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How much of the world is owned by China?

China has over 3 trillion dollars of foreign exchange reserves (Trading Economics).   The official figure for Chinese foreign investment is $65 bn (CEIC Data). Where does all the rest of the money go?

Much of the cash goes to the China Investment Corporation (CIC) which has $941 bn of Chinese cash under management.(Wikipedia).

The CIC owns Central Huijin Investment Ltd.  (CN), and Warlord Investment Corporation  (CN). These have Hong Kong subsidiaries China Everbright Holdings and CITIC Capital Holdings which in turn own a whole suite of offshore companies. (See Webb-site.com).

The offshore companies have names such as Datten Investments Limited  (VG), Guildford Limited (VG), Honorich Holdings Limited  (VG), Kenco Investments Ltd (VG), Hero Investments Ltd (VG) etc.  The VG stands for British Virgin Islands (the tax haven where Richard Branson lives).

Another subsidiary of CIC is CIC International Co. Limited  (CN) which directly owns Bridge Hill Investments Limited  (KY) and Country Hill Limited  (KY) which are based in the Cayman Islands (KY).

The huge advantage of having Investment companies in Tax Havens managing a  TRILLION dollars plus of investment is that no-one knows where the money is ultimately is invested.  It is also the case that no-one really knows how much is invested.  One trillion dollars is the minimum amount.  We can probably assume 1.5 or 2 trillion as the correct figure. Some of these investment companies have minority foreign partners such as Citicorp, Brunei sovereign wealth, Singaporean banks etc. so that they control truly huge amounts of investment.

The ten largest multinationals in the world can be purchased for about $3 trillion.  You can get a controlling interest for $1.5 trillion.

However. Chinese investment does not stop with the CIC.  Chinese companies, all of which are accountable to the Chinese government, have invested a further $2 TRILLION globally. (See China Global Investment Tracker ).  80 large UK corporations have 50% or more Chinese ownership, the list includes Reuters building, football clubs such as Aston Villa and West Bromwich, Hamleys toys,  Skyscanner, AIM etc. although many of these purchases have been dubious and some resold since 2018. (See China Global Investment Tracker )

Next time you hear a CEO of a multinational saying that we should go easy on China it is likely that you are listening to China.  The West should never have let this happen.

1/6/2020












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