Detroit may become China's Town

**oladub** · March-22-13, 10:20 AM

Wealthy Chinese, desperate for property investments,
turn to Detroit

Got a Better idea? All that money our elected representatives allow to flow to China has to go somewhere. The article ends on a cheery note by noting recent increases in the value of Detroit real estate. Being Great Wall builders, maybe the Chinese could fence barbarians out of their developments.

related:Could 220-acre development for Chinese immigrants be headed for Milan [[Ann Arbor) area?

Even the U of M is investing in Chinese real estate ventures. But the U of M need more tax dollars.

**EastsideAl** · March-22-13, 11:33 AM

Maybe they could rebuild Chinatown?

**Hypestyles** · March-22-13, 12:02 PM

Detroit city leaders should be doing a lot more toattract foreign reinvestment money and to build a case for immigrants to moveto the city. To succumb to the rationaleof “we don’t want [[fill in the blank ethnicity) coming here” acquiesces to theworst of xenophobia.

**Gannon** · March-22-13, 12:22 PM

This is beyond mere xenophobia, because Communist China has never renounced their desire to conquer the world...and have been using the greed and excesses of Capitalism to fuel their domination. Economic Judo, it seems.

I dunno...don't have a great deal of trust for those within the Chinese government.

**Honky Tonk** · March-22-13, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

This is beyond mere xenophobia, because Communist China has never renounced their desire to conquer the world...and have been using the greed and excesses of Capitalism to fuel their domination. Economic Judo, it seems.

I dunno...don't have a great deal of trust for those within the Chinese government.

That's funny, because I don't have a great deal of trust for those within the Detroit government either.....

**DetroitPlanner** · March-22-13, 03:42 PM

Right now China is building new cities to house millions of people. The cities have no businesses in them. They have a policy of one child per family. With this policy, there will be a population loss, not an increase. Why are they building so much? Because it helps inflate their interior economy. Unfortunately these are very short term increases with very long term costs. I would not want that sort of mentality here. Building new abandoned areas will only add to our problems.

**rb336** · March-22-13, 03:47 PM

the only thing I know is that SAIC, the Chinese company that makes and distributes GM, MG and other automotive brands has opened a US office in Birmingham

**Hypestyles** · March-23-13, 05:34 PM

what happened to the proposal for the Hummer brand to be sold to a chinese auto group?

anyone ever worked in China for a time? if so, what was it like?

**Cliffy** · March-23-13, 09:21 PM

If the real estate was so good, we would all be buying it up in Detroit but we know better than that. Its like the guy that came in from Toronto to buy the silverdome and that has turned into an epic disaster. Like all the billionaires in Michigan are dumb and he was the smart one that came and scooped up that monstrosity for 500k. I always say that if the locals aren't buying something, then something must be wrong.

**KJ5** · March-24-13, 01:39 AM

Detroit WAS China's town in the Red Dawn remake. [[They changed the conquering nation to North Korea in post-production so as to not alienate the huge Chinese market.) There were scary, hilarious, perhaps eerily prescient Chinese propaganda posters hung up in Capitol Park and other filming locales. "Helping You Rebuild Your Economy"

**East Detroit** · March-24-13, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by oladub

Got a Better idea? All that money our elected representatives allow to flow to China has to go somewhere.

Here's the better idea. People stop the flow by stop buying Chinese products as much as possible. We are the government. The government isn't some evil entity that is doing things to us. We are in line at Walmart, not some dude we elected by default [[by not voting at all or intelligently).

**Gorath** · March-24-13, 02:06 PM

Chinese investors interested in Detroit houses, cheaper than a pair of shoes

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in...erested_i.html

**oladub** · March-24-13, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

Here's the better idea. People stop the flow by stop buying Chinese products as much as possible. We are the government. The government isn't some evil entity that is doing things to us. We are in line at Walmart, not some dude we elected by default [[by not voting at all or intelligently).

Good idea about not buying Chinese or other foreign products when there is a US made product available. I'm never popular for insulting people who buy foreign cars as being anti-US labor and women. However, "We are the government" suggests that "we" supported NAFTA and GATT and will support the TPP that out President was promoting in his last State of the Union speech. I don't think that most American workers like being put into direct competition with Asian labor. Sometimes "we" means the financial interests that pre-select our candidates.

**rb336** · March-24-13, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

what happened to the proposal for the Hummer brand to be sold to a chinese auto group?

anyone ever worked in China for a time? if so, what was it like?

I had a friend who worked on some dino digs there. He said every year it was a nightmare to get the permits, and they'd sometimes get confirmation only days before the start of their permitted time, and would go crazy with the logistical stuff because they couldn't arrange anything without permits in hand.

**EastsideAl** · March-25-13, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

anyone ever worked in China for a time? if so, what was it like?

My cousin was sent there for a few years as part of his job with GM. He liked it a lot, and very much enjoyed the atmosphere of economic growth and possibility, as well as the more active social life of their business culture. He met a woman and got married over there, and also very much enjoyed her close family life with much more extended families than Americans typically have.

And, believe it or not, GM has done very well in China - particularly Buick, which is seen as a very classy luxury brand, in part because it was the car used by several important historical figures.

Still, he longed to come back home to the Detroit area and his own family. Eventually, he and his wife and their first child came back here. He went back to work at the Tech Center, and soon back to Saturn, where he'd been almost since the beginning of the brand. He and his wife bought a house, settled in, had another kid, and she got a job working in a company that did a lot of business with China.

After a few years here though, suffering through the GM-Saturn fiasco and dealing with what he saw as the stupid insular self-satisfaction of GM execs, he began to regret his decision. He correctly foresaw the onrushing disaster at GM, and the bizarre denial and lack of alarm inside the company, as well as the declining economy and culture of the Detroit area, and started looking around for a way out. With the first really good offer he got to go back to China, he was out of here, and he has only returned a couple of times since for the deaths of family members.