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Will Detroit Be The First Major Chinese City In The United States?
Zero Hedge via TEC ^ | 05/06/2014 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 05/06/2014 2:20:30 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Is Detroit destined to become a Chinese city?  Chinese homebuyers and Chinese businesses are starting to flood into the Motor City, and the governor of Michigan is greatly encouraging this.  In fact, he has formally asked the Obama administration for 50,000 special federal immigration visas to encourage even more immigration from China and elsewhere.  So will Detroit be the first major city in the United States to be dominated by China?  It could happen.  Once upon a time, Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city in the history of the world and it had the highest per capita income in the entire country.  But now it is a rotting, decaying, bankrupt hellhole that is in desperate need of a savior, and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appears to be fully convinced that China can be that savior.

To Snyder, encouraging foreigners to invest money and buy up properties won't cost the state government much, but it could potentially have great benefits...

Under a plan to be unveiled Thursday, Gov. Rick Snyder will request 50,000 special federal immigration visas over the next five years to attract foreign professionals who are willing to work and live in the city.

 

Mr. Snyder, in an interview Wednesday, said that “this is one way for the federal government to step up to provide significant value without cost that could have a huge impact on the city’s future.”

At a news conference announcing his plan, Snyder was not shy about declaring his intentions...

"Let's send a message to the entire world: Detroit, Michigan, is open to the world."

In other words, Snyder wants China to save Detroit since nobody in this country is going to.

Snyder has also taken a couple of additional steps to encourage immigration and foreign investment, including opening up something called "an Office for New Americans"...

Opening an Office for New Americans to attract and help immigrants better adjust to life in Michigan, and designating the state as an Employer Based or EB-5 center to expedite visas and permits for immigrants who want to open business in the state with investments of at least $500,000 and 10 employees.

In essence, Snyder has done just about everything except roll out the welcome mat for the Chinese.

But this is nothing new for Governor Snyder.  In fact, he has been making overtures to China for years...

Snyder, who was a businessman before starting his political career, believes that automobiles can no longer change the fate of Detroit. He said that he has learned from the history of the United States that what has made the nation great is immigrants.

 

In the early 1990s, Snyder went to China to develop the automobile market. After he was elected as the governor of Michigan, he made at least one trip to China every year, with the aim of recruiting talent.

 

He hopes that well-educated Chinese people can revitalize the Motor City in the new era. And as he desired, after Detroit announced its bankruptcy in 2013, the Chinese began to take the dying city by storm.

 

Rich Chinese men see Detroit as a rare opportunity for investment outside their home country.

 

In 2013, without any field investigation, Dongdu International Group of Shanghai — whose assets total 5 billion yuan (US$800 million) — spent US$13.6 million to buy the David Stott building and the Detroit Free Press building at auctions in September.

And when we talk about the Chinese domination of Detroit, this is not something that is just future tense.  This is something that is already happening right now.  For example, the following is an excerpt from a CNBC article that discussed how Chinese companies are already aggressively "putting down roots in Detroit"…

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.

The transformation that has taken place in that region of the country is absolutely remarkable.

48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost between December 2000 and December 2010.  Our trade deficit with China was largely responsible for that.

And now we are relying on China to come in and salvage the ruins of our gutted economic infrastructure.

Not only that, but the Chinese are also eagerly buying up homes at extremely depressed prices all over Detroit.

According to CNN, Detroit is already number four on the list of the top 10 destinations for Chinese homebuyers.  In many cases, Chinese buyers are scooping up properties without even looking at them first.  Just check out what one Detroit real estate broker told Quartz last July...

“I have people calling and saying, ‘I’m serious—I wanna buy 100, 200 properties,’” she tells Quartz, noting that one of her colleagues recently sold 30 properties to a Chinese buyer. “They say ‘We don’t need to see them. Just pick the good ones.’”

And they aren't just interested in Detroit.  As I have written about previously, one Chinese company known as "Sino-Michigan Properties LLC" actually had plans to buy 200 acres of land near the little town of Milan, Michigan and turn it into a "China City" with artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.  For much more on how Chinese buyers are gobbling up real estate all over the nation, please see my previous article entitled "The Chinese Are Acquiring Large Chunks Of Land In Communities All Over America".

All of this is just another indication of how rapidly the global economic landscape is changing.

Since the late 19th Century, the United States has been the most dominant economic power in the world.

But now that reign is ending.

Just recently, a new study released by the World Bank indicated that China is now the largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power...

A report out of the World Bank shows rapidly expanding China is poised to overtake the once invincible United States as the world's largest economy by the end of 2014.

 

The International Comparison Program looks at exchange rates to reveal purchasing power of different currencies and found that yuan in China will soon pack more punch than the mighty dollar.

 

Meanwhile, Chinese officials bashed the report as flawed, likely for fear of losing its status as a developing nation and the pollution-spewing perks that come with it.

And a couple of years ago China passed the United States and become the leader in global trade.

As the Chinese economy continues to rise and the U.S. economy continues to decline, the shift in global power is going to become even more dramatic.

Yes, let us hope for the best for our failing economy, but you also might want to teach your kids to speak Chinese just in case.

 


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: china; chinesecity; detroit; michigan; obamanation
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To: SeekAndFind
[Art.] Since the late 19th Century, the United States has been the most dominant economic power in the world. But now that reign is ending.

Tyler Durden, defeatist schmuck, responds to the leadership of the First Defeasor. "Oh, we're no good, we're second-rate losers, we need to learn to ESAD when the Chinese crook their finger and whistle 'hey, boy, c'mere!', we deserve to be humble losers!!"

BLOAT. We'll need it.

41 posted on 05/06/2014 3:22:19 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: a fool in paradise

“Lobocop”?


42 posted on 05/06/2014 3:23:01 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: ConservativeMan55
Photo's a real resummons to reality ..... unfortunately for her, some Hispana went grocery shopping, figured the screaming and yelling was far enough away that she'd be safe. She was on her way home lugging two bags.

A round from one of those high-quality pistols the Korean guys broke out traveled something like a mile and 3/4's through the air and caught her smack in the middle of her forehead. Down. Dead, instantly.

Zero chance it was malicious or intentional, but she was dead anyway.

43 posted on 05/06/2014 3:27:28 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: lentulusgracchus

44 posted on 05/06/2014 3:31:14 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The new witchhunt: "Do you NOW, . . . or have you EVER , . . supported traditional marriage?")
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To: SeekAndFind
Is it worth the price and aggravation?

Maybe not. But it is striking that some Chinese are at least willing to try. Maybe they're dumber than Americans are, but then again maybe they have the willingness to take risks that we used to. If they're wrong the cost falls on them alone, if they're right the benefits are shared by Detroit's now and future population.

Much of NYC and Pittsburgh was pretty bad in the late 1970s too. (Not as bad as Detroit today, I grant.)

45 posted on 05/06/2014 3:38:13 PM PDT by untenured
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To: SeekAndFind

Uh, how “Black” does anyone think Detroit is going to be once the Chinese get through with it? Elections ought to be interesting...


46 posted on 05/06/2014 3:39:22 PM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: a fool in paradise

If he were playing an electric guitar instead, would he be a “dobocop”?


47 posted on 05/06/2014 3:49:47 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: SeekAndFind
Can't think of anything more worthless to speculate on. I remember when the Japanese were taking us over in the eighties. Didn't happen.

This won't, either. There are Chinese just as worried about Americans taking them over as there Americans worried about this non-issue.

Why do so many people worry about things like this that they don't have the knowledge to understand -- or, more importantly, the desire to learn the knowledge that would stop them worrying about it at all?

I sometimes think they're like my cat who seems to enjoy making himself frightened over something just for the fun of being scared.

48 posted on 05/06/2014 4:11:42 PM PDT by BfloGuy ( Even the opponents of Socialism are dominated by socialist ideas.)
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To: SeekAndFind

First thing they need to do is set up a Tong to curb the criminal elements in the neighborhood.


49 posted on 05/06/2014 4:25:32 PM PDT by wetgundog (" Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is no Vice")
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To: Mikey_1962
A good old fashioned land swindle. Welcome to Detroit suckers!

Since you now claim to live in Alabama Mikey, when was the last time you were ever in your old neighborhood?

Property investors are having a free for all, you think they're throwing their money away? These are investors who aren't known for spending their monies indiscriminately without any plans.

If you were as smart as you think you are, ya might wanna return to your hood and start investing...........

50 posted on 05/06/2014 4:42:40 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Under Reagan spring always arrived on time.....)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Chinese can be a buffer to Dearbornistan. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Chinese were able to create a tax free, free trade zone, a sort of colony like the British did in Hong Kong.


51 posted on 05/06/2014 4:48:10 PM PDT by grumpygresh (Democrats delenda est. New US economy: Fascism on top, Socialism on the bottom.)
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To: ConservativeMan55

Those guys weren’t Chinese...


52 posted on 05/06/2014 4:51:05 PM PDT by Osage Orange (I have strong feelings about gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be controlling it.)
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To: Hot Tabasco

Three weeks ago I saw the burnt out house of my youth.

I was home and drawn back to the area if my youth.

The neighborhood is quite simply gone.

Guyton School boarded up. The bronze plaque in front of the school that had my two uncles names on it as soldiers who died in World Wars stolen and sold for scrap.

I drove my father passed his old house and he burst into tears.

The only property worthwhile is that along Fox Creek and that is not for sale.

I now live in Dallas - Fort Worth a growing area. Low taxes, low housing costs, no State Income tax. Politically comfortable.

You can keep Detroit, or sell it to the unknowing, I don’t care anymore.

Just don’t ask me to pay for that dysfunctional, politically corrupt, disaster area with my tax money any more.


53 posted on 05/07/2014 12:05:27 AM PDT by Mikey_1962 (Democrats have destroyed more cities than Godzilla)
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