Chinese Investors Eye ‘Cheap' U.S. Opportunities

“There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.” Mao Tse-Tung

Gosh, but free markets are funny things! For some time now European manufacturers have been relocating to the United States to take advantage of our lower wages and shrinking dollar. Now it looks like China might be getting into the act too.

That’s right-China.

In a recent article, The Seattle Times surveyed a Chinese manufacturer building a plant in South Carolina not just to sell to the North American market, but to take advantage of the increasingly competitive cost of doing business here.

Apparently, by setting up shop in the Southeast, the company is paying a quarter what it would have for a suitable parcel of land back home. The cost of electricity is also a fraction of what of it is back in the city of Dongguan, about 80 miles outside of Hong Kong.

Then there is the matter of infrastructure. There continues to be a huge problem in China with blackouts. Imagine it: One minute you’re busily making money, the next everybody is just sitting in the dark, twiddling their fingers, waiting for the lights to come back on. Things like that just don’t happen in the United States, certainly not with the same frequency.

That having been said, we need to be careful to ensure things stay that way. Infrastructure, in particular, is an area crying out for attention. Roads, bridges, ports, utilities, you name it: The United States has a lot of work to do in terms of deferred maintenance. Clearly, there are other, far better ways of being competitive besides just being cheap. But they don’t come easy and they certainly aren't free. Let’s not allow ourselves to lose this important competitive advantage.