Perhaps the first rule the Chinese investors have to learn when buying up property in Toledo or elsewhere is that things will not work the same in foreign markets as in China. Anyone who assumes otherwise is on a crash course to failure. This was one of the key takeaways from a conversation with Sam Zell, the legendary Chicago investor, last week in Beijing.
Once local rules are learned, they must be followed. Some Chinese have already generated lawsuits and ill will in Toledo by breaching a contract with local tenants in a Chinese-owned restaurant complex, and failing to obey a local court order.
Even worse, rather than becoming active members of the business community and local civil society, most individual Chinese businesspeople in Toledo hide behind their corporate veils. This breeds suspicion and worse, especially in bad economic times. The ill feelings are not much different from those of many similar Chinese investments all over Africa.
The Chinese businesspeople have to be careful that people in the communities in which they invest do not perceive them as invaders or as seeming to be better than the locals. I remember in the 1980s when the Japanese bought up Columbia Pictures, Rockefeller Center and other iconic properties, and people got angrier with each purchase. And while the bubble had already burst, this feeling gave rise to anti-Japanese diatribes such as Michael Crichton's novel and film Rising Sun. For Toledo then, the behavior of Chinese businesspeople will be a bellwether of what is to come in Sino-American relations, just as the state of Ohio will be a bellwether that will predict who will be the next president of the United States.
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