures from space anymore, they're our business partners and investors. It's normal. The same will happen with China.

This seems to ignore the main objection. It's not that Chinese companies are investing in European economies, it's that these companies are run by the Chinese state, and that China is not providing reciprocal access to its own market to Western companies. This is not natural free-market activity, it is a state-sponsored effort to take technology and expertise from European companies and feed it into state-owned Chine…

Excellent points! It is not a question of capitalism playing out, its state directed (and funded) economic expansion to further the national interest of China (more specifically, Communist Party). You can see this in the "investments" made by China in Africa, and the Chinese string of pearls in the Indian Ocean, among others.

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#39
post #6

The truth is EU companies are being sold to US and Chinese companies. In the case of the US this is incentivized by the goverment (maybe indirectly) because US-based companies have to pay taxes for money they move to the US: in this case it is cheaper to use that money to buy invest overseas and get more market share. China might not have a plan, but they actually have cash in hand and they are pushed to invest somew…

> In the case of the US this is incentivized by the goverment (maybe indirectly) because US-based companies have to pay taxes for money they move to the US: in this case it is cheaper to use that money to buy invest overseas and get more market share. Actually, that is not entirely correct. US companies are incentivised to invert and redomicile abroad (often in the EU), because that way they can avoid the global taxa…

s/achieve more tax synergies/evade more tax

Re: Germany’s Chinese investment problem

#40
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think China is going to be greatest civilization... or that's their aim. And with their population and level of growth they may very well get there.

They will have to become more democratic and accountable to their population first. Up to now they have been able to buy off their middle classes with rising incomes, once that stops as it inevitably will those people will start calling for more representation.

China is a big player now, but not even half of the people there have good lifes.

Maybe Russia or USA will plant some seeds of doubt in the popuplation and China will be split up in the next 50 years.

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