Chinese investors put millions into American companies

Global Business

Chinese investors put millions into American companies

Donald Trump is fond of claiming China is taking American jobs. Chinese investors creating American jobs tend to receive less attention.

CGTN’s Roza Kazan reports.

Pin Ni showing off his latest corporate investment project – a fully electric car made by a formerly bankrupt American company that this Chinese billionaire bought two years ago.

Now Karma Automotive cars are made in California. And the number of U.S. employees has gone up from 22 to almost a thousand – as part of his growing conglomerate Wanxiang America.

Pin Ni is not your typical Chinese investor. He started the company in 1994 with just $20,000 of his own savings in Elgin, Illinois. First, importing Chinese-made auto parts. But soon the company began producing, and acquired several bankrupt American companies, saving thousands of U.S. jobs.

“Indeed, we bought a lot of companies that were either in liquidation, Chapter 11, Chapter 7, reorganization. We took them over, fixed it and turned out to be very very profitable investments,” Pin said.

So profitable, the $4 billion company now owns assets and operations in 27 U.S. states in real estate, auto and energy sectors.

Wanxiang America employs 20,000 people around the world and more than half of these jobs are based here in the United States.

It has invested more than $8 billion in the U.S. in the last five years alone. But it’s not always been easy. Like other Chinese investors, Pin’s intentions met suspicion when several years ago U.S. lawmakers opposed the sale of bankrupt electric battery-maker A123 Systems.

Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States hit more than $45 billion in 2016. But it’s far behind the levels of FDI by countries like the U.K., Japan and Canada.

Pin believes the lack of information contributes to this perception. He thinks transparency can go a long way in breaking barriers of suspicion. And although some experts warn of a risk of a clampdown on Chinese investments under the incoming U.S. administration, Pin still believes investing here is still the smart thing do.