Everyone knows that thousands upon thousands of investors are coming to China. People are building factories and outsourcing work to take advantage of cheap labor, others are selling products and services to China's massive consumer population. It's a big, cheap deal and everyone wants in.
But who's heard of the Chinese beginning to invest outside of China? Those who are in the know have heard that China's largest PC maker, Lenovo, is buying IBM's pc division, forming the largest pc making company in the world. (My firm, Lehman, Lee & Xu took part in the Real Estate aspect of the trade here in China.) And this is really just the tip of the iceberg (if you can call a 1.75 billion dollar deal a tip). As Chinese firms begin to grow, they will want to join the international market as well. And they are. Don't be surprised if your hometown hammer factory is bought out by Chinese investors. Seriously, it could happen.
And the Chinese might invent a better hammer to make at Uncle Joe's factory. They invented gunpowder and paper, why not better hammers? A real life example: titanium drill bits. A Chinese fellow finds out that a local Chinese university has the ability to research better titanium coating for drill bits. He checks it out, finds a partner (luckily he has a son in law that speaks perfect English and has business smarts) and pays the local Chinese researchers to develop the technology for cheap.
Two years later they have the technology and start building a factory in Texas. In the first year of business they do three million in sales. And the Chinese technology starts putting "advanced" American firms out of business. That happened ten years ago. Now everyone is investing in China so Chinese businessmen have a lot of money. Their technology is improving, their business smarts are expanding...
Just a thought, maybe a warning, and obviously some good business advice: the tide is turning. Now that China has everyone's money, they are going to start spending it by investing outside of China.
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