Flush with cash and building its military strength, China 2014 is not the Japan of 30-plus years ago. There are no comparisons between the Chinese businesses buying up worldwide assets today and Japan’s flash-in-the-pan meteoric economic rise and fall of the 1980s. As the world’s number two economy, and growing, China will continue to purchase valuable assets and precious resources worldwide, while Japan ramps up spending on its war machine and America continues to waste its dwindling resources on fighting wars and on military hardware.
And unlike the Japanese three decades ago, the Chinese are not only investing in real estate, they are occupying it. Chinese firms and Chinese families are moving out of their overpopulated, polluted and politically restrictive homeland and spreading their roots around the world. So, too, are its college grads who can’t find jobs at home, won’t work in factories and are searching the world to find their fortune.
Trends are born, they grow, mature, reach old age and then die. The China buying spree is still in its early growth stage. Entrepreneurs, cities, communities, investors, real estate agents and businesses of all shapes and sizes would do well to contact Chinese consulates, make connections with local Chinese businesses, and join appropriate professional/trade associations to learn more about Chinese investment needs and expectations, and how they can best be filled.